Our diverse cast of amusement park rides and their friends spans all ages, scales, backgrounds and personalities to bring the magical park to life.
The animated character turntables to the left show our core characters from 360 degrees. Each character has their own colour signature and physical abilities while staying within the same visual family through strict art direction.
Our Hero. Rollie is chock full of enthusiasm. He’s determined to become the best ride in Sunshine Cove.
As it happens he’s already extremely popular. Rollie is no one dimensional character, he has moments of self doubt but there’s always his best friend Tootie to give him support and get him back on the rails.
An optimist at heart, Rollie is eager and always ready for a challenge. Sometimes too eager, as he can get himself into trouble by just not looking before he leaps. Even on a dull day the Sun always shines for Rollie. He thinks he’s got the best job, in the best amusement park in the world and he’s determined to enjoy every fun filled, action packed day.
As Rollie is just six years old he’ll be someone our audience will immediately identify with as he sees things from their perspective.
Tootie is just slightly younger than Rollie and a sweet, lovable female. Don’t be fooled though, Tootie is no push over.
That engine casing of hers doesn’t lie, she has a backbone of steel. She takes all the thrills and spills of life in her stride and has the reputation of being able to handle a crisis calmly.
Tootie has a lively imagination and is intently curious. She has an extremely inquisitive mind and is forever asking questions which some of the rides find rather wearing.
Tootie loves her job and thinks – quietly to herself – that she’s probably the best Runaway Train Ride ever.
Flash is twelve years old and an accomplished and highly experienced ride. He is very popular and has a lot of admirers amongst the other rides.
He’s clever but rather self absorbed. Never one to take a modest stand, Flash loves to talk, especially about himself and his past exploits and experiences, most of which are a long way from the truth. This is all down to his enormous capacity to imagine himself in the most amazing places doing the most fantastic things.
Of course in Flash’s lively mind these things actually happened and he wouldn’t for a moment think he was making them up. The problem is, his boasting often leaves him with egg on his face when the actual truth is revealed.
Flash sees himself as “King of the Hill” as far as Sunshine Cove is concerned and pretends not to care about Rollie and his popularity. The younger rides may believe that, but Miss Sunshine and Captain Splash know that isn’t true.
Eight year old Charlie is the closest male friend Rollie has in Sunshine Cove. Charlie is one of four helicopter rides in the park and the quietest and most thoughtful.
Rollie and Charlie are often seen putting their heads together trying to solve a problem because Rollie knows he can trust Charlie’s honesty and plain speaking. Charlie gets on well with the other helicopters but they tend to look down on him slightly as he is not as “Gung ho” as they are.
Rowdy is a boisterous, noisy Herring Gull of indeterminate age who loves to gossip. As she has a bird’s eye view right across Sunshine Cove, she sees things that most of the others in the park can’t.
She’s rather clumsy and completely scatterbrained. She’s easily distracted and very forgetful. She often ends up landing somewhere trying to remember where she was going and what she was going to do. Rowdy has decided, for one reason or another, to take Rollie under her wing. The only problem is her advice is mostly of the wrong kind. Even so she has a good heart and means well.
Jay is the Sunshine Cove announcer with speakers all over the park. Jay is very precise in her work and has a clipped manner of someone who has had a very formal announcer’s training.
The younger rides particularly Rumble and Spark love to tease Jay especially if she’s passing on instructions, pretending not to understand or get the instructions completely mixed up. When that sort of thing happens Jay becomes “school-marmish.”
A middle aged lady and definitely the “Mother” figure in Sunshine Cove. Just like a “Mum” she cares for her brood with a heart the size of the park itself and a warm and extremely kind nature.
Even though she does get annoyed at some of the younger rides who she considers too “full of themselves” she or her side carriages are always there to listen and help in any way they can.
If any ride has a problem or needs advice Miss Sunshine is their first port of call. They might even get advice in the form of a song as Miss Sunshine has a superb singing voice.
Twister has never revealed his age but its rumored that he’s older than any other ride in the park. A true eccentric Twister has never been known to have what he calls a “frowning day.”
Extremely likeable but completely “off the wall” Twister has the loudest, deepest laugh in the whole of Sunshine Cove. He also has the unfortunate knack of passing on misinformation and twisting facts at the expense of other rides.
Of course, this can lead to chaos and confusion all round for everyone else except Twister who has difficulty most times seeing what all the fuss is about.
Most amusement parks have a pretend Pirate Ship but Captain Splash REALLY IS a Pirate! He has terrible tales of villainous “doings” on the high seas that make the Teacups blush bright red and the Helicopters’ rotors stand on end!
He may not be in the same league as Flash when it comes to telling tales but he does tend to add a little spice to the conversation whenever he can. Even though Splash is still a young buck he has a barrel full of tales from his past swashbuckling experiences and rollicking adventures that would do credit to a much older pirate.
He’s seen by many of the female rides as something of a romantic figure. The younger rides are in awe of him. To get a true picture of Splash think of him as an avuncular Jack Sparrow.
He certainly is someone Rollie and Tootie would turn to in a crisis as would many of the other rides, especially the Teacups, who consider him their unofficial guardian.
These two are the youngest rides in the park and the most mischievous. Don’t expect peace and quiet when Rumble and Spark are around.
The problem is both of them are extremely bright so they’re always coming up with clever ways of causing mayhem. Poor Jay is often the butt of their pranks, so also are the Teacups and Flash.
They would never dare try anything with Miss Sunshine. Rumble and Spark are easily forgiven by the other rides for their “high jinx” because there’s not an evil nut or bolt in either of them, just plenty of naughty ones.
Playful, friendly, intelligent, and social, Sammy is a very popular ride and is friends with everyone in Sunshine Cove. He is an extrovert and just loves being yellow.
Sammy has a bubbly and positive outlook on life and the other rides always feel better with Sammy around. Sammy adores music and his ambition is to sing along with Miss Sunshine. Unfortunately his voice isn’t that good. Sammy knows this, so he only sings when he’s submerged. Being underwater it’s more like “Gurgling” than singing, as it’s impossible to understand the words.
The other thing Sammy likes to do while underwater is use his periscope, because Sammy is very nosey. This can be very useful at times when it comes to passing on information to the other rides but can also lead to chaos when he misunderstands what he has heard.
These three “love the smell of candy floss in the morning” as they get themselves fit for the mission of the day. They have a different approach to Sunshine Cove than the fourth helicopter, Charlie.
Older than Rollie, in their early teens, these three helicopters think both Rollie and Tootie far too young and childish to be part of their close group of friends. In fact, they tend to look down on both of them and all the younger rides.
Bright and sharp and always spick and span, Alpha, Bravo and Delta feel they are in the frontline of amusement park entertainment. They are “do or die” flyers, military men to the end.
Very new and very young this engaging threesome charm everyone they meet. They are very close and one is never seen at any time without the other two.
In fact, they are so close their brains all work along the same lines. When one starts a sentence it’s natural for another to continue it and the third to finish it. In fact, talking is one of the things they love to do, being consummate chatterboxes.
You’d never accuse them of being gossips, just teacups that love to chat, mostly about nothing at all. They also have a tendency to get their words mixed up, for instance they insist on calling Miss Sunshine a “ferrets wheel” instead of a Ferris Wheel.
Although wonderfully naive and innocent they are no fools and refuse to be intimidated by the antics of Rumble and Spark. They have trouble understanding what Rowdy is going on about sometimes but absolutely adore Rollie.
