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Park News - (1/30/12) A few interesting pictures of Thorpe Park as seen while closed for the winter have been posted to RideGuideGroup.
    (1/27/12) According to UK ParkNews, Thorpe Park may be looking into bringing back the fire effect on Tidal Wave. Make the jump to read the details.
    (10/25/11) UKParkNews reports that the Canada Creek Railway at Thorpe Park will be removed at the end of the season, with the last ride taking place on Nov. 6th.
    (10/11/11) Another review of Thorpe Park’s Fright Nights can be found over at Total Thorpe Park.
    (10/10/11) A review of Fright Nights at Thorpe Park has been posted to Theme Park Tourist.
    (10/3/11) According to a reader who dropped into Thorpe Park over the weekend, the new station for Swarm is now in place. They also checked out Nemesis Inferno and noted that there has been no change in regards to the ride’s “Big Boy” seats. There are still just the same two seats as before, one in row 4 and one in row 5. Nothing has changed at all, so the article claiming that they had added new or more seats to the ride for larger riders was completely false.
    (9/30/11) A weird story came out from the various British press sources a few hours ago, indicating that Thorpe Park has installed new larger seats able to accommodate overweight guests who were unable to fit in the normal seats on Nemesis Inferno. Of course, this sounds odd as B&M coasters all seem to open with at couple of these right off the bat these days… as the “Big Boy” seats, as they’ve been nicknamed, have been a common site on US B&M coasters for the last decade. The seat isn’t any bigger, they just use two slightly longer seat belts instead of the one shorter belt. Typically parks will place one of these per row, in 2 or 3 rows of the coaster. According to local sources, Nemesis Inferno has had these in place for years on two rows, so the validity of the story is somewhat confusing. It makes me wonder if they’ve perhaps added one to every row on the ride, or just added a few more per row. If anyone hits the park in the next few days, take a look and let us know if anything has changed from what was already there.
    (9/23/11) The latest buzz from Screamscape sources claims that the new Experiment 10 haunted maze will not be housed in the old Hellgate location, but instead will go into the Arena where Se7en used to be. Se7en will then be moved onto the beach opposite The Curse. As for Hellgate… it’s been said that it will not open this year, nor will anything new replace it on that site.
    (9/22/11) Thorpe Park confirmed a new Fright Nights horror maze coming this year called Experiment 10, which according to UK Park News, will be replacing Hellgate. Experiment 10 is themed after a government test lab gone wrong where you will “be gassed, confined and left screaming for a way out”.
    (8/5/11) Merlin is at it again with another crazy PR scheme… this time claiming that many guests to Thorpe Park have bad breath, and all the screaming going on is causing other guests to complain. The solution… they will now offer a complimentary mouthwash station. Sigh… really? Someone send in a picture of this one… I’ve got to see it.

2012 - The Swarm - (1/25/12) The Merlin run fantastical PR Spin machine is already up and running with a wild and surprising story about The Swarm. The crazy bogus stories they’ve manufactured in the past have had some really tall tales… like the angry spirits bothering construction workers, banning guests from raising arms on coasters to avoid armpit stink, banning younger riders from riding Thirteen because it was too scary, and the roller coaster riding squirrel just to name a few.
    Now they’ve put four department store mannequins in the front row of a Swarm train (while the rest is loaded with normal water dummies) and published a horrifying photo showing that the mannequins on the outer seats have both lost an arm and a leg during a test ride. They claim that they are working hard to fix clearance problems and rebuilding a fake church building to make more room for the coaster. Of course if you look at those dummies in the front row, their arms are raised in a fashion that true riders on the coaster would never be able to do, squeezing their arms between the vest piece and the shoulder bar. Compare the location of the arms of real riders on Raptor at Gardaland and you’ll see how their arms are kept nice and low by the restraint system. A second picture of the coaster in action was posted to Go-Merlin, and you’ll quickly notice that none of the mannequins in the front row have any arms at all.
    While “fear” is always something parks try to promote a little bit (or a lot) with their new roller coaster marketing, usually they shy away from showing off scary images that could make riders think that their limbs could be torn from their body in the middle of the ride due to a possible mechanical engineering error. I’m not sure how well this will play out in the UK, but I know they wouldn’t dare even suggest it in America where the memory of the horrific 2007 accident at Kentucky Kingdom is still a fresh memory.
    (1/20/12) A few new pictures of The Swarm have been posted to Ride Guide Group.
    (1/18/12) The Swarm has been seen testing this past week. Check out a video clip of The Swarm in action below.

