DC Rivals Hypercoaster Now Open at Warner Bros. Movie World Australia

© Warner Bros. Movie World Australia

One of the most anticipated new coaster openings of 2017 has taken place at Warner Bros. Movie World Australia, for the park's new DC Rivals Hypercoaster.  Though late in the season for North America and Europe, this time of year is the start of the summer season for Australia, and when big new ride openings take place.

Designed by Mack Rides, the DC Rivals Hypercoaster features impressive statistics start to finish.  The train features backward seating on the back row of the trains, which are available for an extra fee and come with a scheduled ride time.

Standing 202 feet tall with bring pink/purple track and gray supports, the ride features the giant Joker image hanging over the crest of the lift hill, and as the above photo shows it lights up nicely in the dark.

The coaster's layout includes an 85 degree plunging first drop that turns 90 degrees to the right, giant air-time hills, a non-inverting loop that stands 131 feet tall, a "high dive" turn, twisted pretzel element mid-ride, and bunny hills that finish the course.

Along with the ride opening we also have a point of view ride on the DC Rivals Hypercoaster, click below if you want to take a spin!

Australia's New DC Rivals Hypercoaster Almost Complete in New Updates

Scheduled to open this October, which is the start of the busy season in Australia, Movie World Gold Coast is hard at work on finishing up construction of the DC Rivals Hypercoaster.  The impressive design from Mack Rides will tower of the park at 202 feet in the air, featuring a bright shade of pink track.

When the ride was announced a significant amount of track was already standing, and in the weeks since things have progressed even further.  The latest photos show that major elements of the ride, such as the non-inverting loop, giant camel back hill, and many of the speed bumps on the return trip are already complete.

© Movie World Australia

Another exciting element that is now complete is the ride's first drop, which features a 90 or so degree right hand turn on the way down.  The drop looks extremely steep, as is common on similar rides with a turning first drop, as seen in recent photos posted to Parkz.  The very top of the lift hill shows the trains plunging under the laughing Joker - perhaps that element will be added soon.

Even more recently the actual lift hill has started to rise to meet the already-in-place first drop.  Both Gold Coast Theme Parks as well as Parkz have photos of the lift heading upward - it looks like it will only be a few days until the track is complete!  I'm excited to see this ride testing, the combination of height, speed and quickly changing elements makes this coaster have a ton of potential in my book.  And if that's your sort of thing, it will have a seat that's permanently turned backward on each train!

Australia's Movie World Announces New DC Rivals Hypercoaster

Warner Bros. Movie World, located on the Gold Coast in Australia, has finally let the cat out of the bag and announced details on the large purple and black roller coaster they've had under construction for months.

Named DC Rivals Hypercoaster, the coaster is being designed by Mack Rides and will stand 202 feet tall at the top of the lift hill.  The park notes that DC Rivals Hypercoaster will be the tallest, longest and fastest of its kind in the Southern hemisphere, and the only hypercoaster as well.  It is slated to open around October of this year, which is the start of the summer season in Australia.

© Warner Bros. Move World

Riders aboard the coaster will hit top speeds of more than 71 miles per hour after the first drop, and total track length is around 4,590 feet.  The experience begins with a 90 degree twisting first drop and into a large air-time hill.  The coaster then features a 131 foot tall non-inverting loop, which as the name implies keeps riders facing up while twisting across the top of the element.

The rest of the course's layout features additional air-time hills, a quick drop turn around, a twisted pretzel section in the middle of the ride and a series of small bunny hills on the way back to the station.

© Warner Bros. Move World

This layout, while not the best quality, was released from the park and shows how the coaster will tower over a large section of the park, along the entire entrance and parking area.  This drone footage of the coaster shows that about half the ride is already standing, and looking great!  Pink is a fairly difficult track color to pull off, but this ride is certainly doing it.

Warner Bros. Movie World has also released this preview animation of the DC Rivals Hypercoaster, which shows various bits of the ride's elements.  The first drop starts with a plunge under the Joker's laughing face, strengthening the coaster's theme from afar.

