Euro Attractions Show 2011
- Thread starter Ian
- Start date
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
First of all I’d like to make it clear that I was NOT Ian’s “secret source”. As Ian will tell any of you, he’s been badgering me for info to no avail for weeks. :lol:
Anyway...!
After missing the first day at EAS due to a very poorly pet doggie ☹ I met up with Ian and John on the second day to geek-out. I also went on the third day by my lonesome to try and be professional. It was really good for me, I got lots of contacts, lots of advice and lots of fantastic brochures.
A lot of the stuff I have to report may not directly interest those of you who only care about rides at theme parks, but if you’re interested in all kinds of attractions and theming this may go down well. There’s some coastery stuff here and there. ☺ The following report is a mixture of stuff from both days.
The first thing Ian did was excitedly run off towards something he wanted to show me.
This extraordinary masterpiece is the work of TAA, or “Theming and Animatronics Industries SA”. They are behind the theming of Master Thai, Van Helsing’s Workshop and Krake. I believe they are from Holland. I never got a chance to speak to them, as every time I walked past they were upstairs having what looked like an important meeting. Yes, this ship has an upstairs…
The company deals with everything from the concept design to the physical theming build and everything in between, though I assume it varies from project to project what they specifically do. Some people likely hire for just concept, whilst others (like Merlin?) hire for the build.
I read an interesting quote from TAA in Park World magazine today… “…a trend that we have observed in recent years for more elaborate coaster theming.” That is what I’ve been saying for a while now, particularly in response to Verbolten regarding the way Busch Gardens usually tackles theming compared to how Verbolten seemingly is going. Verbolten is a lot more engaged with its theme than their other coasters. It’s also certainly the feel I got at the show from numerous companies I spoke to. It’s exciting.
Jack Rouse plan, design and build themed spaces from what I gather, though I haven’t had time to look at their portfolio which was given to me on a pen drive! Their marketing guy was lovely and spoke to me for ages in an enthusiastic and informative way, told me he’d mention I stopped by and encouraged me to send my portfolio in to them. They are based in Ohio, but have been doing a lot of work in Asia of recent. The UK, and more so mainland Europe, market is growing for the kind of work they do, not just in theme parks. He mentioned that a large government run museum was interested, which I’m assuming is NHM since another company mentioned them earlier in the day and I contacted them recently and found they were increasingly interested in theme park-like stuff. If non theme parks are starting to up the anti, then that could mean good things for theming at parks as they try to create a more other worldly experience.
Ian and John looking through the Fabbri catalogue. Really not my cup of tea, but I’m sure a certain someone will be delighted that I picked them up!
This awesome looking coaster car is by an Italian company called Technical Park. Never heard of them, but apparently they have a coaster like this in South America.
Vekoma’s area was spectacular. I love their image. They looked pretty busy all the time too, but when I finally went up to ask for a catalogue they asked me who I was and what I do, as if reluctant to hand it out to nobodies. They did give me one though and there’s nothing new or interesting to report, but it’s soooo pretty and there’s a DVD in the back which I’ll take a look at when I get a chance.
Here’s pic of the hefty Vekoma brochure. The Pandora’s box dark ride concept really interests me, hope someone goes for it.
P&P work with Merlin quite a lot, predominantly Madame Tussauds scenery you may be surprised to know. I’m not sure what they’ve done/if they’ve done much with the theme parks other than Legoland. They had a beautiful portfolio and they make some awesome models.
The presence of such detail models suggests to me that they really care about delivery. A lot of the other models on display where nowhere near the quality of P&P’s.
Heimotion have been partially responsible for the entire rebrand of the Walibi theme parks, and if you haven’t already, do check out Walibi.com. They have acomic, animations, on site entertainments… It looks great. They are building an entire brand image that they could do anything with.
Their portfolio has a lot of stuff that is nowhere near as impressive as this, with lots of it looking very dated, so I get the feeling they’ve only recently upped-the-anti. I spoke to a guy about what I do and I love the sound of this company. They primarily work in-house to develop concept through to completion, rarely taking on freelancers. That excites me because it means that everyone working on a project is fully immersed in it every day and knows and understands better than any external would.
