"SAW - The Ride" - Eurofighter for Thorpe Park

[Slash]

I suppose the other way of looking at it as well is you can spend 12 million on a B&M and thats all your get, a coaster and leaves no money for any theming at all.

Or you can buy what they have bought for 5 million and you can add some theming to add to it.

Thats exactly what i was getting at.

Common mis-conception on Wardley there....

He is a designer/engineer, he most likely worked upon the coaster, and did nothing with the theming...

He worked on the whole design of Air's trains with B&M, but once that was done, and the construction started, he didn't do anything with the theming, that was a totally different part of the company...

True but I'm sure he was there when the board were talking about themeing and he must have said to Thorpe something along the lines "Well if you're going to theme it you may need to rethink budgeting because B&M are going to leave you with very little"

I'm sure he has a small hand in themeing is what I'm getting at.

 

[spicy]

Air was meant to have a theme but this got changed according to some stories due to 9/11.

Never heard of that one before? Unless it was meant to fly around or through buildings then I can understand why they changed it.

I heard that it was originally going to be themed as a weapon to attack Nemesis, so the whole of the FV would have been like a war-zone, that would have been awesome.

Back on to Saw though if it is true that Merlin increased the budget to theme it more and make the coaster more of an 'experience' I think thats brilliant, shows that they care more and we shouldn't see any more half arsed efforts like Rita, Spinball etc...

 

[The Grape Wizard]

Back on to Saw though if it is true that Merlin increased the budget to theme it more and make the coaster more of an 'experience' I think thats brilliant, shows that they care more and we shouldn't see any more half arsed efforts like Rita, Spinball etc...

Going a bit off topic but hopfully this should mean a good effort from merlin for 2010.

Back on topic if they have raised the budget, thats really good considering how good theming could actually be done on this

 

[marc]

I just wonder what it would have been like had Saw not been involved, probably just an empty mill would a queue.

 

[spicy]

I think the original theme idea for the coaster was always a haunted saw mill. The Saw franchise has just added horror to it and something that everyone can relate to.

It probably would have been themed similar without the Saw franchise but less horror and not as graphic I suppose...

 

[jokerman]

The good thing with Saw is that it is instantly recognisable, meaning that to create a story, you dont have to make lots of ridiculous characters, and have complicated plots. Everyone at least recognises the saw franchise, so not so much explanation will be needed.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

^Who needs plots at Thorpe? (Or on any park for that matter)

Only one other ride and an area have a major plot relating to the overall theme... Nothing else has a plot to a major degree unless I'm mistaken... Can we really count NWO since that changes every year...

If there was no Saw it'd be an abandoned Sawmill that you've looked into for whatever reason and then it all goes wrong... Go into a broken shaft (explaining the first drop), then edging towards a crusher or saws would explain the inline to a degree...

Nowadays only the really big franchise parks (Universal and Disney) create full-blown stories because they are expected to have them on each and every ride... Thorpe and others are not expected to have them... And they don't need them... Mostly rides just need to look half-decent, which could've been done here but the building looks complete ****... Simple...

 

[Dave]

May I be cliche, but do you think the economic climate has caused the themeing of this ride been slightly reduced because it might be too much costs now.

 

[Slash]

^ Maybe, but I think people will be pleasantly surprised by the level of themeing that comes out in the end product. I think people fail to realise that the building and other elements will be improved upon as there are still months until it opens.

 

[SaiyanHajime]

But they could have got an Intermin Mega coaster or whatever they are called, but seeing both or Thorpe's break down all the time this probably put them off.

Agreed. In fact, I don't think the parks in the Merlin chain will go back to Intamin.

I doubt it's simply because of Wardley... he hardly themed air... at all.

You, and everyone else who commented on this subject after are misunderstanding what Wardley does.

He's a conceptual designer. He doesn't design the coaster or the themeing he just comes up with the general gist of it.

With air, for example, Wardley was set on the concept of having a roller coaster that could fly. But he'd been obsessed with this idea since Nemesis. After riding the B&M invert prototype, Wardley was excited by how free it was... "It is the nearest thing to flying that you can get.". So Nemesis was brought to the park under similar intentions and concept as air. Wardley pushed B&M for the concept of a true flying roller coaster, but didn't design it.

I don't know whether to believe the stories about 9/11 in relation to air's theme, but we do know that it was Wardley who came up with the concept of a tranquill roller coaster because of the way he talks about the idea (you can clearly see it's his idea, he's passionate about it)... So I think those rumours air's original theme are, frankly, rubbish.

Air does have a themeing, it's just not blatent themeing... Oblivion is the same. These two rides, their theming and names are perhaps the best examples of coasters driven by concept alone. I personally think they are wonderfully sucessfull. It's a shame that their concepts were not evolved with the realisation of extended models. Oblivion and air's ride types match their concept completely, obviously... and that's what Wardley was so damn good at.

When I mentioned Wardley in my previous post, I wasn't suggesting that he's the reason for the heavy themeing, not at all. I was talking about rides who focus on atmosphere and emotion. All Wardley's projects have had this focus, but in previous coasters emotion has been drawn from the physical feel of the rides.

I'm sorry if this post is a spelling mistake mindfield, the spellchecker is being dodgy... It keeps like, editing my entire posts when I try to use it.

 

[Slash]

^ Perfectly correct apart from one niggling point, wasn't he project manager on the three coasters? Meaning he would have been overseeing the themeing and such? Otherwise everything you have stated is correct, although I believe Wardley came up with the raising mechanism for the trains.

 

[SaiyanHajime]

^ Perfectly correct apart from one niggling point, wasn't he project manager on the three coasters? Meaning he would have been overseeing the themeing and such? Otherwise everything you have stated is correct, although I believe Wardley came up with the raising mechanism for the trains.

Yes, he would have overseen it, but still not designed any of it himself.

If he did come up with the raising mechanism for those trains, I don't know if he did and I somehow doubt he did because he doesn't boast it on his website, I think you'll find it was a case of him stating that "I'd like them to do this" - not actually designing how they work. You get me?

 

[jokerman]

Yeah, I agree, but he was actually working for Alton Towers when those rides came. Therefore, I refuse to believe that someone like him would have had nothing to do with the theming. He must have had ideas and put them forward.

 

[SaiyanHajime]

He wanted Nemesis' station to be a "big slimey alien" - but he wouldn't have actually designed the big slimey alien.

It would not suprise me if Wardley concepted the idea that Saw has evolved into... (abandoned logging mill gone wrong is right in there with Wardley's "obvious" but brillient design ideas) and Thorpe ran away and mutilated it.

 

[jokerman]

Exacly what I meant. It's when people say that he had nothing to do with theming that I can't believe.

 

[Slayed]

He wanted Nemesis' station to be a "big slimey alien" - but he wouldn't have actually designed the big slimey alien.

That's where the process breaks down - Nemmy doesn't look the least bit smiley!

^_^

 

[Coaster-Fiend]

I really wanna see some new pics of SAW but I guess we're gonna have to wait till March.

I bet the huge station looks boss.

 

[Inverse]

i took a stroll down Monk's Walk couple days back. There's nothing new to report since the last batch of photos. Saw is all there with a big shed for a station, work must be happening inside now.

 

[Emmett]

I really wanna see some new pics of SAW but I guess we're gonna have to wait till March.

The park opens back in mid February so I'm sure there will be lots of updates to come before the opening in March.

 

[jokerman]

All the pictures from now on will look the same. It's when we see the interior theming that it will be interesting (or not, depending on how good a job they do). Too many more pictures, and it will spoil the surprise.