News about UNTAMED

In the summer of 2025, Untamed unexpectedly became part of Walibi Holland's response to extreme heat. According to Looopings, staff were waiting in the station with a hose during temperatures of up to 36 degrees, cooling riders at the start of the ride. A video from a Japanese coaster fan shows a front-row guest being hit directly on the head by a strong stream of water. A witness said the man had made clear beforehand that he did not mind getting wet, and the footage shows no protest. The story is lighter than construction or breakdown news, but it still says something about the everyday guest experience around Untamed. During hot weather, the intense hybrid coaster temporarily gained an extra cooling element and a playful interaction with staff. For visitors, the report captures the atmosphere, improvisation and practical creativity with which Walibi used a major thrill ride during exceptional weather conditions.

During Halloween Fright Nights 2024, Untamed suffered a notable operational incident. Looopings reported that the coaster was closed around 21:10 and that an empty train subsequently failed to complete the course during a test run. Because its speed was too low, the train stalled before the brakes near the final inversion. No guests were on board, but staff had to pull the train back up with a winch. The incident stood out because Untamed had stalled in cold conditions before, usually when the wheels had not yet warmed up properly. This time, however, the ride had already been operating for hours and the park was busy, with around 16,000 guests attending the third day of Halloween Fright Nights. For visitors, the immediate impact was closure and uncertainty on a popular evening. Historically, the report shows that the intense RMC ride is not only known for force and speed, but can also be sensitive to operating conditions.

Two and a half years after opening, Untamed received a technical modification that says a lot about the life of a modern headline coaster after its debut. Walibi Holland had extra steel arms installed to make the structure more stable. The park described the work as long-term improvements. Looopings reported that the parts were placed near the final section of the ride, above an overbank between the 140 degrees stall and two straight airtime hills. The work was carried out by Earlsdon Coasters on behalf of Rocky Mountain Construction. According to the British company, TÜV Nederland had requested the change. For visitors, this was not a new element or spectacular expansion, but it was an important maintenance signal. A forceful hybrid coaster requires ongoing technical attention. The article places Untamed in its mature phase. After the hype of 2019, the ride remained a complex piece of engineering where safety, stability and durability are as much part of the story as speed and inversions.

Less than a year after opening, Untamed received international recognition. Members of Theme Park Review, a large American theme park community, voted the Walibi coaster the world’s best steel coaster in their annual CoasterPoll. Untamed entered the ranking straight at number one, ahead of several well-known rides from Europe and beyond.

For Walibi Holland, the result was more than a nice fan award. Theme Park Review has a major international audience, and the poll is presented as a comparison of coaster experiences rather than a simple vote-gathering contest. A Walibi spokesperson called it a huge honour that travelling coaster fans rated Untamed so highly. The result confirmed that the decision to work with Rocky Mountain Construction had paid off. By combining Robin Hood’s old structure with steel track, 36.5 metres of height, 92 km/h and five inversions, Untamed had built a reputation far beyond Biddinghuizen.

After the celebratory opening, Untamed also needed practical aftercare. In October 2019, Looopings reported that Walibi Holland had fixed water problems in the queue. Spray from the waterfall beside the station building regularly turned a sandy path into a muddy patch, leaving guests with wet feet before they even boarded. A little over three months after opening, the park installed a new drainage system and replaced part of the path with four large metal grates. Compared with construction records and inversions, the news was modest, but it mattered for the guest experience. Queue problems can quickly shape the first impression of a new headline ride. Looopings also noted that the queue had recently been lengthened for the busy Halloween Fright Nights period. The article shows how Untamed was adjusted after opening to real crowds, real weather and the everyday operational demands of a popular coaster.

Shortly before opening, Looopings made the transformation from Robin Hood to Untamed easy to grasp with a side-by-side onride comparison. Placing both rides next to each other showed how radically Rocky Mountain Construction had changed the old wooden coaster. Untamed became not only taller, longer and faster, but also far smoother and more comfortable.

The figures underlined the difference. Robin Hood stood 32 metres tall, measured 1035 metres and reached 80 km/h. Untamed grew to 36.5 metres, 1085 metres and 92 km/h. Yet the biggest change was the ride experience itself: rough turns and uneven hills gave way to tight transitions, five inversions and elements with names such as 270 degrees double inverting corner stall and step-up underflip. For guests and fans, the video proved that Untamed was not a polished Robin Hood, but a new coaster with visible roots.

Less than a month before opening, Untamed received its first major public showcase on video. Walibi Holland released an official on-ride showing the train diving from 36.5 metres and then racing through a layout with five inversions. For fans, this was more than a standard promotional clip. After months of construction photos, figures and making-of footage, the park finally showed how the ride actually flowed. Looopings reported that the first test run had taken place the previous day and that the coaster would be tested heavily in the following weeks. There was also an unusual media twist: an earlier version of the video had leaked that same day after a construction worker put footage online. The official release gave Walibi control of the story again while increasing anticipation. For visitors, the video proved that Untamed was not only extreme on paper, but also visually compact, fast and constantly in motion.

