China 09/23 – FT Wild Land
More Fantawilds. There’s always more Fantawilds. Next up we took a train south to the city of Taizhou, then got a drive over to one of the newest parks in the chain,
Day 14 – FT Wild Land
Contrary to the previous visit, I hadn’t been obsessing over this place at all. I didn’t know a whole lot about it, and even kept having to remind myself what Vekoma they had. I remember looking up the rest of the ride lineup when it was announced and opened and being of the usual mindset – oh well, just more of the same, even though it was good to see that they’re changing up the names and overarching themes of each park a lot more regularly for the past few projects. Oh was I in for a surprise.
Slightly odd start, we had bowled up in time for opening but as of 5 mins until park open, the friendly security weren’t allowed to even let us in as far as the ticket window. From an outsider perspective, that’s strange, why can’t I buy my ticket now, so that I’m ready at the turnstyle when it does open? For them, we’re strange, there’s literally no other guest here, what’s your hurry? This park seems very underappreciated, but that’s perfect for me.
By the time we were ticket in hand, the place had already won me over. They were playing instrumental versions of a few of my favourite kpop tracks in and around the main street area. For me? Aww.
Being so new there’s a very fresh vibe going down this part, and it looks like no other Fantawild does, so that’s always a bonus. First attraction appeared off the main square before the park becomes the usual circular loop. This looks familiar.
Finding Merlion is a simple simulator in front of a screen setup. It first debuted at Fantawild Asian Legend, one of the other unique parks in the chain that themed all of their rides to countries in the ASEAN region. The titular Merlion is one of the national symbols and landmarks of Singapore, and Xiong’er (Bramble) the bear from the Boonie Bear franchise takes you on a fun frolick through the city in order to try and spot the famous statue.
It was actually improved upon over its counterpart by having a fun little preshow video in the queue that set up a bit more of a ‘why’, along with not having an arduous safety instruction video prior to commencement. Other than that it’s alright, nothing to write home about.
Just a haunted walkthrough.
Moving around the park in a counter-clockwise direction, there’s a fair bit of deadspace in terms of exciting attractions. A big pink swinging ship and an equally garish splash battle plus some other minor kiddy stuff.
The highlight being that they’ve got the actual jumping fountains from Rollercoaster Tycoon.
Then things get a little more exciting as you pass these ominous looking statues into a much more pleasantly decorated land.
This quickly became one of my favourite themed areas ever, helped by the fact that it’s not just another facade, you can just get up in and around it.
Fantawild were already great at the Chinese vibe but never before did they chuck in an animatronic dragon or this lovely little scene. The rides here don’t hurt either.
Confession, I never knew this ride in particular existed. In forever researching the latest and greatest from Fantawild, a lot of speculation can only be based around that which has already been seen before. Oh they’ve got another one of those, that one looks familiar, etc. I don’t remember ‘Realm of Warriors‘ ever catching my attention from the website, but it’s another newest gen 4D motion based car ride, so a new Nuwa. Exciting.
It has a preshow that was being used straight out of the gate. The gist of the story is that big old demon king is out causing havoc and we need to help the bloke with the wings get the magic scroll to Gandalf so that we can kick the bad guys ass. Familiar concept, sure, but at least it plays out rather differently.
The opening sequence is rather interesting, immediately bumping into the face of the bad guy, who creates a bit of a tornado and has you twirling around in the darkness for a good while. There’s the briefest of glimpses towards the use of more big scary physical sets on this ride type as you get a flash of a giant ravenous plant, though sadly this is never delivered upon again in this particular attraction.
Soon after you get attacked by fiery dragons, both red and blue, in a similar sequence to what they’ve done before. The winged bloke saves you. Then you get attacked by radioactive skeletons in a rather more scary manner. The winged bloke saves you. Then you get attacked by a big bloke. The winged bloke saves you. All in different manners at the very least.
One of the greatest strengths of the ride for me was the sense of scale in the media from this point onwards. You’re suddenly thrust out into this massive battle scene where it’s clear this is all part of some much greater cause, rather than being isolated in your own little ride sequence. Death, destruction everywhere, it all looks pretty epic before you lose the scroll to sexy ninetales lady. Oh no.
Magic happens and it’s Gandalf who saves you this time. She’s quickly dispatched of and he now has the scroll, turning him from grey to white. He summons a chariot of horses and rushes off to join the battle, with us following in tow. Again here you’re flying through this massive scene of a city in ruins, all dark and stormy, broken buildings being chucked everywhere as the boss level version of the big bad is now out and causing chaos.
In a good show of teamwork between us and the wizard, he is eventually defeated and we’re thanked for our bravery, we saved the planet once again. The template seems hard to avoid, but I thought it was pretty great overall. I need to do some further digging as to whether this exists elsewhere now, but in my head canon at least I like to think that this, and the land it’s located in, are a Taizhou exclusive. After the masterplan of phases Fantawild once had, they are starting to give each location more of a unique identity now it seems and I’d love to see that continue through the attractions too.
The star coaster #1 Invincible Warriors has that too, for now at least. Also located in this same area is the only operating Vekoma ‘Renegade’, or ‘the one with the stall’, through a seemlessly themed entrance you wouldn’t know led to a coaster at first glance. I was still nervous up to this point about whether the thing would be running or not, but fear not, Fantawild have got my back.
It had a simpler queue than the Fighter Jet, one that holds you in the first themed building, waiting for an arbitrary amount of time, before the batcher gets the call to smile, bow and let you through.