One other element that the park revealed today is that the last car in the train will be turned around so that extra-brave riders can experience the coaster backwards from opening day.  Can't wait to see the finished product here!

Warner Bros. Movie World's New Hyper Coaster Goes Vertical

We still have no official announcement from the park, but we know it's going to be big and pink!  Well, pinkish purple perhaps.

Warner Bros. Movie World in Australia has started vertical construction on their rumored-to-be hypercoaster, with track and supports starting to tower over the park.

The rumored height is right around 200 feet, but the manufacturer, Mack Rides, is confirmed from the construction site.

© Google

Speaking of the construction site, footings for the ride are basically complete and on updated maps (not this one) you can actually see the ride's layout.  It extends quite far along the park's front border, generally in the pink box above.  If you compare that size to other rides in the park you can tell that this ride will have quite a bit of track.

If you want to check out some photos of the newly vertical ride, check out this update from Parkz.  Also, that website's forum is a hotbed of almost daily updates, like this one showing what was completed as of yesterday.

I'm looking forward to seeing all that this ride has to offer!

Doomsday Destroyer + New DC Villain Themed Land Premier at Movie World

For the start of their summer season, Movie World on Australia's Gold Coast, has opened a new themed area and thrill ride.  A part of the DC Comics Super-Villains Unleashed area, the new ride is named the Doomsday Destroyer.  The park's new expansion will allow visitors to "embark on a journey with some of the most iconic DC Super-Villains in an interactive themed area, where it's good to be bad."

© Movie World

The star attraction of the area is Doomsday Destroyer, a "monstrous looping ride like nothing else ever seen" at the park.  Rider are seated in floorless cars, some facing other passengers, and then looped up and around in a giant circle to nearly 70 feet above the park.  The ride goes up to 23 miles per hour and gives riders a 2.4 negative g-force, according to Movie World.  The above photo shows that the ride (which appears to be from Zamperla) received a nice theming package.

“There has always been a focus on DC Super Heroes at Warner Bros. Movie World but this new precinct will showcase the Super-Villains from the DC Universe,” said the park's General Manager, Greg Yong.

Another neat element of the Super-Villains Unleashed precinct are the "interactive elements where guests can assist Super-Villains such as The Joker and Lex Luthor in their mission to cause mass destruction throughout the park with the use of innovative RFID technology." 

Potential Record Breaking Ride Pondered for Warner Bros. Movie World

© Warner Bros. Movie World via Parkz

Parkz, an Australian them park fan site, is showing off some concept artwork for a potential ride that showed up on surveys from Warner Bros. Movie World, located on Australia's Gold Coast.

Called Doomsday, the ride would stand a staggering 145 meters tall, that's right around 475 feet in height, and be located in the middle of the Superman Escape launched Intamin coaster.  While it still amazes me that current tower rides have hit the 400 foot mark, there is something about closing in on the 500 foot level that almost makes me shudder when typing the figure!

Doomsday is not a free fall, actually from the description it sounds more like an observation tower that also operates as a thrill ride.  The three ride cars stick out from the side of the tower, and are shown each seating 12 riders a piece.  The ride would operate in two modes, one where the passenger's seats (floorless with feet danging, by the way) would slowly rotate to give beautiful views, and another where they would spin quickly.

Again this is only a proposed attraction, though it sounds like the park has placed it in a survey to see what guests think of it.  If it does get built it would easily take the record for tallest tower ride.  I admit that though I would be nervous, I would certainly get in line for this one!

Justice League: Alien Invasion 3D POV Video

Sally Corp has shared this great video of their new dark ride, Justice League: Alien Invasion 3D.  The high quality look at the ride shows off many of the amazing sets, props, and other features of the interactive attraction, which just opened at Australia's Warner Bros. Movie World.

Doesn't the ride look like fun? I would love blasting those nasty stars off of everyone and everything!