    (1/16/12) Scroll down close to the bottom of this page and you’ll find pictures showing off that The Swarm is now making test runs.
    (1/11/12) The new trains for The Swarm are now on-site at Thorpe Park. Check out the pictures of the new themed trains at Ride-Guide, complete with light-up effects it seems.
    (1/9/12) An interesting time-lapse construction video of The Swarm can be found here.
    (12/2/11) New pictures showing off the themeing being added all over The Swarm area has been posted to Facebook, showing off how the track will take a dive just under the wreckage of a crashed jetliner at one point.
    (11/28/11) The latest progress reports on The Swarm at Thorpe Park can be found over at the official Facebook page, as the track work is now complete and the clearance envelope checks have begun.
    (11/8/11) A new construction update from The Swarm has been posted to UKParkNews this week.
    (10/28/11) A new construction update from The Swarm can be found at ThemeUK.
    (10/24/11) New construction pictures from The Swarm have been posted to RCRevolution and UKParkNews.
    (10/18/11) I’m not quite sure what happened here, but it almost appears as if a piece of track for The Swamp was dropped into the water. That can’t be good… check out the picture over at CoasterCommunity.
    (10/17/11) A new construction update for The Swarm can be found at UKParksNews showing off the lift hill topping out.
    (10/14/11) ThemeUK has posted a few new pictures of The Swarm this week.
    (10/11/11) Total Thorpe Park and UKParkNews have posted new construction pictures of The Swarm.
    (10/10/11) A reader was kind enough to send in a picture of the construction site for Swarm. You can also find a few more over at Theme Park Tourist.
    (10/7/11) UKParkNews reports that vertical construction has finally begun for The Swarm.
    (9/12/11) A construction update for The Swarm at Thorpe Park can be found at ThemeUK.
    (8/12/11) Go-Merlin has posted what may be the first picture of coaster pieces now on site for The Swarm at Thorpe Park.
    (8/5/11) A great overview of The Swarm’s layout can be found here and a side view of the lift hill and first drop looks like that head-first drop may actually be a Twist ‘n Dive element, similar to the infamous inversion on the Manhattan Express in Las Vegas. While I’m still hoping we will see a rotating Wing Coaster at some point, I think this rules that out for this particular ride.
    (8/4/11) Remember that odd mention of a “head-first” drop feature to be found on The Swarm?  It just struck me as being kind of odd myself, and I’m not alone, as this has also sparked a new rumor, which does match up with some of the rumors I heard about B&M’s Wing Coaster project a year ago when it was first rumored for Italy.
    According to the rumor, Raptor in Italy was just the first step in the Wing Coaster development project, as B&M were said to be planning on adding some kind of seat rotation element to future versions of the ride once they were able to get Raptor up and running and study all the stress and forces the new design would put on the winged seat design.
    If The Swarm is indeed to be the next generation Wing Coaster design from B&M, it could be possible that the seats could rotate into a unique ‘head-first” position during the first drop of the ride, in much the same way that the seats on X2 (and other S&S 4th Dimension coaster) rotate. If this is true at all, expect to see the seats only move during this one element of the ride only… and will return to a standard riding position for the remainder of the ride.
    Again, this is just a rumor, but it does match up with the rumors I was told a year ago about how B&M intended to add on elements and evolve this Wing Coaster design concept over the years with a series of baby steps.
    (8/2/11) Thorpe Park has released the name of the LC12 coaster project, and a new website at TheSwarm.co.uk which includes new concept artwork of the coaster confirming that it is a B&M Wing Coaster design. It also mentions a “unique head first, inverted drop from 127ft”.
    (7/27/11) Thorpe Park have launched a new viral video for the LC12 coaster project entitled, “War Is Coming”, with an August 1st date listed as the likely announcement date. Check it out below.