So, Maurer Sohne. I was interested in finding out if we’ll ever see anything similar to Winjas again, or the technology utalised on their other models. The answer is apparently no. Despite Thirteen and what we suspect will happen on Verbolten, no. I think that’s weird, and I think we are only left to assume that those mechanisms must be a royal pain. MS have some fantastic brochures, including one with great diagrams of how the Winja’s effects work. Their area was great too, and they seemed to be getting a lot of business like Vekoma.
Here’s the fantastic page from the Spinning Coaster brochure demonstrating the special effects used on Winjas. It’s great to see how it works.
Joravision are a theming and concept development company from Holland. They are pretty huge. The person from Joravision who spoke to us was a French representative. John was asking over the Poland parks, and has far more knowledge about this company than I do so we’ll have to wait for his report.
But they had a fantastic brochure. It’s literally a book. A fat bound book with a textured fake-leather cover. Beautiful.
Sally, or “The Great American Dark Ride Company”, are very well known for being dark ride manufacturers. They don’t actually design much themselves, they just build for others and work in partnership with many companies and parks. Check out their youtube channel, as they are very active there. They said they’d had some interest from the UK, exciting!
Sally’s Brochure cover is really lovely.
Here’s the page on that Challenge of Tutankhamen. Great Brochure. (Sorry these are sideways, Macs think they are clever and autorotate pictures. 9/10 times they get it wrong.)
I didn’t get a shot of the Zierer stand, but I did go and speak to them. I asked about Verbolten and they, obviously, said they can’t tell me anything… But I told them I was excited about it. They responded by saying they are really excited to be working with Busch again, that they are a dream to work with and are excited for the future of their company. Something interesting I found out was that they do not manufacturer launches, some other company that I missed the name of provides them. They seemed really professional and that they cared about providing the best to their ability and their image. Must be why Busch like them so much. I’ve got their brochure but there’s not much of interest in it, certainly nothing to do with Verbolten.
I almost feel a bit angry with Premier. Terrible website, terrible brochures and a seeming lack of enthusiasm to sell. I didn’t speak to them because, like Ian also discovered, they didn’t seem to want to speak to us. I love their rides but I kind of feel like I discovered why there aren’t that many of them.
This fantastic company spoke with me for a long time about what they do, the industry and the UK market. Nothing particularly interesting to report, other than their love for extravagant theming, essentially saying something along the lines of; unlike Merlin we like to really go all out and our customers recognize the benefits. Interesting, and it certainly will be great to see if theming at UK parks and elsewhere (restaurants, shops, etc) increases. Studies into the benefits of theming are few and far between and almost always look at Disney, where I’d argue brand has more to do with it than theming quantity/quality.
Surrey based RMA are the company behind Pepper Pig World and Thomas Land. Neither of which I’m a fan of. Plasticy, off the shelf looking, but this is just taste. When I went to speak to them the important guy wasn’t about and the woman there didn’t seem to have much inventive conversation for me, despite my best efforts to keep it going. No brochure offered, either. But I’ve just been to their site and I’m interested in some of their other projects, such as Cadbury World, Jorvik Centre and particularly Dickens World. Though I’m not sure what they actually did with Dickens World, as I thought that was done by P&P. Great that it’s a British company regardless, I hope their portfolio expands to more clearly epic stuff and not more shiny fiberclass cartoon characters.
That’s all for part 1… Stay tuned.
Anyway...!
After missing the first day at EAS due to a very poorly pet doggie ☹ I met up with Ian and John on the second day to geek-out. I also went on the third day by my lonesome to try and be professional. It was really good for me, I got lots of contacts, lots of advice and lots of fantastic brochures.
A lot of the stuff I have to report may not directly interest those of you who only care about rides at theme parks, but if you’re interested in all kinds of attractions and theming this may go down well. There’s some coastery stuff here and there. ☺ The following report is a mixture of stuff from both days.
The first thing Ian did was excitedly run off towards something he wanted to show me.
This extraordinary masterpiece is the work of TAA, or “Theming and Animatronics Industries SA”. They are behind the theming of Master Thai, Van Helsing’s Workshop and Krake. I believe they are from Holland. I never got a chance to speak to them, as every time I walked past they were upstairs having what looked like an important meeting. Yes, this ship has an upstairs…
The company deals with everything from the concept design to the physical theming build and everything in between, though I assume it varies from project to project what they specifically do. Some people likely hire for just concept, whilst others (like Merlin?) hire for the build.
