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2018: Wicker Man - General Discussion - SPOILERS! - Part One

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PeteB said:
Glad you've joined us here on the dark side! :D

Don't get me wrong, I do absolutely love the theme of this ride, more so than The Smiler. While The Smiler's theme looked great on paper, and all the backstory with The Sanctuary etc was fantastic, the end result was ultimate a very poorly themed ride. Wicker Man on the other hand looks very promising. Even that stone wall and the way the station is painted, which we already saw before end of season, looked better than anything on The Smiler. Don't get me started on the queue fencing! Again, Wick Man has already trumped it!



Wardley wasn't in charge of theming by that point, but for what he intended the ride to be - a gentle coaster which offers everybody the feeling of flying, he achieved it. It was amazing for its time (still is despite the tacky Galactica make over). Sure, there are better flying coasters. Air is a masterpiece regardless of its unfinished theme.

I think the marketing of the ride was brilliant too.



Outdoor effects will be under high pressure. The wind won't even get a look in.

Indoor effects are most likely going to be foggers backlit with orange lights and silk sheets. The guy in the video said some of the fire would be an illusion.
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Who is the sfx installer? Do we have web links to what they supply?
 
bluesonichd said:
The best bit from this article about wicker man
“Perhaps the most faithful thing that Alton Towers could do to The Wicker Man ride is just make it a tedious, endless queue to nowhere that ends with a video of one of your pets burning to death”
:D:D:D
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/09/alton-towers-the-wicker-man-rollercoaster
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"What began as one of the greatest British movies of all time......."
Someone should let them know that this has nothing to do with the movie, other than being based on the same real life thing.
 
Tom said:
I saw that earlier, it is a shockingly misinformed article.
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/amusing opinion piece from someone who knows as much about theme parks as the next man/outstanding PR for Alton Towers/guaranteed tickets sales gold.

He's just reacting to the press release he recieved. So if Alton failed to convey something important about the ride, that's on them. It's also written with tongue firmly in cheek. Sorry, I know this has already been stressed in this topic, but the reaction to it here is completely tone-deaf. This, the "fire?!" concerns, it's all solid-gold press from a company who know how to build hype. The queues will reflect that.
 
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I just want to say, that I find some of the panic I've read on here about the Guardian article (which I think is the best free advertising Alton could get), concerning from a naivety point of view.

Equally strange is the concept that any would be AT customer of a sane mind actually thinks that a park that was so negligent less than 3 years ago would be stupid enough to build a ride out of wood only to set it, and riders, on fire.
 
RoyJess said:
So the ride are getting these fitted :p

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It could well be. Bit of an old trick that one. There's newer devices around nowadays which use circulating fog (or mist) uplit by LED's to create very realistic look fire effects.
 
JB1985 said:
If they have tested the coaster can we assume they have tested the effects?
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The effects may not be complete yet so may no have been tested yet. They will of course be tested before the start of the season though!

:)
 
Rob said:
The effects may not be complete yet so may no have been tested yet. They will of course be tested before the start of the season though!

:)
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Thought as much. Maybe the complexity of these is the reason everything has been built so quick to avoid delays.

Sounds exciting
 
Saw a fake stove last year when we replaced our old wood burner, couldn't believe the quality of the effect, flames projected on a mini mister, with flicker fabric and flickering lights (leds?) as well, with a simple electric fan heater blowing through.
Absolutely amazing, but it was a couple of grand.
The salesman said the price would probably drop by half...as he put it..."once the far east market rips off the patent!".
He said there was even an optional aerosol kit that made it smell right to.
Even when you knew it was fake it was so convincing.
 
As much as I like theme and how the ride is looking, I'm still not that keen on the name, then again Towers has a bad track record with names for all recent attractions, Sub Terra and Galatica being the only good ones I can think of. Wonder if the Towers marketing team will explain the backstory for the ride and keep reminding the gullible GP that it and the film are not connected?
 
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