The walk winds you amongst the layout rather nicely on route to the station, which is soon framed above your head with not one, but two fly-throughs of track. They love doing that now.
Vests!
An eerily silent lift hill glides you up to the top of a sharply twisted left turn of a drop. It’s ok, not the most hard hitting of starts as it swiftly delivers you into ‘the stall’.
The twist in and out of it has a good bit of throw, before you sharply bank the other way and get thrust out of the station roof over that first airtime hill. It’s good, not great.
Curves and rolls and hills define most of the rest of the experience. It’s very much channeling a milder Lech, though for me at least I wouldn’t say thats a bad thing.
Happy, twisty, bouncy, smooth, I guess it’s most comparable to the Oriental Heritage Vekoma Celestial Gauntlet, or ‘lift hill Polish Formula’. I like it, quite a lot, but it’s not the knock your socks off headliner I need it to be. Just very rerideable and enjoyable and I believe I’m now back up to date with every modern thrill layout from Vekoma, so that’s something.
Yes, I was having very amorous North West feelings about the place.
Just a restaurant.
After much walking we stumbled across the next significant attraction. I recognise the name Forest Drifting, but that’s about it.
Queue was nice.
Well this was just lovely. They’ve come a long way from orientally-themed small world style attractions and gone full-on with this boat based adventure.
It begins with a very peaceful and atmospheric journey through the dense, misty undergrowth before meeting up with our pal Bramble the bear again. Not sure why this park is so biased against the other guy, Briar, but that’s the way it is. After introducing the story it goes full Pooh’s Hunny Hunt with special effects and the whole scene disappears in rather spectacular fashion. Magic, wonder, dark ride.
The whole thing is filled with other fantastic moments and details. The narrative was a little confusing, but I didn’t care. There’s a panda that gives the were-rabbit a run for his money, some scene through a seedy film district and the conclusion of the story appears to be meeting up with Neova, a strange white deer thing with purple antlers that I’ve seen around many parks over the years. Fun detail to spot here as they unite and fly about the place, projected on the wall, is that they swoop both in front of and behind physical tree mouldings that form part of that wall. That takes precision and effort and I bet nobody picks up on it.
Loved it. Got me emotional this one, this is exactly why I do this.
Should have a POV for you at some point.
Butterflies.
Oh no, it’s Let’s Fly again. The annoying tune from that last Flying Theatre is already haunting my head once more.
Already looking different on the inside at the very least. The whole queueline was Boonie Bear to the max, setting up what appeared to be a much more fun experience. Don’t let me down.
It was bliss, utter bliss, having the entire ride system to ourselves. We strolled up the ramps, got in our seats with a staff-guest ratio of 1:1 and the film was initiated within mere seconds.
And it was a great film. Don’t hold me to it, but it’s most likely this film was first created for the Fantawild Dinosaur Kingdom park in Zigong as it was, well, dinosaur based. You follow some friendly fellow on the back of a pterosaur around some rather spectacular sights and smells and it was all round just a pleasant and wondrous experience. Exactly what these should be like.
The dinosaur theme makes more sense in the opposite direction apparently. This seemingly hosts a dinosaur version of one of their big epic ‘bubble ballet’ shows, though sadly it was too quiet on this day for them to put it on.
The next cred, #2 Pine Tree Rocket is themed like a much more colourful version of a high speed railway station, which was pretty neat.
Yes that makes 3 days, 3 of these.
This one was the best though, because that.
Didn’t do the water ride as they’re usually a bit dull and often times unnecessarily wet here, though it looked rather lush.
Final cred is the good old #3 Puppy Coaster, with a puppy of an operator to suit. She was super shy and had no clue what she was doing, but that only added to the experience.
Bullseye is another of their Buzz Lightyear-style shooting dark rides, that we only just learnt existed, this time without the war and bombs. I believe you’re freeing animals from the circus and biological testing facitilies and the like and it’s good fun.
I liked in particular that they spice it up a bit by setting a score to beat at the entrance, and then if you do, you win a badge. I did.
Only real downside to gameplay is that there’s no variation in scoring, every target yields the same rewards so there’s no secrets or special techniques to be discovered.
Should have a POV for you at some point.
The final ‘land’ contains this 3D cinema, which I’m thinking is the same idea as the rather old now ‘Conch Bay‘, from some of their earliest parks.
I’ve never been bothered to try one of those before, but I assume they’ve amped it up since back in the day.
It certainly doesn’t look like much from a Fantawild Adventure park.
This guy pops out when things get a little rowdy. Good stuff.
Did the Ferris Wheel for some views, quite rare for a Fantawild to have one of these and it was appreciated.
There’s too many attractions called ‘Myth‘ in China, this turned out to be one of their magic projection shows and was put on once for the day.
It told the tale of many different Chinese legends and characters in some more and less convincing manners. It had dancers and performers (enough to outnumber the guests present) and they use that pit and mirror technique to essentially have a screen both in front of and behind the stage for different media and the occasional illusion of things disappearing and reappearing. I’d say it was more engaging than the Oriental Heritage equivalent, though less visually stunning.
Spent the remainder of the evening reliving my most favourite moments from around the park, namely ‘the area’ and the boat ride, as well as an extended photo session with the Vekoma, though it never moved without me on it.
Until the minute we walked away.
There it goes.
This was by far and away my favourite park visit of the trip, just the perfect day spent discovering a new and completely empty Fantawild. It’s only been as of my very last visit to one that I properly fell in love with them, but now I’ve been kept away for 3 long years and it was so good to get that kind of experience once again. The purest essence of why I theme park in China. While stocks last.