I read an interesting quote from TAA in Park World magazine today… “…a trend that we have observed in recent years for more elaborate coaster theming.” That is what I’ve been saying for a while now, particularly in response to Verbolten regarding the way Busch Gardens usually tackles theming compared to how Verbolten seemingly is going. Verbolten is a lot more engaged with its theme than their other coasters. It’s also certainly the feel I got at the show from numerous companies I spoke to. It’s exciting.
Jack Rouse plan, design and build themed spaces from what I gather, though I haven’t had time to look at their portfolio which was given to me on a pen drive! Their marketing guy was lovely and spoke to me for ages in an enthusiastic and informative way, told me he’d mention I stopped by and encouraged me to send my portfolio in to them. They are based in Ohio, but have been doing a lot of work in Asia of recent. The UK, and more so mainland Europe, market is growing for the kind of work they do, not just in theme parks. He mentioned that a large government run museum was interested, which I’m assuming is NHM since another company mentioned them earlier in the day and I contacted them recently and found they were increasingly interested in theme park-like stuff. If non theme parks are starting to up the anti, then that could mean good things for theming at parks as they try to create a more other worldly experience.
Ian and John looking through the Fabbri catalogue. Really not my cup of tea, but I’m sure a certain someone will be delighted that I picked them up!
This awesome looking coaster car is by an Italian company called Technical Park. Never heard of them, but apparently they have a coaster like this in South America.
Vekoma’s area was spectacular. I love their image. They looked pretty busy all the time too, but when I finally went up to ask for a catalogue they asked me who I was and what I do, as if reluctant to hand it out to nobodies. They did give me one though and there’s nothing new or interesting to report, but it’s soooo pretty and there’s a DVD in the back which I’ll take a look at when I get a chance.
Here’s pic of the hefty Vekoma brochure. The Pandora’s box dark ride concept really interests me, hope someone goes for it.
P&P work with Merlin quite a lot, predominantly Madame Tussauds scenery you may be surprised to know. I’m not sure what they’ve done/if they’ve done much with the theme parks other than Legoland. They had a beautiful portfolio and they make some awesome models.
The presence of such detail models suggests to me that they really care about delivery. A lot of the other models on display where nowhere near the quality of P&P’s.
Heimotion have been partially responsible for the entire rebrand of the Walibi theme parks, and if you haven’t already, do check out Walibi.com. They have acomic, animations, on site entertainments… It looks great. They are building an entire brand image that they could do anything with.
Their portfolio has a lot of stuff that is nowhere near as impressive as this, with lots of it looking very dated, so I get the feeling they’ve only recently upped-the-anti. I spoke to a guy about what I do and I love the sound of this company. They primarily work in-house to develop concept through to completion, rarely taking on freelancers. That excites me because it means that everyone working on a project is fully immersed in it every day and knows and understands better than any external would.
So, Maurer Sohne. I was interested in finding out if we’ll ever see anything similar to Winjas again, or the technology utalised on their other models. The answer is apparently no. Despite Thirteen and what we suspect will happen on Verbolten, no. I think that’s weird, and I think we are only left to assume that those mechanisms must be a royal pain. MS have some fantastic brochures, including one with great diagrams of how the Winja’s effects work. Their area was great too, and they seemed to be getting a lot of business like Vekoma.
Here’s the fantastic page from the Spinning Coaster brochure demonstrating the special effects used on Winjas. It’s great to see how it works.
Joravision are a theming and concept development company from Holland. They are pretty huge. The person from Joravision who spoke to us was a French representative. John was asking over the Poland parks, and has far more knowledge about this company than I do so we’ll have to wait for his report.
But they had a fantastic brochure. It’s literally a book. A fat bound book with a textured fake-leather cover. Beautiful.
Sally, or “The Great American Dark Ride Company”, are very well known for being dark ride manufacturers. They don’t actually design much themselves, they just build for others and work in partnership with many companies and parks. Check out their youtube channel, as they are very active there. They said they’d had some interest from the UK, exciting!
Sally’s Brochure cover is really lovely.
Here’s the page on that Challenge of Tutankhamen. Great Brochure. (Sorry these are sideways, Macs think they are clever and autorotate pictures. 9/10 times they get it wrong.)
I didn’t get a shot of the Zierer stand, but I did go and speak to them. I asked about Verbolten and they, obviously, said they can’t tell me anything… But I told them I was excited about it. They responded by saying they are really excited to be working with Busch again, that they are a dream to work with and are excited for the future of their company. Something interesting I found out was that they do not manufacturer launches, some other company that I missed the name of provides them. They seemed really professional and that they cared about providing the best to their ability and their image. Must be why Busch like them so much. I’ve got their brochure but there’s not much of interest in it, certainly nothing to do with Verbolten.
