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The Smiler - General Discussion

AT86 said:
I don’t think the original plan was for it to be a concrete pit. It was to have the viewing area as Rob mentioned and be landscaped etc.

Then the whole thing started sliding down the hill and the concrete jungle we know and hate was born.
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The original plan which I have attached below shows the plaza how it would have been with some additional theming features. We would have been able to walk under the lower half the ride and I think they original entrance would have been where the current RAP/Fasttrack and Single rider queues enter the building are. Where the entrance is now was a slowly sloping path that served as another entrance to the plaza area

IMG_4573.jpeg
 
I'm sure headroom was the reason given for it not happening in the end...the logistics meant the actual safe space available was just too limited to be worthwhile...
Someone dig through the final hundred pages of construction discussion and find out.

The toilet roof is my favourite construction gremlin though...
 
rob666 said:
I'm sure headroom was the reason given for it not happening in the end...the logistics meant the actual safe space available was just too limited to be worthwhile...
Someone dig through the final hundred pages of construction discussion and find out.

The toilet roof is my favourite construction gremlin though...
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I read somewhere the ground was originally going to be dug deeper which would have given the headroom more space…but they had many issues with the ground not being stable enough which led to what we have now…
 
Makes sense.
I remember trying to work outdoors in the months of the foundations going in.
Very wet indeed for months at a time, one dry month, then another three months of mainly rain.

So the top was correct, but the floor wasn't low enough.
That sounds right.
 
Am I the only one on here who would love to see someone make a mock up of what this plaza complex and original look for Smiler would have looked like?

Plus I always wonder what if the construction had gone to plan as hoped as admittedly it was being built when the weather was at its worst which was just pure bad luck on their part.
 
The actual pit isn't as impossible as it seemed to build, a lot of it was T G Cruise being incompetent. The park had announced a date and penned themselves in so it was thrown up. I'm sure something like Sizewell or Dungeness nuclear power stations built in the dunes are a demonstration of 100% suring up unstable ground.
 
Secret Weapon said:
This is all really interesting information, so thank you to everybody who has responded to my post! I wasn't following the construction of The Smiler in detail, so most of this is new to me (the only thing I remember was that the then-unnamed Giggler / Hypnotiser / Inoculator / Tickler / Flasher were all blacked out on the construction photos in late 2012 / early 2013).

I'm surprised at how much I don't know about this ride, as the Reddit thread below suggests that 'War of the Worlds' was an original theme for the ride (together with concept art); this could explain why the Marmaliser resembles a tripod alien, and why it originally had six (insectoid) legs instead of the current five.

The thread / concept art also suggests that it was originally supposed to be a regular Eurofighter rather than an Infinity Coaster (with 8 seats per train instead of 16), but that this concept was scrapped - possibly because the beyond-vertical drop would have made Oblivion somewhat redundant!


From: https://www.reddit.com/r/altontowers/comments/1ijevh1/original_scrapped_concept_for_the_smiler/
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I think I'd probably take a fair amount of what is in that Reddit thread with a pinch of salt.

I don't recall War of The Worlds ever being linked to SW7 other than some remarks that the Marmiliser (or the Spyder as it was formerly known) looked a bit 'War of the Worlds'-y. And given that the person who references WotW also points to TowersStreet as a source, I'm guessing they are actually alluding to the fact that the alternative concept art we shared on TS had that sort of vibe, rather than it is something we had stated.

I'm also not sure that the concept art in the thread passes the smell test. Whilst it is largely based on the original planning documents for the ride (it tracks with the station and Spyder designs as seen on the plans in the TowersStreet construction archive), I don't think it looks like an official image from Merlin. I think it looks more like something fan generated.

Also, it's surprising they have no idea where it came from, given that the text at the bottom of the image, whilst somewhat garbled, clearly still says 'JohnBurtonCreative'. Obviously, John had nothing to do with The Smiler, but even if he had shared it on his socials more recently, as the watermark would suggest, I don't think a random Reddit thread would be the first any of us had heard of it.
 