A Closer Look at the New Justice League Ride

Earlier this week we took a look at the new Justice League Alien Invasion 3D ride that just opened at Warner Bros Movie World on the Gold Coast.  Today we have some more coverage of the interactive dark ride, with some fantastic photos provided by Sally Corporation, the designers of the new attraction.

As guests queue for the attraction they experience this preshow area where they are briefed on their upcoming mission: destroy Starro the Conqueror and his mind invading spores at all costs.

A cyborg animatronic greets everyone in the load area, while Batman is beamed in for the briefing from the Justice League watchtower, located deep in outer space.

Once it is their turn to ride, guests board their vehicles, seen above with the briefing area located behind them.  Equipped with their own blasters, they head out on their mission to help defeat Starro.  Individual scores are kept on a panel in front of them, as you can see in this photo.

This is a close up of the cyborg character located in the attraction.  I had to slim down the original file, as it was 40 or so megs, but even in that ginormous detail I thought for a while that it was a live person dressed up in the ride.  That's just how high quality the figures are that are produced by Sally Corp!

Once inside the main ride building guests get to see just how affected the world has been by Starro and their minion of spore stars.  Here we see one scene (not in show lighting, same for the image below) that features some of the characters found throughout the ride.  The starro spores are leeching onto everyone and anyone, even that cute dog!

We will end with a close up shot of Supergirl, who effortlessly holds back a crumbling wall to save the lives of passing riders.  Nice!

Justice League Alien Invasion 3D looks like a high quality attraction, and honestly I'm a bit jealous it is located so far away.  I hope a U.S. park gives Sally the chance to produce something this great for them, and soon!

All images are copyright Sally Corporation, and used with permission.

The Justice League Arrives at Movie World

A brand new interactive 3-D dark ride has just opened at Warner Bros. Move World on Australia's Gold Coast.  The ride is billed as the first attraction themed to the Justice League, a fact that is apparent in the ride's name: Justice League: Alien Invasion 3D.

The ride features Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern and Supergirl as they battle an invasion of mind-controlling alien spores (which look sort of like starfish).  The ride system was provided by Bertazzon, with Sally Corporation creating the sets and animatronics.

Promotional image of Justice League: Alien Invasion 3D

As each car of four guests make their way through the 22,000 square foot building they use their own blasters to take down those alien spores.  The ride features immersive sets and also utilizes eight separate 3-D screen and 16 fully animatronic characters.  Plenty of special effects, lighting, and a unique soundtrack round out the experience.

As with other interactive shooting dark rides, each person's score is recorded on a display in the car, allowing for fun competition - and also making the ride have a high return factor.

If you're like me and probably won't be heading to Australia any time soon, here's a point-of-view video of the new attraction.  If you don't want to see, don't watch!

The Green Lantern Opens at Movie World

The coaster with the steepest drop on the Southern hemisphere has officially opened at Warner Brothers Movie World on Australia's Gold Coast.  The new coaster, named the Green Lantern, features a 120 degree first drop, which is well beyond vertical.  Only one coaster in the world features a steeper drop, Takabisha at Fuji-Q Highland, which features a 121 degree plunge.

The coaster is the 4th instillation of S&S Worldwide's El Loco model.  A significant change to the ride was made with the debut of new cars, which Scott & Carol featured a photo of in NPN's recent IAAPA coverage.

The cars now have only lap restraints, which should improve the ride experience tremendously.  The Green Lantern's cars also feature on-board audio, as we've seen with several other comic book themed rides around the world.

2012 Construction Updates Abound

Since announcing the ride, Busch Gardens Williamsburg has stealthily been building the indoor section of Verbolten, the park's new launched "dark woods" themed coaster.  Luckily for us, they need to build the track for the indoor section before it the building goes up around it - and that means photos!

BGWFans.com has a couple shots of exactly that, including a wicked looking helix!  Plenty of other mysteries will live in that building!

