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Duel: The Haunted House Actually Strikes Back - Refurb Incoming

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pluk said:
I would suggest existing/previous contracts are of little consequence when lego owns lego and the park, its not really like when Merlin were licencing from lego, they now are lego.
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Lego doesn’t own the park really though.
The owners of Lego(Kirkbi) own a 50% stake in Merlin.
They may not want to have any involvement in running the company.
They are not Lego, just the family owners of Lego, so their involvement with the running of that company might not be very hands on either.
I don’t think that Kirkbi has as much involvement in the running of Merlin as people speculate they do.
 
jon81uk said:
Lego doesn’t own the park really though.
The owners of Lego(Kirkbi) own a 50% stake in Merlin.
They may not want to have any involvement in running the company.
They are not Lego, just the family owners of Lego, so their involvement with the running of that company might not be very hands on either.
I don’t think that Kirkbi has as much involvement in the running of Merlin as people speculate they do.
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This was just a response to a comment regarding Legos previously known licensing requirements, when now they have the same owner 'they', as in Lego group, can do what they want with contractual licencing if it is for the benefit of the whole group.

What's gone previously is not necessarily what we have now.
 
pluk said:
This was just a response to a comment regarding Legos previously known licensing requirements, when now they have the same owner 'they', as in Lego group, can do what they want with contractual licencing if it is for the benefit of the whole group.

What's gone previously is not necessarily what we have now.
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But Lego group doesn’t own Merlin. Kirkbi owns 50% of Merlin and 100% of Lego Group. So it depends how hands on Kirkbi want to be as owner as to whether they want to tell Lego Group and Merlin to do something.
I’m not convinced Kirkbi are that interested in how Merlin run the non-Legoland parks and I don’t know if they would be interested in pushing for more Lego to be added to the non-Legoland parks. I think they are more interested in non-Merlin Lego tourism such as Lego House and the heavily themed Flagship stores such as the Leicester Square one.
 
Since there really isn't a Thread here that is just a General discussion of both The Haunted House and Duel respectively, I'll just say it here.

People are right that the Haunted House became Outdated, but not because of Technology.

The original, opening day Verion of the Haunted House was never Outdated, even to this day I think it still holds up very well. It was turned into an outdated attraction when Tussauds badly tampered with it over the years. If Tussauds didn't tamper with it, and went with JWs and Keith's original plans to add an additional but not major scare within the attraction on its first 5 years, I firmly believe the Ride would still be here to this day, with only necessary Maintenance and minor TLC over the years such as fresh paint, bulb replacement, cleaning the ride and its props, etc.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Since there really isn't a Thread here that is just a General discussion of both The Haunted House and Duel respectively, I'll just say it here.

People are right that the Haunted House became Outdated, but not because of Technology.

The original, opening day Verion of the Haunted House was never Outdated, even to this day I think it still holds up very well. It was turned into an outdated attraction when Tussauds badly tampered with it over the years. If Tussauds didn't tamper with it, and went with JWs and Keith's original plans to add an additional but not major scare within the attraction on its first 5 years, I firmly believe the Ride would still be here to this day, with only necessary Maintenance and minor TLC over the years such as fresh paint, bulb replacement, cleaning the ride and its props, etc.
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Sorry to Double Post. But there's be recent rumours that John Wardley was spotted Riding Duel last month. I wonder what this could mean?
 
That's what I'm trying to say. If he didn't ride the Imperial Leather Bubbleworks, why would he even consider riding Duel if it was its last year, which was in the same not great state that Bubbleworks was in similarly. I think there's more to it.

Heck, I might as well say it now. I've done my best to keep it under my hat, here we go. I've seen numerous people saying it on youtube in some places, people have been saying the same thing of John Wardleys appearance and a Merlin Magic Van with only weeks apart. Duels Ride host hinted that when John was riding Duel, he was carrying a large notebook, of what seemed to be concept drawings dating back to the Haunted House years. And the Host told me that he was quite certain that most of the rides Props are staying.

I take it that the props that aren't staying are the post 2002 props. Don't take all these words for granted, they may be from pretty damn reliable team, but again, they're merely The rides team.
 
Squiggs said:
All sounds perfectly plausible. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

It is probably worth noting, however, that much of the original Haunted House still exists in Duel, whereas very little of Prof Burp's Bubbleworks remained after the transition to Imperial Leather.
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It'll be interesting to see what'll happen indeed. Could we actually see the return of the Haunted House? As you stated, a lot of the original 1992 props and scenesare very much still intact, whilst most of the original Bubbleworks jokes, and props and effects were removed after the 2006 sponsor.

If he is involved with whatever is planned for Duels future, could we see the actual Return of the Haunted House, with unused concepts and scares coming to fruition, along with the original props staying?
 
Squiggs said:
One of my favourite hidden details in the park is behind Electric Bill's corridor, where the lifthill for the short-lived Ghost Corridor effect is hidden in the dark.
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Is the mechanics and rail still in place? I always thought it sounded to be a great effect when it worked. I can't see why they would have bothered to take it all down when they could've just left it SBNO, and it wouldn't effect the ride at all.
 
