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The Smiler - General Discussion

Die hard smiler fan, thought it was riding okay but seeing the state its in atm honestly saddens me a bit.
Excited to project horizon and nemmy retrack but the whole park needs some more love and care, a good scrub down (not a one off and left for 5 years) and obviously some supporting flats.

Terrible state the smiler is in though.
 
AT86 said:
Current state of the Smiler station. Brought to you by the UK’s most visited theme park, owned and operated by the world’s second largest visitor attraction business.


From: https://twitter.com/eyecoaster/status/1643971657168719873?s=46&t=zG_i8R9vX93ZZU0RljfzWA
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As an update to this I believe it has now been addressed.

The ceiling up the stairs in the station appears freshly repainted. Let’s hope they also dealt with the underlying mould before it was painted.
 
...Call me crazy but I wonder with all the run down state X-Sector is in compared to other areas of the park, maybe it could be line for a revamp sooner than we think? What I mean to say with Phalanx looking to play a new part in a new look Forbidding Valley once Nemesis reopens next year, who is to say X-Sector might have been looked at by MMM?

Given how X-Sector always had its secret military theme, that might be a little too close with how it looks likely Forbidding Valley is going to have more of a military theme with all the Phalanx stuff by next year (maybe ram this further if heaven above Galactica always gets a new retheme to blend in with the area much better) then those two areas will feel too alike though then again that didn't stop the park having too forest themed areas in GW and Dark Forest though the latter doesn't even look like one to me and is the worst area on the park.

But then again given how neither Smiler or Oblivion have been touched for any tweaks for their theming, maybe there is plans that if we are to get a possible Oblivion retrack in say 2028 or sooner let's say, maybe they might decide to kill two birds with one stone by given the entire area a major refresh that could be more science fiction based instead of a Ministry of Joy/1984 feel? I just get that could be the case thanks to what Merlin did with the Italian version of Oblivion over at Gardaland which is pretty much an updated theme of UK Oblivion and I have strongly suspected that this was done as a test to see if that what it might look like and that it would have been retrofitted for Oblivion's 20th birthday in 2018 but then the Smiler incident happened and this plan was shelved. Who's to say that this idea if ever a thing might be returned to? Let's face it, ignoring the Retrosquad rides there, the area is overdue for something new.

I know the idea of a more sleeker looking X-Sector that changes its theme might not go down well with many who all love the current theme but if I'll be bluntly honest, it is looking a bit dated and a bit of concrete jungle with pipes attached which isn't helped by the Soviet era looking tower block known as the Smiler station building, having more of a sleeker look like we've seen with Italian Oblivion's themed job then it might not be bad as long as they keep the feel of the area as we saw with Alton Manor. Not to say that this isn't far fetched, X-Sector got major TLC when Smiler first opened so it isn't hard to see them doing something like that again, maybe even add a new skin to cover the concrete monstrosity of Smiler's building which frankly they can't make any worse than it is now.

Either way, both Smiler and X-Sector as a whole are overdue for some major TLC that would be very welcomed at this time though this might have been avoided had the park simply kept just cleaning the ride during every closed season which would have saved a lot of hassle.
 
QTXAdsy said:
...Call me crazy but I wonder with all the run down state X-Sector is in compared to other areas of the park, maybe it could be line for a revamp sooner than we think? What I mean to say with Phalanx looking to play a new part in a new look Forbidding Valley once Nemesis reopens next year, who is to say X-Sector might have been looked at by MMM?

Given how X-Sector always had its secret military theme, that might be a little too close with how it looks likely Forbidding Valley is going to have more of a military theme with all the Phalanx stuff by next year (maybe ram this further if heaven above Galactica always gets a new retheme to blend in with the area much better) then those two areas will feel too alike though then again that didn't stop the park having too forest themed areas in GW and Dark Forest though the latter doesn't even look like one to me and is the worst area on the park.

But then again given how neither Smiler or Oblivion have been touched for any tweaks for their theming, maybe there is plans that if we are to get a possible Oblivion retrack in say 2028 or sooner let's say, maybe they might decide to kill two birds with one stone by given the entire area a major refresh that could be more science fiction based instead of a Ministry of Joy/1984 feel? I just get that could be the case thanks to what Merlin did with the Italian version of Oblivion over at Gardaland which is pretty much an updated theme of UK Oblivion and I have strongly suspected that this was done as a test to see if that what it might look like and that it would have been retrofitted for Oblivion's 20th birthday in 2018 but then the Smiler incident happened and this plan was shelved. Who's to say that this idea if ever a thing might be returned to? Let's face it, ignoring the Retrosquad rides there, the area is overdue for something new.

I know the idea of a more sleeker looking X-Sector that changes its theme might not go down well with many who all love the current theme but if I'll be bluntly honest, it is looking a bit dated and a bit of concrete jungle with pipes attached which isn't helped by the Soviet era looking tower block known as the Smiler station building, having more of a sleeker look like we've seen with Italian Oblivion's themed job then it might not be bad as long as they keep the feel of the area as we saw with Alton Manor. Not to say that this isn't far fetched, X-Sector got major TLC when Smiler first opened so it isn't hard to see them doing something like that again, maybe even add a new skin to cover the concrete monstrosity of Smiler's building which frankly they can't make any worse than it is now.