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Squiggs said:
I think I'd probably take a fair amount of what is in that Reddit thread with a pinch of salt.

I don't recall War of The Worlds ever being linked to SW7 other than some remarks that the Marmiliser (or the Spyder as it was formerly known) looked a bit 'War of the Worlds'-y. And given that the person who references WotW also points to TowersStreet as a source, I'm guessing they are actually alluding to the fact that the alternative concept art we shared on TS had that sort of vibe, rather than it is something we had stated.

I'm also not sure that the concept art in the thread passes the smell test. Whilst it is largely based on the original planning documents for the ride (it tracks with the station and Spyder designs as seen on the plans in the TowersStreet construction archive), I don't think it looks like an official image from Merlin. I think it looks more like something fan generated.

Also, it's surprising they have no idea where it came from, given that the text at the bottom of the image, whilst somewhat garbled, clearly still says 'JohnBurtonCreative'. Obviously, John had nothing to do with The Smiler, but even if he had shared it on his socials more recently, as the watermark would suggest, I don't think a random Reddit thread would be the first any of us had heard of it.
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Nope. The only official alternative concept art that has ever been released was the more grimy run down hospital VIBES before they went down the more clinical and “clean” route. Granted it now looks grimy and run down so…IMG_4575.jpeg
 

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Reading this thread is a bit upsetting, it’s a real shame all these cool features ended up being scrapped. I suppose due to construction and contractors, we got this kind of lame pit that they hoped the concept of the theme and graphic design would cover up.

Especially disappointing is that what they came up with is very interesting. I remember a family member bringing up a gripe they had with theme park rides, being “I get why were here, and the story is very interesting and all, but why are we on a rollercoaster?”, which I originally just responded to with suspension on disbelief. Now when I think about it, the concept of the coaster itself being a machine designed to do something is a novel idea we often ignore. Ones that jump to mind to me are Nemesis with the track being the tentacles and supports being steel holding it down, Toxicator spinning to synthesise this new chemical that reminds me of that stuff from breaking bad in no way at all and Galactica being about space travel.

None of them (bar OG Nemesis) seem to justify the ride structure or what it represents quite like The Smilers concept. Including the ride system as part of the story is a thing in ride design I feel is overlooked, but when it’s done right it just itches my brain in a good way, especially the Scoops from Spiderman. Unfortunately, you probably can’t tell that by looking at The Smiler because the theming is so poor! Oh well, at least we have the Marmaliser, which I think is overlooked. It’s a really cool looking thing.

Mind, this is going to be a bit controversial, but does the general construction of Wicker Man remind anyone else of The Smiler? Big concrete pit with a kind of boring looking station building off to the side, with some grass, one big theming structure and a few posts with things written on them could apply to both. Obviously Wicker Man is just better thought out, allowing you to queue mostly around trees and grass, but does anyone else agree with the parallels here? Now I think about it, Merlin are the kings of station building and one big theming price setups, aren’t they?
 
I think the great thing that Merlin have learnt since Smiler is about taking the queueline above and around the ride. Nemmy reborn is great example of this- yes the queue was fine before but I love the views you get over the ride with reborn. The Wickerman queue as well do this quite well- the last little bit before the station really looks great and always hypes you up for the ride with the epic view of the wickerman!
Arguably one of the worst parts of the smiler queue (mind you it’s all bad!) is the last bit towards the indoor queue and then that indoor queue is miserable. You never really get to properly see the ride and appreciate it- best views of smiler are probably from Blivvy queue where you can really appreciate the twisted nature of the track.
 
James said:
If I remember rightly, the original plan was an IP, Halo, I believe. I think it fell through in the early stages.
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I’ve seen concept images before that also had an Arkham Asylum theme for SW7 as well, I can’t trace the source or confirm the validity of the images from the top of my head. But if they were real, you could see how The Smiler theme was derived from that concept art.

Just as an aside, they mentioned they had a film IP under consideration for SW8, my first thought was Jumanji as they used the same designer for the movie/ride posters. Then about 5 years later World of Jumanji came to fruition at Chessington.
 
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