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I'd say Duel would need about as much work as IL Bubble Works would've needed to restore it to how it opened. Both had most the same scenery and props still there but also lots missing or significantly changed that would need special work. It's not a case of just putting back old music and a few things here and there if you want to bring back the entertainment value.

There were only a few storyboards for the Haunted House, it was mainly all designed with a huge scale model. I've got most the ride design records too, so I would say if anyone was carrying around drawings it wouldn't be the originals but something else. And probably wouldn't have been during open hours with guests around!

If anyone interested, the production records from the studio will be in a book I'm still working on (which is why I ended up with them, so please dont think Im trying to boast!)
 
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BritishThemeParkArchive said:
I'd say Duel would need about as much work as IL Bubble Works would've needed to restore it to how it opened. Both had most the same scenery and props still there but also lots missing or significantly changed that would need special work. It's not a case of just putting back old music and a few things here and there if you want to bring back the entertainment value.

There were only a few storyboards for the Haunted House, it was mainly all designed with a huge scale model. I've got most the ride design records too, so I would say if anyone was carrying around drawings it wouldn't be the originals but something else. And probably wouldn't have been during open hours with guests around!

If anyone interested, the production records from the studio will be in a book I'm still working on (which is why I ended up with them, so please dont think Im trying to boast!)
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Can't wait for the book mate, along with the updated Documentaries!!

So, If they don't date to the HH years, my guess is that JW must've recently drawn them for new ideas to go into the ride. He's old, but I doubt he's lost his skill and creativity any day soon ;)
 
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Trooper Looper said:
Is the mechanics and rail still in place? I always thought it sounded to be a great effect when it worked. I can't see why they would have bothered to take it all down when they could've just left it SBNO, and it wouldn't effect the ride at all.
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yeah I believe so. If you ever ride it and some of the backstage lights are on, you can see the rail running above the scenes where the skeletons are.

Also John Wardley has definitely been on Duel since it became duel in the past as there’s an on ride photo of it.

If it was returning to the haunted house I wouldn’t want them to try and just turn it back to what it was, but improve it and change it a bit. There’s a few cheap fixes, eg sorting some of the lighting out and fixing broken effects, but there’s also no reason why some modern technology and effects also can’t be used now. Rides like Snori at EP have some lovely simple effects such as projecting mapping on a wall, or nice lighting.
 
djtruefitt said:
yeah I believe so. If you ever ride it and some of the backstage lights are on, you can see the rail running above the scenes where the skeletons are.

Also John Wardley has definitely been on Duel since it became duel in the past as there’s an on ride photo of it.

If it was returning to the haunted house I wouldn’t want them to try and just turn it back to what it was, but improve it and change it a bit. There’s a few cheap fixes, eg sorting some of the lighting out and fixing broken effects, but there’s also no reason why some modern technology and effects also can’t be used now. Rides like Snori at EP have some lovely simple effects such as projecting mapping on a wall, or nice lighting.
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That's great news! I wonder if they'll try bringing back the scare with a more reliable system...

I remember reading somewhere on the Internet that when John rode Duel in 2008 I think, he said that the blasters take you away from the immersion. Ouch! Also, I'd love to see the photo of him on Duel!

If think they could reintroduce the Giant Spiders more fluid movement when it opened as well. Can't agree with the Projection section though sorry. Whenever I go on a dark ride, Projections and Screens always seem to be the one thing that holds it back from being great. Yes, i even checked put a POV of Snorri, and I still think the Projections ruin the experience...

Whatever they're doing to Duel, I hope they don't rip out a lot, and they better stay with physical set pieces and animatronics. As I and many people agree on my older Post, the original opening day version of the Haunted House isn't really that outdated. Though I its years after that, yep, absolutely agree it was outdated. It didn't become outdated because of Technology improving, it became outdated because it was formed into an outdated attraction due to lack of maintenance and bad moves by Tussauds.

Personally, all they really need to do to make it great again Is to bring back that original fantasy like lighting, keep the surviving Haunted House scenes, give the animatromics the same treatment Marcel had over at Chessington, and bring back it's old sfx', for the finale, either bring back the Swamp, bit improved ever so slightly, or a new scene that has the 1992 style. AND DONT FORGET TO BRING BACK GRAHAM SMARTS MUSIC!!
 
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Regardless of what kind of Duel or dare I say Haunted House return refurb, I can definitely see some kind of screen effects in place which I know some might hate to know however I think it would be a case of how much screen opposed to physical props they'd go for.

I honestly wouldn't mind some screen effects needed for certain effects that couldn't be done physical so that we could be a nice blend of effects. Ofc, I like many would draw the line for a all out screen effect ride which could be even worse than what we have now and just imagine the day on TS you'll hear calls of 'come back (crappy) Duel! All is forgiven!'

Anyway, considering Duel is a sequel to HH, I wonder if we'll get even a sequel to that? Anyone for 'Duel 2: The quest for more MAP passes' for the name? :p
 
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