Looks dope!!! Isn’t it weird that Universal has a Transformers theme when Paramount produced the movies?
Also loving that Waterworld lives on!

 

Universal even licenses Warner Bros. properties at their theme parks, notably Harry Potter.

 

For everyone saying it "doesn't really look like Transformers", it's because it's all just re-decorated Marvel Superhero Island things. The coaster is the Hulk roller coaster and the Bee spinning ride is Storm-force Accelatron. All of the buildings are just recolored/revamped to fit the new theme, but Universal is losing the theme park rights to Marvel since Disney obviously will have them soon and did not re-up Universal's licensing for that.

 

It’s not that they’re losing the rights, it’s that their agreement only covers Florida. As far as China goes, Disney got there first.

 

True. I forgot about that.

 

Whenever Universal Orlando eventually decides to phase out Marvel Super Hero Island one day, they should replace it with their own Transformers Metrobase!

 

I agree. A more "Bumblebee film" aesthetic and actual Transformer characters would be better, IMO, but then again, I'm not the target demographic.

 

Perhaps you haven't ridden Hulk since the re-tracked it, but it's as headbang-y as any coaster I've been on. The launch into the inversion is great, but everything else...very rough ride. Why couldn't they have cloned Hagrid's Motorbikes, or the Velocicoaster?

 

I'm curious to see how this turns out. I'm a pretty big roller coaster person (I live 30 minutes from the Roller Coaster capital of the world) and got to experience the Transformers Ride at Universal back in 2013. While the layout/design could definitely be better, an entire section of a park devoted to Transformers excites me. Additional interactive characters would be a bonus, considering how amazing the ones they currently have are.

 

Man, f***ing China, always getting the good stuff...
Meanwhile in JAPAN, where Transformers originated we don't even have Transformers: The Ride at USJ,
all we got is a crappy cameo by a giant Bumblebee puppet during the night parade. Went this past month,
and now due to Covid too, they've closed the only store that sold Transformers shirts as well.   

 

China sure does love thier bayformers

 

So.. Japan gets Gundam, Godzilla, Evangelion, and other various themepark attractions. China has this.. and America has... Covid restrictions that lead to theme park layoffs.

 

Although, we HAVE got a life-sized, moving Gundam and we've also had TF events with a life-sized Optimus Prime.

 

Does Waterworld feel like a weird pick? I get the rest of them, and having a waterpark-ish area is pretty common, but Waterworld feels separate in impact and age to the others.

 

The stunt show's legacy has far outlived that of the film it's based on - pretty sure it's one of the most successful stunt shows in the world and an iconic part of Universal's theme park portfolio.

If anything the Transformers theming feels out of place to me, particularly that Decepticoaster is themed to a 9-year-old blockbuster no one talks about anymore and Bumblebee Boogie isn't themed to the latest and more critically accepted version of the character. Then again, China is a whole other kettle of fish when it comes to the film industry.

 

Won’t it be an issue when the new franchise comes out? rendering rides about the old ones less recognizable? If I watched the BB movies but none of the bayverse ones, I’m going to be relatively confused, same goes for the merch.

 

The Back to the Future Ride at Universal Studios was open from 1991 to 2007. In Japan, it opened in 2001 and closed in 2016.

Never underestimate the power of nostalgia.

 

Back to the Future is a completely different scenario though - firstly it’s never been rebooted and secondly those original films have stood the test of time for at least a couple of generations.

There is a growing trend in theme parks to very quickly cash in on modern content to keep with the times (see the Jurassic World rethemes/attractions being done by Universal), but the problem is that this relies on the modern content having the same traction with audiences as the originals, otherwise it quickly grows resented and outdated. Attractions like Waterworld are then lucky enough to be of such a quality that they transcend the bad feeling attached to/obscurity of their source material.

All of the Transformers rides are still being themed after the original three Bay films, which while financially successful in their time, are neither the most modern incarnation of the franchise nor the one with the most good will attached.

As much as I’m usually for change, it would have made much more sense to theme everything to the G1 franchise, as it has the deepest roots in pop culture, has no ill regard attached and will continue to serve as the basis for Transformers fiction and products for years to come. Or at the very least the Bumblebee movie, which is a step closer to that than the Bay movies and is more recent.

I’m guessing the simplest reason is that with how expensive Transformers the Ride is (not to mention it’s a pretty great ride in the first place) they aren’t planning to replace the attraction footage soon, and figured the whole area should follow the same iteration of the franchise.

 

BttF the Ride opened a year after the final movie came out.

So yes, it had staying power. But at the time the ride was built it wasn't "generations" old. It was fairly new, and still relatively popular.

Transformers *is* generations old already *and* the films have been incredibly popular for over 13 years.

That kind of staying power will give this ride plenty of legs. People don't seem to grasp how the Bay films are, for lots of younger fans, their version of G1. It's what they grew up on.

 

Correct, despite the negative critic reviews received by the first five films.