On Valentine's Day 2019, Untamed reached its highest point. Walibi Holland installed the top section of the 36.5-metre lift hill in front of staff members and several vloggers, turning the construction site into a small ceremony with cake and fireworks. In coaster projects, a topping-out moment is more than a symbolic step. It shows that drawings and promises have become a physical silhouette above the park. Looopings connected the milestone to the ride's technical ambition. Untamed would feature five inversions, reach 92 kilometres per hour and use a hybrid structure with wooden supports and a steel rail. Walibi described the coaster as record-breaking, including as Europe's first hybrid coaster and, according to the park, the only one in the world with five inversions. The opening time also became precise: 1 July at 13:30. For visitors and fans, Untamed was no longer a future plan, but a dominant new presence in the Walibi skyline.

In January 2019, Walibi Holland revealed just how intense Untamed was meant to become. The park confirmed to Looopings that the new coaster would go upside down five times. That marked a sharp break with Robin Hood, which had been a traditional wooden coaster without inversions. Thanks to RMC’s steel track, Walibi could add elements that would never have fitted the old ride type.

The announcement immediately gave Untamed a clear place in the Dutch coaster landscape. With five inversions, it would match Condor, also at Walibi Holland, for the Dutch inversion count among forward-running rides. Speed of Sound delivers more upside-down moments in total because its boomerang layout runs both forward and backward. The package of 36.5 metres, 1085 metres of track, 92 km/h and five inversions made it clear that Untamed was more than Robin Hood’s successor: it was a full-blooded thrill ride.

At the start of 2019, attention around Untamed shifted from dimensions to ride experience. In a new making-of video, Walibi Holland revealed that the first drop would reach an 80-degree angle. After climbing the 36.5-metre lift, riders would dive almost straight down, steeper than the opening drop on Goliath. Immediately afterwards came a small hill described by Rocky Mountain Construction as a micro bunny with ejector airtime. For coaster fans, that detail mattered. RMC is famous for short, forceful moments that throw riders out of their seats, and Walibi made clear that Untamed would deliver that sensation right from the start. The article also repeated the core figures: 1085 metres of track, a top speed of 92 kilometres per hour and an opening date of 1 July. For visitors, the personality of Untamed became much clearer. It would not merely be taller and faster than Robin Hood, but a coaster built around aggressive airtime and sharp transitions from the first seconds.

In December 2018, Untamed began to take a much clearer shape. Walibi Holland and Rocky Mountain Construction released figures that showed how substantial the rebuild of Robin Hood would be. The new hybrid coaster was set to reach 92 km/h, a clear jump from the wooden coaster’s 80 km/h. The track length would also grow to 1085 metres, fifty metres longer than its predecessor.

For fans, the first revealed element was especially telling. Right after the station, riders would enter an outside banked corner, an outward-tilted turn that immediately signalled a sharper layout. The information also confirmed that Untamed would include at least one inversion. Combined with the previously announced height of 36.5 metres, the details made clear that Walibi was not planning a cosmetic refresh, but a fundamentally different ride experience.

In November 2018, Walibi Holland gave fans a concrete number to measure Untamed by: the new hybrid coaster would reach 36.5 metres. That made it 4.5 metres taller than Robin Hood, the wooden coaster whose structure formed the basis of the project. The reveal came through a construction documentary and made the scale of the conversion much easier to grasp. Untamed would not only receive RMC's steel track, but also become taller and faster than its predecessor. Looopings placed the figure in the wider Walibi line-up: Untamed would rise above Xpress, Condor, Lost Gravity and Speed of Sound, while Goliath remained the park's tallest coaster. For visitors, the project now felt less like an engineering story and more like a clear promise. Robin Hood would not return as a polished-up old ride, but as a more intense coaster with a new identity. The announcement helped position Untamed as a major thrill ride within an already coaster-heavy park.

Untamed's first visible construction phase began with an emotional step for many Walibi fans: Robin Hood was taken apart. Looopings reported that the nearly nineteen-year-old wooden coaster had operated for the last time only days earlier and that parts of the lift hill had already been removed. The work made clear that Walibi was not simply replacing an old ride, but radically rebuilding a piece of park history. Part of the wooden structure would remain, while the lift would become higher and the track would be converted to steel. Rocky Mountain Construction handled the transformation, a name that immediately raised expectations among coaster enthusiasts because of its forceful hybrid style. For visitors, the demolition meant the definitive end of a familiar ride, but also the start of something far more ambitious. The article captures the beginning of the Untamed story: the farewell to Robin Hood and the birth of Europe's first major RMC project.

In February 2018, Walibi Holland made a decisive move in the history of Robin Hood. The eighteen-year-old wooden coaster would not simply be removed; it would be rebuilt into a modern hybrid coaster with timber supports and steel track. For that transformation, the park turned to Rocky Mountain Construction, the American manufacturer known for fast, forceful rides with inversions.

The announcement mattered because fans had long debated Robin Hood’s future. Park director Mascha van Till described the project to Looopings as a dream for many European coaster fans. Much of the wooden structure would remain, but the ride experience was meant to change completely, with new trains, higher speed and a new theme. Guests had until October 2018 to say goodbye to Robin Hood. The replacement, later named Untamed, was scheduled to open on July 1, 2019.