Either way, both Smiler and X-Sector as a whole are overdue for some major TLC that would be very welcomed at this time though this might have been avoided had the park simply kept just cleaning the ride during every closed season which would have saved a lot of hassle.
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If Oblivion is rethemed, I think that it would most likely change to have the MoJ more involved in the backstory.
 
Whatever they do to the area I'd like it to be focused on Ministry of joy. Since the marketing before the ride opened, there hasn't really been an mention of Moj until this takeover. They could go much further with the theme
 
Ethan said:
Whatever they do to the area I'd like it to be focused on Ministry of joy. Since the marketing before the ride opened, there hasn't really been an mention of Moj until this takeover. They could go much further with the theme
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TBH, given how Phalanx, a part of Nemesis' backstory didn't really have much of an impact before is actually looking likely to have a major part in the Nemesis story and Forbidding Valley as a whole, I wouldn't be surprised if we see something similar happening for X-Sector with the Ministry of Joy.
 
X-Sector is pretty much the only section of the park with consistent theming. Other areas have rides dumped in them that really stick out like a sore thumb. Air/Galactica alongside Nemesis in an area called Forbidden Valley has always struck a nerve with me tbh.
And Rita in the then Ug Land and now Dark Forest, as much as they’ve tried to dress it up is still just a mouldy Intamin launch with no theme.
But X-Sector, even when Black Hole was there has always been about futuristic, sinister government facility, and the Smiler really reinforced that.
Perhaps a reworking of the overall theme to utilise the Ministry of Joy, maybe even renaming the area to make it a MOJ headquarters or something similar.
 
STEJENT said:
X-Sector is pretty much the only section of the park with consistent theming. Other areas have rides dumped in them that really stick out like a sore thumb. Air/Galactica alongside Nemesis in an area called Forbidden Valley has always struck a nerve with me tbh.
And Rita in the then Ug Land and now Dark Forest, as much as they’ve tried to dress it up is still just a mouldy Intamin launch with no theme.
But X-Sector, even when Black Hole was there has always been about futuristic, sinister government facility, and the Smiler really reinforced that.
Perhaps a reworking of the overall theme to utilise the Ministry of Joy, maybe even renaming the area to make it a MOJ headquarters or something similar.
Click to expand...
Apart from the fact that Spinjam and Twistatron are fun fair rides and actually do stick out like a sore thumb?
 
STEJENT said:
X-Sector is pretty much the only section of the park with consistent theming. Other areas have rides dumped in them that really stick out like a sore thumb. Air/Galactica alongside Nemesis in an area called Forbidden Valley has always struck a nerve with me tbh.
And Rita in the then Ug Land and now Dark Forest, as much as they’ve tried to dress it up is still just a mouldy Intamin launch with no theme.
But X-Sector, even when Black Hole was there has always been about futuristic, sinister government facility, and the Smiler really reinforced that.
Perhaps a reworking of the overall theme to utilise the Ministry of Joy, maybe even renaming the area to make it a MOJ headquarters or something similar.
Click to expand...
The Smiler doesn't really have any mystery about it, not like The Black Hole did or Oblivion anyway... They my end up retheming X sector
 
I'd rather not keep X Sector's consistent theme (consistently boring, scraped together signs and concrete walls), or have even more "vaguely sinister organisation/cult/company" we've had for every big Merlin ride for the last 15 years, before the public dies of boredom
 
RIPCorky said:
The Smiler doesn't really have any mystery about it, not like The Black Hole did or Oblivion anyway... They my end up retheming X sector
Click to expand...
Agreed, you didn’t have a clue what was going on inside that tent until you actually went in and went on the ride. It’s not like YouTube existed either.

Wouldn’t be against a re-theme for the area but I like Oblivion the way it is, The Smiler will see no re-theme at any point either.
 
I would hope to see a ‘refreshed’ rather than rethemed X-Sector. I imagine the most realistic way we would see this is with some new flats and it advertised as a new area in the vein how Ug Land was.


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X-Sector 2.0 anyone? Could be much like Towers' version of Tomorrowland 2055 concert which incidentally had much cuts to that theming due to budget reasons.

Actually, wonder if Italian Oblivion at Gardaland might be a clue at what an updated X-Sector might look like which Merlin would just need to copy and paste it for Towers which honestly being an existing theme then they can save costs in creating a concept.

Also with what with seen with MOJ actors walking about, could this be the first time we've had actors for X-Sector? Not including the X-Sector guard during Oblivion's construction and maybe the whole Smiler event, as poor as it might be, could be a test to see how actors would go in the area and might be going all in with the MOJ theme much like what we're seeing with Phalanx in Forbidding Valley?
 
In a world of ever increasing costs, why would they put additional staff in an area for no benefit?
Extra staff would be better put on certain rides to increase throughput...Rita/RMC etc.
 
3 rides on this today - riding fantastic, still my fav, I don't get the whole roughness thing with this at all! 2 on row 2 and 1 on row 3 for anyone wondering. The only jolt I felt was on the second inversion - I love this thing.
However, let's talk about how it looks. My god is it in a state. It genuinely looks absolutely disgusting. How they've let it get just quite this bad is beyond me. Heck, how they've been allowed to let it get like this is absolutely astonishing.
 
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