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Pleasurewood Hills

Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

Mm yeah, the preview/press day is a week on Friday!
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

Pleasurewood Hills will be holding the UK's biggest ride opening this week, as Hob's Pit opens to the public, so instead of heading to the Towers on your day off why not head to the Hills instead?
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

This news made it to the LA Times, didn't it?
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

Yes it did.
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

Hobs Pit has (soft) opened! The press event took place on Friday and the ride is now open for 'previews' all week before the official opening on the 2nd - ready for the park's 30th birthday!

Here's a review and some pictures from Unofficial Pleasurewood:

I was lucky enough to be one of a select few who could experience Pleasurewood Hills’ latest ride offering; Hobs Pit a day before it opened to the public. I arrived at the park at around 5.30pm. It was very cold but the rain had held up and it was a clear, bright evening. We were greeted at the main gates with some eerie music and a lone miner before being let through the gate and lead to The Palladium by more creepy men from the underground.

Before we got to experience the main event we were spoiled with drinks and nibbles served by what I can only describe as “Hobs Wenches” who I must add were excellent and stayed in character throughout the entire night. Ben Rowe, Alexis Camelin and Sean Alexander then treated us to a talk on the ride and how it spawned from an idea into what it is today through the designing of illusions and effects that we experienced later on. Sean explained how he used the age old effect called Pepper’s Ghost to create some of the scenes throughout the ride as well as some more traditional “ghost train” elements. They laid down the path for the future and said they are going to use Hobs Pit as a bench mark for all future attractions and considering the quality of the ride this can only be a good thing!

They went on to explain that that Hobs Pit has been created in-house using local contractors and companies and also drafting in the skills of special effects expert Rob Ostir, who has worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as Mars Attacks, and voice actor Corey Burton with credits such as Disney’s Alladin and Atlantis: The Lost Empire to name but a couple. With the ride costing over half million pounds it is clear that with this ride Pleasurewood Hills means serious business.

The time was now upon us, the time we had all been waiting for; Hobs Pit. As we turned the corner onto Main Street it was evident that the theming for this ride was going to be excellent. The exterior of the ride building was true to the concept drawings and the best theming I have seen at the park.

Hobs Pit is more than just retheme of the old Fairytale Fantasy dark ride that has been at the park for over two decades. The loading station has been moved and the ride cars have been enlarged and redesigned into great looking mine cars.

The inside is even better with fantastic faux rock faces and fences, the queue itself is based in the shop so you can see people coming out of the ride and enjoy their reactions while you wait. As you get to the ride entrance you are greeted by another of Hob’s Girls and she leads through a rickety gate and short rocky corridor, it’s dark and dingy, there’s a miner lurking in the corner and he ushers you through. Eventually you reach a door and a key….

Without spoiling too much Hobs Pit has some wonderful scares utilising the latest is CGI and projection technology but also makes great use of more traditional methods like air canons, loud jumpy moments and its fair share of horror gore! And with an actor or two lurking behind a corner or two, no two rides will be the same. I was even lucky enough (if you can call it that) to have one of the miners join me on the ride through Hobs Pit!

I won’t go on as I don’t want to ruin the surprise of what is a fantastic experience. What I will say though is that you are in for a treat, there are many wonderful effects and frights throughout the ride, which will shock, frighten and entertain you. As you exit the ride you come out into the shop where there is an array of park and ride merchandise for you to purchase with mugs, t-shirts and pens to name but a few.

We were told that the ride is not quite finished and some of the effects were not working which only bodes well for what is already a fantastic ride and addition to the park. We were also informed that the ride will become Hobs Pit: Live for what will Pleasurewood Hills’ biggest and best Halloween event ever with over ten times more investment than any previous attempt by the park.

So what would I rate Hobs Pit? There are a few improvements that can been made (and the park are perfectly aware of what these are) but that won’t stop me from giving the ride a very solid and scary 9/10. Highly recommended but it’s not for the faint hearted! Hobs Pit opens officially on June 2nd along with the parks 30th birthday celebrations.

Reviewed by Joshua Williams

http://www.unofficialpleasurewood.co.uk/news_hobs_review.htm
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Once again - all images from here
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

Nice! I can't wait to go on it.
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

That looks like some good theming! Looks great. I love the fact they look like they have spent a good amount of cash into the look of the area.
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

The whole project cost about £500k - so pretty impressive looking for that! Theme Park Tourist have said that "For us at least, it offers a superior experience to Nemesis Sub-Terra or the Saw Alive Horror Maze, for example. It's proof that a regional park can build a unique attraction without breaking the bank." Which is pretty good praise.

You might also be interested to know that during Pleasurewood Chills this year they are planning 'Hobs Pit: Live' to really ramp up the scares to the maximum.
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

I can't wait until Wednesday :D
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

Scott said:
The whole project cost about £500k - so pretty impressive looking for that!
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Apparently the original budget was £70k! Which just about covered the CGI and special effect elements! It wasn't until 3 weeks ago that they officially got the backing from Loopings for spending all the extra cash :eek: The great news so far though is people are talking a lot about the ride and its received great reviews and feedback.

Btw thanks for posting my review, I hope you liked it ;D
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

Looks really good I'd say! ;D

Nice to see not only a new (or re-theme however you look at it) dark ride in this country, but one that seems to have quite a number of effects compared the current bunch already working in the UK. Who knows, in terms of customer feedback, the smaller parks are slowly starting catching up with Merlin's parks. :)
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

QTXAdsy said:
Looks really good I'd say! ;D

Nice to see not only a new (or re-theme however you look at it) dark ride in this country, but one that seems to have quite a number of effects compared the current bunch already working in the UK. Who knows, in terms of customer feedback, the smaller parks are slowly starting catching up with Merlin's parks. :)
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That should never happen by the way.
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

It just proves that you don't need to blow multi million pound budgets to make a good ride. Honestly, when Merlin quote their prices, I think they must be including all the bonuses for their fat cat directors.
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

I have to say, everything is looking pretty great so far. Especially considering it cost a fraction of how much Alton Towers apparently spent on Sub Terra! Also noticed this offer on Screamscape for £2 off tickets. I really wouldn't mind attempting to finally visit this year and see if the reviews about this being great are true.

:)
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

Pleasurewood Hills celebrates 30 years of opening on Sunday, it will include the old mascots Ronnie and Clarence returning, Hobs Pit officially opening, and a special offer on admission; This offer is that every second party gets in for £2.50 with a £19 admission, and if you have an odd number, the odd person gets in for £13.50, so in an even party, it is £19, £2.50, £19, £2.50, and in an odd party, £19, £2.50, £13.50
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

Just caught up with the Hobs Pit news. Looks very interesting, I hope to get a chance to see it in person. If the comparison to Sub-Terra is true then this might be a perfect example of many of the simple ways an experience can be made better that I went on about before :p
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

I think the most interesting fact is something Khanage brought up... This ride only had a budget of £70k for the effects before the extra £400k was released by Loopings. If so, it makes the original plan even more impressive.

I really hope this is the first year in over a decade the park makes a profit.
 
Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

After spending some time at the park this morning, I went on Hob's Pit today. Without reading any reviews, I was very impressed with it, especially since I'm not a big scare attraction fan :)
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

Lottie WTF? You are round this way? You should have given me a shout!
 
Re: Pleasurewood Hills 2013: Hobs Pit Dark Ride / Pleasurewood Chills!

Jem8472 said:
Lottie WTF? You are round this way? You should have given me a shout!
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Haha, I was indeed in the area today. Back home now, wanted to get the coaster creds so convinced a few friends to join me! :p
 
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