Dubai’s IMG theme park installs 69 dinosaurs, set for 2016 opening

One of the new mega theme park complexes coming up in Dubai, IMG Worlds of Adventure, will be opening in early 2016, its developers have confirmed.

Set to become the world’s largest multi-brand indoor theme park, IMG will feature four zones including The Lost Valley – Dinosaur Adventure zone; Marvel and Cartoon Network zones; and IMG Boulevard.

The installation of 69 dinosaurs within the park’s Lost Valley zone marks one of the final stages of completion, a statement said.

IMG Worlds of Adventure collaborated with Japanese animatronics company Kokoro to create the dinosaur exhibits.

To design each individual creature, Kokoro used hydraulics to replicate their movements. Their scales have been hand-sculpted by specialist artists while a thin covering layer of silicone gives their skin a shiny, life-like appearance, similar to modern day living reptiles.

Among the biggest of the pack will be the Barosaurus – over 15.5 metres high and the Allosaurus.

The exhibits took over five years to create, the statement added.

Within the park, guests can track down the dinosaurs, watch them in their natural environment, and hear them roar or feast on prey.

President of Kokoro Atsuya Yamada said: “The dinosaurs are based on the most up-to-date scientific knowledge of what dinosaurs would have looked like and how they would have moved in their natural environment.”

The Lost Valley zone will also feature a mega coaster called The Velociraptor, which will propel visitors to 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds.

The coaster, with four inversions, will be the only permanently installed looping coaster in the United Arab Emirates, with its biggest loop topping 105 feet high.

Further attractions in the zone will be announced in the coming weeks, IMG added.

General manager of IMG Worlds of Adventure Lennard Otto said: “In addition to the dinosaurs providing sheer entertainment, we will be developing a range of interactive educational programmes, positioning IMG Worlds of Adventure as one of the leading dinosaur attractions in the world.

“The arrival of the dinosaurs is also one of the final steps towards the completion of the park.”

Located within City of Arabia, the IMG theme park is valued at over $1bn.

Spread across 1.5 million square feet in its first stage, the development is designed to attract up to 20,000 visitors per day when fully complete.