Daily Spin 6.3.08

There's a blurb on the official site for Universal Studios Singapore that lists one of the park's attractions as a "truly innovative pair of dueling coasters--one seated and one suspended--that are locked in aerial combat. Exciting loops, sudden turns, breathtaking drops and thrilling near-collisions will make you scream out loud." It's a newer Dueling Dragons! Awesome!

On another Universal note, the fire at the Hollywood property was started by roofers who were using a blowtorch to heat and apply shingles to a facade roof. This CNN article has the details. Also, the LA Times Funland Blog reports that Kong will not be rebuilt, but replaced with a newer attraction.

A new thrill ride for Sea World San Diego? Screamscape thinks so. They have up a layout of a proposed ride for 2010 that looks a lot like a Premier Revenge of the Mummy style ride... pretty exciting. See it here.

California's Great America recently received the go-ahead for their 2009 GCI wooden roller coaster. The park's neighbor, a Prudential office building, started a fuss when park owners asked for a height variance for the ride - but the variance was approved 5-1 last week. Now get building!

After the debacle that left Six Flags New England with no Dark Knight coaster this year, the local government's ordinance subcommittee is going to push an amendment that would let the park build rides up to 200 ft. without special permission. It doesn't solve all the problems that cause Batman to fly away ... but hey it's a start.

Hard Rock Park, after several pre-openings and openings, had it's final opening day blast yesterday. The park is now open daily, but be warned the Premier Rides coaster, Maximum RPM, is not yet open for business.

Westcoaster's Universal Fire Update

© 2008 Westcoaster

Westcoaster posted a really great update today covering the fire at Universal Studios Hollywood today.

They have photos of the section of the studio lot that was destroyed from the day before the fire, and a ton of pictures from the day of the fire as well. They even have a video up of news footage that helps explain what buildings were lost.

Click here for their update.

A correction from my post yesterday, the Back to the Future courthouse set was not destroyed, and none of the studio's soundstages were destroyed either.

Universal Hollywood Fire

A fire broke out on the backlot sets at Universal Studios Hollywood very early on Sunday morning.

The fire spread quickly and consumed a large portion of the backlot area at the studio property/theme park. According to reports, several important structures were a total loss:

• The King Kong segment of the Tram Tour, where a giant Kong attacked the trams. With Orlando's removed for The Mummy and Hollywood's lost this morning, the Kong rides and banana breath are now just a memory.
• The famous Courtyard set from the Back to the future movies.
• A film and TV vault the studios kept, but it's said that all of what was stored in it has duplicates elsewhere.
• The entire New York backlot streets that were used for tons of filming over the years.
• At least one total Soundstage, and several sets that were recently used for movies.

The same area of the studios backlot had a major fire back in 1990 which destroyed the New York sets, but at first appearance this fire seems to have done more damage than the previous one.

These stills are from CNN's video, and NewsDay has an article with a photo gallery of the fire and the remains after it was put out.

Construction @ Hong Kong Disneyland

HKDL Source is the go-to site for everything Hong Kong Disneyland, and in a recent update for the park they have a bunch of photos of some new construction going on at the park.

It's in Adventureland, and certainly looks like a decent sized project. Reports from the park have employees saying that it's for a new haunted maze for this coming Halloween season. Last year the park did a nice job with their Halloween event, and did have one maze open for the event.

The rumors, as we know, are that a possible major expansion to the park could come in the form of a Pirate themed section of Adventureland. Sure, it may just be for a haunted house, but maybe it's the start of something bigger. Who knows? It's exciting though.

Fahrenheit POV

© smj0724 2008

Here's a POV video of Fahrenheit at Hershey Park. I must find time to go ride this ... it's right down the highway!

Aerial Antics: Carowinds

I was browsing Windows Live Local, as usual (I'm still pretty obsessed) and was looking at Carowinds bird's eye views and I think they're updated from what was on there before.

Above, you can see Afterburn in it's glory, with it's fantastic paint job (you know me and silver/white tracks).

Here's a member of the Cedar Fiar Hawk Family, Nighthawk. Different now, of course, they've ripped out the sphere you can see.

It looks like a fun ride but OUCH ... no thanks Hurler.

This should get you to the images if you like.