China 01/24 – Fantawild Dino Kingdom
Next up was another day trip out of Chengdu to the city of Zigong. What’s there I wonder.
More Fantawild? Don’t mind if I do.
Day 9 – Fantawild Dino Kingdom
This one has excited me ever since opening of course.
Another unique theme, some new dark rides I knew very little about. A Vekoma Junior. Everything you could ask for.
The unique vibes continue through the main street, just hoping not to turn a corner and see Let’s Fly with a plane outside.
Heading towards some exciting looking show buldings from the map, first thing we came across was a cred.
#1 Dino Dash. What’s not to love?
Excitement continued to build, wondering what wonders lay inside here.
Deep Down. Dinosaurs. Got it.
Just before heading in I spun round and clocked this. My inner fan screamed. They haven’t done an ‘Indiana Jones’ vehicle ride since 2016 as far as I know. Been waiting on a 2nd generation one because the first already kicks ass.
After some cavey stuff is a preshow. We’re going on a journey to the centre of the earth with this miner bloke. Might be trouble on the way.
And trouble there was. Really, really loved this thing. It’s very much Dinosaur, but also very much their own thing and it does stuff I’ve never experienced on a dark ride before.
You start out in some pretty crystals and end up getting lost in the jungle where regular Mr. scary dino pops out at you a few times. Eventually you find a big old fossil/skeleton which then magically comes to live and unleashes something much more scary than your average T-rex.
You stop in the dark trees again for a bit and get jump scared again, before heading backwards in the pitch black for ages, with feely things hanging down and hitting the back of your head. Eek.
The next sequence is my favourite. You just stop, can’t see anything at all. Relying purely on audio and the motion base in the vehicle you get sniffed up and roared at by the dinosaur as he moves around the car. The tension it manages to create is insane, pure horror stuff that then doesn’t end in a jump scare for a change. You’ve lost him for now.
Things are kicking off though, it’s time to get out of here now, the ride starts gunning it through some lava and some rocks, eventually culminating in the ‘drop below something scary’ bit of the sequence which is the only full glimpse of animatronic big scary more than a dino thing.
Like an American on an average rollercoaster, I gave a round of applause as we returned.
That was something special.
It’s a shame their star coaster #2 Fire Mountain isn’t something special. Just another Orkanen – they’ve become the SLCs of the world, but pleasant.
We’d already had re-imagined Wizard Academy on the trip. Dino Rampage is their absolute OG 4D dark ride. It’s been kicking around at Fantawilds since 2006, in their very first park which is now long gone.
I never much cared for the crudeness of it – the graphics were quite gory, lots of gratuitous violence with and against regular dinosaurs basically. As a child who never wanted to watch Jurassic Park because they hurt a dinosaur in it, not my cup of tea.
It’s got a new pre-show which is very by the book of course. Trouble is afoot, but don’t worry civilian, I’m a military man and I’ve got a high-tech all-terrain vehicle in which you can make your escape. Oh and it’s equipped with guns and missiles. Not this again.
There’s two sizes of these newest generation vehicles now, both of which are in use at the ‘World War Japan‘ themed parks. This is the smaller one that can kick more ass in its range of movement.
They’ve basically fixed everything I didn’t like about the ride and it’s now a ton of fun. It opens with its most gruesome moment as you get the simple silhouette of a T-rex eating a cat. Sad face.
From there you get soldiers zapping, not machine-gunning, some velociraptors that attack you. Then a chase sequence through a city from a T-rex which ends with you both falling into a subway tunnel and at the last second he gets hit by a train. Which is quite funny to be fair.
Worth mentioning there’s a great deal of physical scenery complimenting the transitions between screens, and that all the city based media is full of both real world details and Fantawild easter eggs. There’s known high street brands as well as Boonie Bear shops or the lumberjack guys face on a pizza store.
Things get scary as you move into this room. The temperature is slowly ticking up as soldiers try to keep whatever’s frozen in here dormant. They fail of course but all you get before you leave the room is a massive claw smashing through a gantry in another good horror-based beat – don’t reveal all just yet.
Well he’s on the entrance sign, but basically it’s Godzilla. You round things out with some wider and wilder scenes of city based destruction as he stomps around, fire blasts you through a building etc. Again the movements give you a lot to think about and it all ends when we shoot a missile down his throat and he comes flopping down.
Cue the obligatory: Your bravery saved the planet. You can ride with me any time.
Exit through the gift shop.
It’s great.
Official announcement – Fantawild Dinosaur is back and he’s selling burgers. The character hasn’t featured in parks for ages but I guess they figured he’s related to this place. Not selling him in the shops though!
Only speculation at this point and I should have learnt from this trip to never assume things are the same any more. But I have to assume that this is the same 3D cinema about, well, the origin of life.
Not speculation, we had this one confirmed that though it’s not called a Boonie Bear Theatre, this is a Boonie Bear Theatre with the traumatising story about the bird. Massive show building though, weirdly, I almost didn’t believe them.
Mystic River. I haven’t said this before
Big boat ride with lots of dinosaurs.
This is that.
See?
Was really good in general, lots of pretty sights in impressive physical sets, very much of the quality of their newest boat rides. Most unfortunate of the whole thing is a stonkingly massive Langnek animatronic that was too ambitious and needed a visibly thick black cable holding it up.
Shout out to Fantawild’s painted service gate game again.
As well as some other things going on in this park, like this guy shaking a tree.
And these ones you can ride and then they’ll respond to you with movement. Plus crash mats.
Another show ride that originated here, their Let’s Fly flying theatre looks and is great. I speculated that the one we did in Taizhou would have roots in this park and was correct. It’s the one where you ride pterodactyls through some fantasy dinosaur landscapes and it’s all very pleasant.
No listing for this and I wasn’t going to put myself through the ordeal again to find out myself. Hope it’s not a cred, or a dark ride.
Bug Zapper is though, interactive train ride, shooting bugs.
Another solid and different entry with the mix of targets and screens to shoot.
Last cred is just another junior boomerang, #3 Turbo Dino.
Feat. triceratops.
Trees.
This show was also at the Taizhou park, but didn’t run for the six people in attendance.
They were making a killing flogging these eggs for kids to smash and get prizes while everyone faffed their way into the building. Rides were never busy but managed a full house here, it’s quite magic when guests come out of the woodwork.
Another variation of the things on strings shows, but it’s even more impressive and effective in ‘3D’ with these circular theatres I think. Last one I saw kept singing about Indoneeeeesia, but this started out a bit like Origin of Life, with performers in dinosaur suits. Then some ancient men-folk stole this bird-man’s eggs (that’s a costumed character centre frame) and it goes all sad and lament-atious while the ‘eggs’ dance around him.
Eventually he gets the eggs back and everyone’s happy. I guess the moral of the story is don’t eat animals. And now you feel like a dick for paying to smash those eggs, don’t you?
Think that’s just about it for this park. Spent some time reriding the good stuff.
And god damn is it good.