“LC12” quickly became
one of, if not thee, most anticipated roller coaster ever to planned for the
UK. “Looping Coaster 2012” was initially all we had to go on, and then early marketing
imagery suggested a theme of the apocalypse. A character, named Les Coogan - a crazy conspiracy theorist, homeless and
shunned by no one who’ll believe him that “the end is coming”, began wondering
around the park. When Raptor was announced at Merlin’s Italian park, Gardaland,
we expected to see the same ride type at Thorpe, a B&M Wing Coaster. And
then it happened; the plans were put up on the local council site… And we were
presented with the confirmation of a 130ft tall B&M monster, with a unique
first drop and thematic elements including a full size passenger aircraft.
Whilst B&M
coasters are more often than not tame and can even be considered dull, they are
of highest build quality and they never fall into the category of bad rides.
It’s kind of the best guarantee you can get as an enthusiast that the new ride
is going to be good. It’s exciting to see Thorpe go back to them after going
for cheaper hardware last time, when they went to Gerstlaurer for the
Eurofighter Saw: The Ride. Saw, above all else, is an uncomfortable ride
experience, and so to know that this next coaster wasn’t going to hurt brought
a huge sigh of relief.
It’s hard to overstate
the importance of Swarm. It’s been almost a decade since a B&M was opened
in the UK, and… Well, it’s huge by UK standards. Not just in height, but the
sheer amount of space it takes up. We just don’t have rides of this size in the
UK. As coaster enthusiasm has grown with the internet, the anticipation for a
new ride of this importance was long overdue.
