Merlin Entertainments: General Discussion

[Fammy]

So I had noticed something with Merlin’s recent animatronics, more particularly in Animal Treasure Island at Gardaland. As @GooseOnTheLoose described in the WoDW thread, the animatronics are quite frankly rejects from a crappy seaside ghost train

They have incredibly limited movement, move really slowly, and literally have really stiff joints. I understand money is a problem at Merlin, but the fact that we went from the insanity of animatronics in the UK from Chessington in the ‘90s (Vampire’s Organist, 5th Dimension’s Zappomatic and Smuggler Cove’s Drunken Sailor) to **** like this bamboozles me.

I think they saw my post and actually locked in for once like that’s actually a pretty good animatronic (though tbf they’re like only operating one and not 10 at the same time like Animal Treasure Island)

 

[Hid]

I think they saw my post and actually locked in for once like that’s actually a pretty good animatronic (though tbf they’re like only operating one and not 10 at the same time like Animal Treasure Island)

Looks great, hoping maybe something like this comes to Legoland Windsor at some point.

 

[Bert2theSpark]

Only Merlin would spend loads on an animatronic figure, just to slap a vinyl wall behind it…

 

[Dave]

Only Merlin would spend loads on an animatronic figure, just to slap a vinyl wall behind it…

The wall doesn’t look vinyl as the zig zag strip and other features look recessed or protruding. There are some vinyl decals but you could argue that is more about the Lego set aesthetic.

For Merlin the pre-show looks pretty well done tbf.

 

[Bert2theSpark]

The wall doesn’t look vinyl as the zig zag strip and other features look recessed or protruding. There are some vinyl decals but you could argue that is more about the Lego set aesthetic.

For Merlin the pre-show looks pretty well done tbf.

I see what you mean, but it across as very flat within the video, and if this is something that’s meant to have photos and videos taken then I get the vibe something just looks a bit off. If the intention was to have it look like a Lego set then the concept isn’t as obvious as it should be.

Still relatively minor things in the grand scheme of it all, the ride overall looks relatively impressive.

 

[Islander]

I think they saw my post and actually locked in for once like that’s actually a pretty good animatronic (though tbf they’re like only operating one and not 10 at the same time like Animal Treasure Island)

Yep, I'm sure they saw your post on 1st of January and 2ish weeks later had a fully finished animatronic minifig installed centrally in the preshow of a new attraction that's been in development for years

I remember this tech being trialled in the Legoland Windsor hotel for a very brief period in 2016 - seems it's taken an extremely long time to come into full production.

 

[Tim]

Yep, I'm sure they saw your post on 1st of January and 2ish weeks later had a fully finished animatronic minifig installed centrally in the preshow of a new attraction that's been in development for years

I remember this tech being trialled in the Legoland Windsor hotel for a very brief period in 2016 - seems it's taken an extremely long time to come into full production.

I also have videos from that trial. Something happened because the project went quite for a very long time. But the first official one of these figures was installed at Legoland Shanghai... So I'm afraid it predates your post by some time. But nice try.

 

[Islander]

I also have videos from that trial. Something happened because the project went quite for a very long time. But the first official one of these figures was installed at Legoland Shanghai... So I'm afraid it predates your post by some time. But nice try.

Err... my post or Fammy's?

 

[Tim]

Err... my post or Fammy's?

Just re-read my post. Technically both
Was originally quoting yours, but that last bit was Fammys

 

[The_bup]

So I had noticed something with Merlin’s recent animatronics, more particularly in Animal Treasure Island at Gardaland. As @GooseOnTheLoose described in the WoDW thread, the animatronics are quite frankly rejects from a crappy seaside ghost train

They have incredibly limited movement, move really slowly, and literally have really stiff joints. I understand money is a problem at Merlin, but the fact that we went from the insanity of animatronics in the UK from Chessington in the ‘90s (Vampire’s Organist, 5th Dimension’s Zappomatic and Smuggler Cove’s Drunken Sailor) to **** like this bamboozles me.

This bothers me a lot too. I imagine animatronics are maintenance sinks (at least to Merlin..) and so they would rather the effects be screens an audio that require little maintenance. They also don’t ruin the experience if they break.

This new animatronic mini figure is clever though - I would imagine they could clone this figure, switch out the projection, movement and audio for something new and it can be any other minifigure. It also isn’t hard to create a fluid figure with all the movement capabilities of an infamously stiff 4.5cm toy. A standardised system means standardised maintenance between cloned figures, as I could imagine a difficulty with animatronics is how different they can all be.

I can touch wood all I like, but now I’ve said it, the thing will be broken forever by year five of operation and the figure will never be cloned..

 

[Poisson]

It depends how maintenance friendly they build them, just like anything.

The Marmaliser screen looks terrible as it was never designed with access in mind, whereas Big Bob has the full access stairs inside so when the fire or screens are not working, it is easy enough to get up close to and replace whatever is broken. One way is cheaper in the short term, the other is cheaper in the long term.

 

[Tim]

Its also worth noting the Lego parks have dedicated Animation teams to maintain Miniland. Having people dedicated to special effects helps because they aren't forced to prioritise ride downtime over effects downtime.

Regarding The_bup's point about them being multi use I'm aware of two others of these figures that are already at other parks and with different themes. This one was added late last year in Malaysia and is Racing themed:

One last point, physical animation is not necessarily cheaper than digital. The upfront cost for digital effects is considerably higher than a basic 2/3 movement piece of animation. I could build 3 to 4 practical effects for the same cost as the content on 1 screen.

In theory there is a saving in the long term, but in practice many digital effects also have hidden costs, especially if they are interactive and require access to an app or a server. Then you also have to factor in keeping the content up to date. As a result you can make the argument (and I frequently do) that a physical solution is sometimes the best solution.

If you can't tell animatronics is something I'm particularly interested in!

 

[flyingguitar]

It depends how maintenance friendly they build them, just like anything.

The Marmaliser screen looks terrible as it was never designed with access in mind, whereas Big Bob has the full access stairs inside so when the fire or screens are not working, it is easy enough to get up close to and replace whatever is broken. One way is cheaper in the short term, the other is cheaper in the long term.

kinda true with anamatroincs, but in general they are always dificult to work on
the problem is that they are often very tight,

they also require completely different forces, the centre actuators may have to support the whole anamatronic (possible hundreds of Kg!) where as the finger may need grams of force, but also has to fit in a small space, this means you may have many differnt actuators throughout the animatronic, to keep them maintained each one either needs to be stored or ordered in this adds a lot of potential cost, in addition each mechanism may be unique, adding more cost

it also can depend on the complexit, an anamatronic with just a moving head and arm can be quite simple, but the more advanced they get the more motors and more difficult it becomes to service mainly due to the amount of systems

This means most the time it ends out being hard to maintain to being impossible. that said given the size of the minifigure, simple movment and shape (a couple of blocks) I could see this being made easy to maintain.

comparing to Disney who have essentially standardised their animatronics, it means they can easily and more cheaply maintain them as the arm actuator can be the same throughout their newer animatronics, but when there are only a few in the park it can make it dificult to get parts and maintain them.