    (7/22/11) Construction on the footers for Thorpe Park’s new LC12 coaster project has begun. You can find pictures posted to ThemeUK.
    (6/20/11) The marketings for the LC12 project at Thorpe Park has moved on to the next level with the creation of several “Crack Squads” set to invade every corner of Facebook to spread the word. You can read more details over at UK Park News.
    (5/5/11) Thorpe Park seems to have started a viral video campaign as a preview of their LC12 project. They’ve have put four videos online showing off a fellow at the park wearing a warning sign talking about Floods, Aliens, Nuclear Disaster and other Natural Disasters. The whole time the guy is pushed along with an ineffectual security guard person, which is kind of funny and gets some weird looks from the park guests.
    (4/25/11) Thorpe Park has launched a teaser website for their new 2012 coaster project at LC12.net. You can read at UK Park News about some of the flyers they’ve been posting up with headlines saying, The End of Coming’ and so on, which featured the website link, which has a countdown clock that seems to be counting towards a possible August 1st announcement date. There is also an official LC12 Twitter feed as well.
    (3/18/11) Some pictures of the early work taking place on the Thorpe Park 2012 coaster site can be found over at GforceMag.
    (2/16/11) You can find a bit more artwork and layout maps about LC12 posted to ThorpeparkMania this week.
    (2/14/11) Theme Park Tourist has posted a great update about LC12 at Thorpe Park that shows off the basic layout of the WingRider style coaster but also the very disaster area looking themeing they have planned for it. Wrecked planes, choppers, fire trucks, ruins, etc. Should be a very well themed ride experience.
    (2/10/11) According to a posting at UK Park News, Thorpe Park has confirmed through a planning application that their 2012 coaster project is from B&M to be located on a new development island “adjacent to Stealth” and will be just under 40 meters tall. One item though that I have to question… why does this statement say refer to B&M as being a “German manufacturer”?
    The error aside… If I were a betting man, I’d be placing all my chips on this being one of the new B&M 4th Dimension / WingWalker style designs (like Raptor at Gardaland) with some all new more progressive design elements.
    (12/21/10) Thorpe Park has sent out an interesting teaser image to start the hype machine for their 2012 coaster addition. The image features a nuclear mushroom cloud with “LC12” at the top and the text, “The End Is Coming” below it.  It’s worth mentioning that Stealth is also seen in the background to the side of the cloud, looking quite tiny by comparison, which made me wonder if LC12 is going to dwarf Stealth. However, in our report from July, the long term masterplan Thorpe submitted through 2016, only mentions a 40m and 50m tall coaster in the works, both smaller than Stealth (62.5m). 

2012 to 2016 - 2 Coasters and More - In Planning - (8/23/10) We’ve heard an interesting rumor this week, claiming that a wooden coaster may be under consideration as one of the park’s new coaster projects. Anyone else heard this?
    (7/11/10) Some interesting maps show off just where Thorpe Park is planning on putting their next two coasters, posted over at Total Thorpe Park. Don’t read too much into the layouts however, I’m sure those are mainly placeholder artwork, as it’s too soon to have final layouts for both rides just yet.
    (7/2/10) According to this article Thorpe Park is planning on building two new roller coasters at the park between now and 2016, which was submitted to the local council outlining the next 5-years of growth for the park. In addition the park wants to add 5 new “round rides” (aka: Flat Rides) up to 25m tall. Of the two coasters, one is said to be up to 40m tall and the other up to 50m tall, so both would come in under Stealth’s impressive 62.5m top hat.

???? - Hotel - In Development - (9/19/06) You can see concept artwork for the new proposed Hotel at Thorpe Park here. Just click on each of the links. From the look of things however, they seem to have dropped the idea of an indoor waterpark.
    (7/7/06) Coaster Force reports that Thorpe Park will show off possible plans for a new waterpark hotel to the public on July 14th and 15th.