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Broken Effects

Stevie said:
I believe that The Smiler is the biggest botch job in Merlin's history.

It's embarrassing.
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What about Viking River Splash at Legoland Windsor? We criticise The Smiler for being a concrete pit but VRS is a concrete mound on an otherwise beautiful hill. And that was the first major ride Merlin ever developed (to my knowledge). Talk about starting as you mean to go on.
 
I still don't get why they had to cut out a big square pit and line it with concrete instead of just carving out individual channels or tunnels for the track to pass through.

The original plans with the walk-through plaza and viewing terraces were far better than what we ended up with.

Remember Wardley once said how parks like Six Flags just plonk a big coaster on a car park and put big fence around it - and how Merlin don't build that way? Well that's exactly what The Smiler is except it's sitting in a big grey box.
 
I'm going to guess overall it's cheaper to dig one big hole and reinforce it than lots of small ones individually reinforced, but it would have looked a whole lot better.

but this is getting off topic
 
Well they didn't quite expect with The Smiler it would require so much work and turn out to be a concrete box. It was softer ground than believed. The whole land on that site was a nightmare and sadly there wasn't a whole lot they could do within the timeframe. I wish they did cover the concrete over with something although it seems like more of the budget than intended had to be pushed towards the ground and it was left at that.

(Sorry to drag this off topic again)
 
Indeed, there was not meant to be all that concrete but the groundwork survey was one of the many many failures of the project.

In terms of the glass floor, it reallt was a good idea. Well it would have been if;

a) You could see through it,
b) It was of a decent size,
c) There was actually something decent to look at rather than more concrete mess with ladders, hoses, puddles of water and dirt.

:)
 
The entire ride is a failure for me i'm afraid. Yeah, it looks good but lets face it for what it really is - a headache machine, no different to other Eurofighters. Go on the B&M's in the park, feel their smoothness, then go on the Smiler, and reach for the Paracetamols. Unfortunately, Merlin went for a ride which was attention grabbing and would bring in the customers due to its visual and "record breaking" appeal, rather than focus on a ride, like Nemesis which has remained one of the most re-rideable, fun, enjoyable and thrilling rides over the past 20 years, still up there in the top 10 rides in Europe (top 20 world?). The Smiler will end up like SAW, sounded good at the time, visually impressive, but gets worse over time, not better.
 
It's just another "that'll do" effort. Hence why it's a rotting mess already despite being barely 2 years old.

It did it's job - it was a big budget attraction that got a lot of media attention and pulled people into the park. They don't care about anything else. They'll keep it working in order to maintain Alton's safety record but nothing else matters. Now focus is moved to the next project. Rinse and repeat.

Can't say I blame John for taking early retirement. Merlin must be awful to work for.
 
PeteB said:
Can't say I blame John for taking early retirement. Merlin must be awful to work for.
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To be fair he is 65 this week, not the earliest of retirements. Although I am sure he gets very frustrated with Merlin.

:)
 
Oh, I thought he was only 62.

Even so, I suppose jobs like that are not really something you retire from unless there's something very wrong to make you fed up of it.
 
I'd say "I hope I still have guns like that at his age", but a) I don't plan to live that long, and b) I don't even have guns like that now.
 
Duel had the tunnel working today and all of the effects in it's indoor queue were working. Smiler's lights were on in the projector room, Oblivions mist was working.
 
MattyH said:
Duel had the tunnel working today and all of the effects in it's indoor queue were working. Smiler's lights were on in the projector room, Oblivions mist was working.
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Hmmm, Smiler lights were on yesterday too. Initially thought they weren't meant to be, but maybe they were.
 
On Saturday, first ride around 11:40, projection room lights were off, went back for last ride, in projection room at around 5:40, and the lights were on.. there was a fly on the projector in the morning though :p Also come to the conclusion the cuboid shapes on the projection to the right when you enter going in and out look remarkably like mcdonalds chips :p That whole building with projections is a mess, inside and out. Duel was great for effects, literally every "Scene" was working apart from a few targets, and was caught off guard by a few things I never knew about..

Also, while you refurbish Nemesis over two seasons Please bring back the bus smoke and blood! It might be costly, but if the effects are sorted properly in a investment, and cared for properly, the maintenance wont be as expensive! I do find the station half painted funny though :p
 
It seems they have added new lights to the projection room. The ones that have been on recently are not the house lights. As they only point at the queue line and not across the whole room. I assume they have been added as people have said it's too dark in the queue line.

The new lights could do with being made a bit duller though as they are too bright.
 
The lights have been added due to someone tripping in the queue due to it being to dark and really hurting her hand.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
 
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