I almost feel a bit angry with Premier. Terrible website, terrible brochures and a seeming lack of enthusiasm to sell. I didn’t speak to them because, like Ian also discovered, they didn’t seem to want to speak to us. I love their rides but I kind of feel like I discovered why there aren’t that many of them.
This fantastic company spoke with me for a long time about what they do, the industry and the UK market. Nothing particularly interesting to report, other than their love for extravagant theming, essentially saying something along the lines of; unlike Merlin we like to really go all out and our customers recognize the benefits. Interesting, and it certainly will be great to see if theming at UK parks and elsewhere (restaurants, shops, etc) increases. Studies into the benefits of theming are few and far between and almost always look at Disney, where I’d argue brand has more to do with it than theming quantity/quality.
Surrey based RMA are the company behind Pepper Pig World and Thomas Land. Neither of which I’m a fan of. Plasticy, off the shelf looking, but this is just taste. When I went to speak to them the important guy wasn’t about and the woman there didn’t seem to have much inventive conversation for me, despite my best efforts to keep it going. No brochure offered, either. But I’ve just been to their site and I’m interested in some of their other projects, such as Cadbury World, Jorvik Centre and particularly Dickens World. Though I’m not sure what they actually did with Dickens World, as I thought that was done by P&P. Great that it’s a British company regardless, I hope their portfolio expands to more clearly epic stuff and not more shiny fiberclass cartoon characters.
That’s all for part 1… Stay tuned.
Slayed
Hyper Poster
They're a flat-ride company more than coasters, and made 2 of my favourite flat-rides ever - Pegasus at Tivoli Friheden, and the amazing Vertigo at Tivoli Gardens (5g for 30 seconds <3).Joey said:
Loved the reports! I've done a few Expos, there's something inherently exciting about them
.
Screaming Coasters
Strata Poster
Isn't Technical Park the offspring of Pinfari?
A
Anonymous
Guest
I doubt that, If it were spinning horizontally then I would agree with that statement, I spins vertically, so going between 3-5 g's for 30 seconds would be the correct way.Slayed said:
Still pretty powerful though
BTW, if you have more reports from EAS, then I can't wait to read the next part!!
SaiyanHajime
CF Legend
Okay so here's part 2.
LifeFormations are another Ohio company who are “a collection of artists, mechnical wizards, masterminds and storytellers on a mission to create experiences”. They make fantastic models and animatronics, primarily for museums it seems. They have a broad portfolio of work from all over the world, notable clients include Walt Disney World, Europa Park, Dollywood, Port Aventura… the list goes on. One client they really shouldn’t be advertising is Answers in Genesis.
They had this fantastic steam-punk animatronic on display, which was telling you about the company.
Neverland are an exciting new theming company from Belgium who already has a beautiful portfolio of work from Plopsaland. I get the impression that the company was actually born out of the park’s own creative department from speaking to them
Meticulous from Leicester, UK. The company behind the theming of Ben 10. Some of you may know of Nick Farmer? These guys used to work for him, but now own their own company and have done for about 7 years (I thnk). They excitedly told us they have had interest from Disney at EAS. Enthusiastic, friendly and passionate with a beautiful stall, I love these guys already. The stand is themed to crates with the addresses of companies they’ve worked for, like a big 3D CV.
Speaking of Nick Farmer, I got to speak to him! Whilst speaking to BALPPA (British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions) they introduced me to him. He gave me some great advice and took me to meet Gene Jeffers of the TEA (Themed Entertainment Association) too. Not much of interest to report to you guys, but lots of great advice for me.
This naked dinosaur (it should have feathers like the relative above it, but hey ho) is by the Wood Design Group. They make some beautiful custom carrousels and other rides.
There were a LOT of dinosaurs at the show…
This company makes a lot of prehistoric beasts, and these ridiculous creatures from The Future is Wild. - a hypothetical TV documentary about evolution. It was pretty bad. But I met the woman who was responsible for it, which is pretty cool.
Inflatable dinosaur costume. Hahaha. It was ridiculous.
This animatronic rex you could operate yourself! Pretty cool…
The rest of Hoffman's stand looked like a weird garden centre.