The 300 foot tall monster, Leviathan, is continuing to grow up North at Canada's Wonderland.  The park has reported that they have 70 percent of the ride's footings done, quite a bit of progress for a ride as massive as Leviathan.

With the transfer and storage track complete, it sounds like work will now focus on the lift of the ride, something I'm sure we're all waiting for!  The park has been great about posting construction photos of the ride, be sure to check out the latest on the official Leviathan website.

Like so many other Bolliger and Mabillard coasters we've watched be built over the years, Thorpe Park's the Swarm is rather quickly rising toward the skies.  The ride's lift went up last week, and soon the inverting half-loop drop will be in place.

The park has a dedicated Facebook page for the ride's construction, which features plenty of up-to-date photos and videos.  While I was not sure about the ride's all gray track and supports at first, seeing the ride standing with the water and islands as a background has sold me.

While this batch of photos doesn't necessarily show much progress since what we've previously seen, they do give some unique perspectives of Europa Park's new Great Coasters International ride.

Plus, you can really get a feel for how the new wooden coaster will both tower over its location in the park, and interact with nearby attractions.  I think the ride's first drop looks like something that could go down as the ride's best part, judging from how it looks right now.  GCI actually just posted a comparison shot of Europa's first drop versus Apocalypse at Magic Mountain... which also leads me to believe that this will be quite a plunge!

The Green Lantern Coaster at Warner Bros. Movie World Australia isn't a large ride, so it's not a big surprise that the ride is more than halfway complete.  The S&S El Loco coaster has a small footprint, with a maze of track twisting around itself, akin to a wild mouse style ride.

Once the web of supports were in place, track started to be placed at a quick page.  From recent photos posted by the park, the ride's beyond-vertical first drop is already in place!  For less recent, but highly detailed photos, check out this update, too.

Green Lantern Arrives at Movie World Australia

Warner Brothers Movie World, located in Australia, has announced the addition of a new coaster, named the Green Lantern.  The ride appears to be an El Loco model provided by S&S Worldwide.  The park is advertising the ride as having the steepest drop in the Southern hemisphere.  Previous installations of these rides have featured beyond vertical drops of up to 113 degrees.

The park has also released a bit of a teaser video from the ride, including some animation of the coaster:



It also seems that the ride might use a new style of train, which would allow for eight passenger cars, doubling the ride's capacity.  Additionally, as seen in some of the art released by the park, these new trains only feature lap-bar restraints - both changes could greatly improve the ride experience.

The Green Lantern is schedule to debut this December, which marks the start of Australia's Summer season.

Welcome to the Wild Wild West

via Flickr

I was hunting around, hoping that I could finally find video of the themed section before the launch on Superman Escape at Warner Brothers Movie World on Australia's Gold Coast - but still to no avail. (if you ever see this, please let me know!)

I did, however, end up finding out a lot about the theme park's flume ride, currently named Wild West Falls Adventure Ride. I really didn't know that the ride existed before I started reading about it, and then after I did I wanted to know more and more!

Here she is, first of all, in all her glory:

The ride opened as the biggest expansion to Warner Brother Movie World in 1998, and was at that time named Wild Wild West to fit with the movie that had opened around then. Licensing issues later caused the ride to be renamed Wild West Falls.

The $18 million ride is a Hopkins log flume that features two 90 degree turntables and a backwards roller coaster style dip. The ride system sounds very similar to that of Disney's Splash Mountain, coaster dip included. While I can't find a length for the ride, it certainly seems like it would rank as one of the longest flumes out there.

While no good full POV movies are on YouTube, here's a good video of the midsection of the ride:
The level of theming is pretty neat, right! The ride then travels up onto the big lift and enters the top of the mountain, where sadly a fire in 2004 removed much of the original theming. From there it's down a 65ft. drop and into the main pool.

Parkz.com.au has a great gallery of the ride up that features photos of the attraction like this one:I've always loved log flumes, and with so many older ones being removed it's cool to see one that went in somewhat recently (relatively, anyway).