UK Kiddie Ride specialists Jolly Roger have announced that three brand new licensed products based on popular BBC children’s programmes are selling fast

Kiddie rides ‘Underground Ernie’, ‘Iggle Piggle’s Boat’ and ‘Lunar Jim’ are the hot new licensed rides for 2008.

Underground Ernie, is a ride dedicated to the hit animation cartoon series currently showing on CBeebies and features Ernie the Supervisor seated in Jubilee, the mischievous train. The Underground Ernie ride has an optional video screen, vibrant colour scheme and fun sound effect buttons.

Igglepiggle’s Boat is based on the phenomenally popular In The Night Garden pre-school animation cartoon series. The product comes complete with two seats, a vibrant colour scheme and fun sound effect buttons.

Budding astronauts can ride alongside Lunar Jim and explore the moon landscape in the Lunar Crawler. With a single seat, a vibrant colour scheme and joy-stick operated fun sound effects this ride will blast off your revenues!

Lo-Q plc, a leading supplier of virtual queuing systems to theme parks, announced today that it has reached agreement with Lego Windsor Park Ltd (Legoland) for the use of its VQ2020 queue management system. 

VQ2020 was launched last year by Lo-Q and is its flagship product.  The system provides theme park visitors with a Q-bot, a hand held, wireless device which allows them to enjoy the benefit of making reservations for their favourite rides from anywhere within the park.  Once a ride is reserved, the visitor is placed in a virtual queue thereby avoiding physical waiting time.  Just like everyone standing in the actual queue, users of the new system wait for their turn to come around, however they are free to enjoy the grounds to see other attractions and spend money in gift shops or on refreshments. 

Legoland is part of the Merlin Entertainments Group Limited, the world’s number two visitor attraction operator with 51 attractions in 12 countries, across Europe, North America and Asia.  Lo-Q’s early experiments and trials were carried out at Thorpe Park also owned by Merlin.  In addition, Lo-Q Text-Q is currently in use at the London Dungeon and other Merlin venues. 

Vicky Brown, General Manager of Legoland said,” The new system allows park visitors to avoid physically waiting in the queue for our major rides.  Our park is aimed at the under 12 age group and they will especially enjoy having “Q-bot” wait in the queue for them.  The Q-bot is a key part of our objective to give visitors an even more enjoyable experience.”

Lo-Q’s Managing Director, Leonard Sim added, “VQ2020 and Q-bot enables a true virtual queuing system to be introduced which means that all visitors still wait the same length of time for the ride - just that those with a Q-bot do not have to physically stand in line.  It is therefore a much fairer method of avoiding lengthy queues and is easy to implement.” 

The two year extendable agreement provides for the operation of the Lo-Q system by Legoland from 15 March 2008.  Leonard Sim concluded, “Lo-Q’s products have been widely used in US for several years so it is really exciting for us to have one of our systems operating in a high profile UK theme park.  VQ2020 was introduced during 2006 to capitalise on Lo-Q’s extensive operational experience and in-house development capabilities.   We are particularly pleased to be working with Legoland.  We know the system will be well received by visitors and we look forward to a successful season.”

The touch-screen innovator’s new products meet international interest and demand

Many novelties were to be discovered at funworld’s IMA and ATEI trade fair stands this year. For the first time the producer of games systems, famous for their PHOTO PLAY terminals, presented themselves as a multi-product company complete with new products and design. In the process the two youngest business segments  –  BET.solutions and fun|select – were able to attract much attention for themselves and PHOTO PLAY, funworld’s core brand, too proved a magnet for many visitors with its attractive games innovations. 

“Both fairs were a tremendous success for us and the results surpassed our expectations by far. The markedly good performance during both international fairs confirmed that our move to position ourselves as a multi-product enterprise was right. Compared to last year we were able to increase direct sales by 25% at both fairs, not to mention the very satisfactory follow-up sales”, said Josef Öhlinger, funworld ag’s CEO with obvious pleasure.

funworld’s trade fair highlights
PHOTO PLAY emphasized their System Update 2008 with its twelve new games, reworked graphics and numerous menu guidance novelties. “Pengu Flip”, the most popular net.game to date, and “Kick the Fish”, game of the year 2008, once again fascinated the audience.

“The new contents management system, which we presented in the frame of our ‘Server Based Gaming’ strategy, was a première at both fairs. The system allows us to meet individual markets’ needs ONLINE. Instead of launching twelve or more games in the scope of one update, we transmit new games and features on a continued basis. The 2nd edition of ‘Pengu Flip’ will soon be available to our online-clients”, emphasizes funworld ag’s Sales and Marketing Manager, Norbert Langer.