That’s it really! Unless I suddenly remember anything else…
Oh! I spoke to Gravity Group who were so friendly. I asked if they had any interest from the UK, and whilst they side no deals had been done, or confirmations, they had some interest! That probably means very little, but the fact that some parks are even looking into it is great news.
I told them I think a lot of the problem is that 7 of the 9 wooden coasters we have are very old, and people associate that with being, well, rubbish… His response was pretty positive though, saying that he’d love to get to Blackpool to ride their wooden coasters. I said the place is like Kennywood, only better, to which they said they love Kennywood. I didn’t tell them I do not, Lol. They do seem like they share a lot of enthusiast concerns and likes and dislikes though. They are a great bunch and I encourage anyone who gets the chance to speak with them. It’s like speaking to an enthusiast in the industry!
Here’s a picture of my haul of technical related brochures and such, this doesn’t include all the theming stuff. If you’d like to see anything specific, do let me know. There isn’t anything new that we haven’t seen before in any of them.
LifeFormations are another Ohio company who are “a collection of artists, mechnical wizards, masterminds and storytellers on a mission to create experiences”. They make fantastic models and animatronics, primarily for museums it seems. They have a broad portfolio of work from all over the world, notable clients include Walt Disney World, Europa Park, Dollywood, Port Aventura… the list goes on. One client they really shouldn’t be advertising is Answers in Genesis.
They had this fantastic steam-punk animatronic on display, which was telling you about the company.
Neverland are an exciting new theming company from Belgium who already has a beautiful portfolio of work from Plopsaland. I get the impression that the company was actually born out of the park’s own creative department from speaking to them
Meticulous from Leicester, UK. The company behind the theming of Ben 10. Some of you may know of Nick Farmer? These guys used to work for him, but now own their own company and have done for about 7 years (I thnk). They excitedly told us they have had interest from Disney at EAS. Enthusiastic, friendly and passionate with a beautiful stall, I love these guys already. The stand is themed to crates with the addresses of companies they’ve worked for, like a big 3D CV.
Speaking of Nick Farmer, I got to speak to him! Whilst speaking to BALPPA (British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions) they introduced me to him. He gave me some great advice and took me to meet Gene Jeffers of the TEA (Themed Entertainment Association) too. Not much of interest to report to you guys, but lots of great advice for me.
This naked dinosaur (it should have feathers like the relative above it, but hey ho) is by the Wood Design Group. They make some beautiful custom carrousels and other rides.
There were a LOT of dinosaurs at the show…
This company makes a lot of prehistoric beasts, and these ridiculous creatures from The Future is Wild. - a hypothetical TV documentary about evolution. It was pretty bad. But I met the woman who was responsible for it, which is pretty cool.
Inflatable dinosaur costume. Hahaha. It was ridiculous.
This animatronic rex you could operate yourself! Pretty cool…
The rest of Hoffman's stand looked like a weird garden centre.
That’s it really! Unless I suddenly remember anything else…
Oh! I spoke to Gravity Group who were so friendly. I asked if they had any interest from the UK, and whilst they side no deals had been done, or confirmations, they had some interest! That probably means very little, but the fact that some parks are even looking into it is great news.
I told them I think a lot of the problem is that 7 of the 9 wooden coasters we have are very old, and people associate that with being, well, rubbish… His response was pretty positive though, saying that he’d love to get to Blackpool to ride their wooden coasters. I said the place is like Kennywood, only better, to which they said they love Kennywood. I didn’t tell them I do not, Lol. They do seem like they share a lot of enthusiast concerns and likes and dislikes though. They are a great bunch and I encourage anyone who gets the chance to speak with them. It’s like speaking to an enthusiast in the industry!
Here’s a picture of my haul of technical related brochures and such, this doesn’t include all the theming stuff. If you’d like to see anything specific, do let me know. There isn’t anything new that we haven’t seen before in any of them.
davidm
Strata Poster
Getting slightly OT; ^ & ^^ not just a year, but 3 years (ie 2015) :-(
http://www.newsparcs.com/en/article/000 ... efore_2015
(that link was posted before by peep here viewtopic.php?f=3&t=31964 )
http://www.newsparcs.com/en/article/000 ... efore_2015
(that link was posted before by peep here viewtopic.php?f=3&t=31964 )
arfidichap45
Roller Poster
A really nice idea. I appreciate it much !