Legoland Billund Building Freefall Coaster for 2012

Well this looks interesting, a new trend in the industry, perhaps?  A third coaster with a free-fall drop element in it has been announced for Legoland Billund, located in Denmark.  This follows last year's Thirteen at Alton Towers, manufactured by Intamin, and (highly rumored, though not officially confirmed) Verbolten at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

The new coaster, named the Polar X-Plorer, will be a part of a new area of the theme park, named Polar Land.  I haven't seen any confirmation of the coaster's manufacturer, but from the art below it resembles a Zierer ride.  Polar X-Plorer will reach a maximum height of 20 meters, or 65 feet.

The coaster, the largest expansion in the park's history, will feature a 5 meter free fall.  The cars will be themed to a snow mobile, which should look pretty neat.  At one point the train will stop on a frozen lake, only to fall through directly into a cave full of polar bears.

The almost $14 million new Polar Land area will also feature Penguin Bay, home to real (not Lego) Penguins!  A unique restaurant overlooking the exhibit rounds out the area.

Sounds like a great concept - hopefully if it is a success we could see it duplicated to other Legoland parks - remember there's two in North America now!