The option of having up to FOUR players linked online to play for credits simultaneously was received with amazement. With this development, funworld once again proves its innovative capability while at the same time underlining the uniqueness of PHOTO PLAY. 
The new Multiplayer Cup, which allows players from all over the world to challenge each other live in tournaments, too impressed the many trade fair participants. A new raking list in the multiplayer section makes this possible. “This unique extension allows multi-player meetings to be integrated in the successful PHOTO PLAY Masters tournament-system for the first time. Once it was activated on the online terminals, it didn’t take long for PHOTO PLAY’s player community to enthusiastically embrace this new option”, so Langer.

BET.solutions
The company’s new division, BET-solutions, provides the complete infrastructure required for sports betting operations. Above all, it was the innovative betting terminal, ‘touch2win II’, which convinced trade fair visitors. The terminal gained special attention for its diverse betting portfolio and its ergonomic design with new double monitor unit. 

fun|select
Under its new brand, fun|select, funworld presented two products that score with a simple gaming concept and a high fun factor. ‘Stacker’ amazed the public as a motivating game of skill complete with winning option. “Stacker is an absolute must for every operator who already works with crane grip machines. Our test results show that turnover made with ‘Stacker’ markedly outstrips that of the classic crane grip automat”, explained Langer. funworld will take over the sole distribution of Stacker from LAI Games in almost all of Europe.

Another eye-catcher at the fair was the entertaining ‘Music-Changer’, which not only changes money but also plays music besides throwing out many a motivating surprise. With this tried and tested games concept, funworld rounds off its well-developed product range that guarantees high takings.

“We are more than pleased with our appearance at the two first fairs in 2008. They were a strong motivation, which spurs us on to even higher performance at the coming fairs.  We are glad to accept this challenge because we regard the very pleasing results as interim and wish to cultivate them in the future”, sums up Öhlinger.

As the companies have informed, after six months of negotiation a co-operation will begin in the range of producing parts for Kidmann and distribution of Tecway's products in Poland and its neighbouring countries.

The Taiwanese Tecway Development (along with MecPower Electronics) is the leading producer of a wide range of amusement machines, from carousels and bumper cars to the newest inventions like f. ex. interactive kiddie rides equipped with LCD screens.

Tecway's factories in Taiwan and Guandong (Kanton, Hong Kong) in China take 20.000 sq metres of area overall.
In the IV quarter of 2007 Tecway began building a new factory of around 2500sq metres which will be used to produce parts for Kidmann. Laminate parts and steel constructions will be made there.

Kidmann's and Tecway's co-operation and their sharing of technical and trade "know-how" will result in enhancing both companies innovativeness. A novelty machine park (digital milling machines), Tecways qualified staff coupled with European quality control is supposed to guarantee not only maintain but also increase the quality of the products.

A new series of power/skill Kidmann's products has been created under the brand of HOT SHOT. The first in the Hot Shot product range are three typese of basketball (Classic, LCD, Mini), Mini Bowling and Hammer.

Kidmann has also become the exclusive distributor of Tecway's products in Poland and select neighbouring countries.

Kidmann has announced a price cut for their products during the 2008 summer season.

Meeting planners, party suppliers, and event locations can now add the fun, spontaneous experience of a photobooth to parties, gatherings, and corporate events of any size
 
Fantasy Entertainment, the largest owner/operator of electronic self-service photo imaging systems in North America, has announced immediate availability of its “Vintage” photobooth -  the first in a new line of photo booths designed exclusively with the specific needs of the special events and meetings industry in mind. This new product will be introduced and on display at “The Special Event” Conference and Tradeshow in Atlanta, GA from January 16-18, 2008.

“Our Vintage photobooth represents a new and profitable service offering that makes photobooth fun an ideal addition to any special event or occasion – corporate events, weddings, graduations, bar mitzvahs, and birthday parties,” says Casey Cammann, Fantasy Entertainment’s Vice President of Business Development.

According to Cammann, the concept of the photobooth as a rental item is being reconsidered now that the right combination of product, price, and features is available. “Our Vintage booth has been designed with a nostalgic look and feel that will be a big hit with guests while delivering a unique photo memento. Also, its unique modular collapsible design reduces transportation costs and shortens setup and teardown time for operators.”

In addition, Fantasy Entertainment will make selections from its extensive graphics library available to be customized through an exclusive web-based graphics editor. “Now, customers will be able to personalize our Foto Fun® Strips themselves for every special event,” says Cammann. “They can select stock graphics from our library based on the event theme, and even upload their own business logo if they choose. Then, add personalized text and download their custom graphics to a USB flash memory drive for easy importing into our photobooth.”

“The wedding industry is an especially exciting market,” says Cammann. “Not only do wedding guests enjoy the fun, spontaneous photobooth experience, but the resulting photos can be used by booth operators to create unique, value-added items like photo albums for the wedding couple, as well as scrapbooks, digital slideshows, and photo party favors to commemorate the occasion.”