The Incredible Hulk coaster at Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park is undergoing an extensive refurbishment this winter. IN fact, all of the the coaster’s track has been removed and sent to the scrap yard. We can only assume that after 18 years of nearly constant use, it’s reached the end of its service life.
Crews have recently begun installing new track. But now the question has come up: is this track really new? Universal has not released many details about the refurbishment. They have not even confirmed or denied that the Incredible hulks layout would remain exactly the same or be changed.
In the most recent construction images, the block brake is there but there is no evidence that brakes will ever be installed here. If the plan from the beginning was not to include a block brake on Hulk 2,0, why keep a boring, flat piece of track? Why not replace this section with a thrilling air time hill? Perhaps the answer is because the track was already manufactured as straight before the decision to remove the block brake was made. Perhaps the decision was made years ago.
Maybe this isn’t new track at all, but was originally intended be an Incredible Hulk coaster clone themed to Men in Black for Universal Studios Dubailand. I know for a fact that track was manufactured for a fourth Revenge of the Mummy the Ride that was mothballed. Could they have also made track for the B&M coaster?
One question with this theory is, where have the track pieces been sitting all these years? Not at the factory in Ohio. Were they sent to Dubai? Have they been sitting in storage somewhere on Universal Orlando’s property? One way to answer this question is how much new track has come out of the Ohio factory? We know for a fact at least some new track has been made. New track is required for a new, energy efficient launch system. Would they really use a mix of old and new track? And is the track that has been sitting even still good to use?
We may never know the full story. What are your thoughts?
