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X-Sector's Future (including Oblivion and The Smiler)

Jb85 said:
@Excalibur im feeling the same as you. Still FB work to be done if Air gets rethemed. Can’t see major work in X Sector myself, just a refurb.

It needs it but 26 is clearly Horizon so when will the work get done, 27? Seems to far off. Which points back to 25.
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I wouldn't bank on horizon being '25 or '26. Regardless, I think X-Sector will see some more attention (in addition to a few little bits this year) in '25 but I wouldn't expect a full retheme.
 
LJP said:
I’d say, with almost 100% certainly, that there is no way X Sector and its rides will have any significant theme changes. Oblivion and The Smiler are arguably the strongest IPs Alton Towers have. I know some people feel X Sector and Forbidden Valley are becoming too similar, but to the average guest, I don’t think they’d agree.

I think the most likely outcome will be a refurb of the current theme to make it feel fresh and a couple of exciting flat rides.
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I think like they could definitely re theme X-Sector and just restyle the rides to fit in the new area without changing the names of the rides depending on what they would retheme X-Sector to. I feel a Steampunk area could work with both Oblivion and The Smiler.
 
CoastersLeo said:
I have a sneaking suspicion that Oblivion might not be around for much longer. I've had a rough hunch since around the start of the season when Curse opened, but there's been more and more "evidence" (if you can call it that, or maybe I'm just looking for it where there is none) over the course of the 2023 season.

Curse of Alton Manor's Queueline
In the queueline to The Curse At Alton Manor, there exists many decorative graves. Some are puns, some are funny stories, but some are references to old and defunct rollercoasters and flatrides. The rides listed goes as follow:
  • Ripsaw (DEFUNCT) - [Engraving of a circular saw] - Dearly Missed - Is grandad Moore - Cut in two - By a deadly ripsaw
  • Around The World In 80 Days (RETHEMED) - [Engraving of a hot air balloon] Great Uncle Earl - Travelled the world - After 80 days - Never a word
  • Oblivion (OPERATING) - Momento Mori - Matthew Cory - Ignored in life - Now same old story - Sank into Oblivion - 29th February 1842
  • Air (RETHEMED) - [Engraving of Air Logo] - Flying so high - Our pilot Claire - Flew too high - and ran out of Air
  • Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (RETHEMED) - [Engraving of a Chocolate Bar] - R.I.P - Charlie B. - Left behind - The chocolate factory
  • The Blade - (OPERATING) - [I couldn't find a pic of it online to write the text, I'm so sorry. I'm confident it exists though.]
  • The Corkscrew (DEFUNCT)- Drew our waiter - Full of grace - Took a corkscrew - too the face
  • The Blackhole (DEFUNCT/MOVED) - Cousin Joel - Dug for coal - Pray for his soul - In that Black Hole
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[IMAGE: The Oblivion-inspired grave in the queueline to to The Curse At Alton Manor.]

As you can see, 3/4 rollercoasters listed are technically no longer operate as the names listed on the tombstones, whether it be through rethemes (Air to Galactica, The Black Hole to Rocket) or being moved out of Alton or Defunct (The Black Hole and The Corkscrew). Along with this, every flatride (except The Blade, which is super old and might be going soon anyway) also no longer operate as the names listed. So that begs the question, why is Oblivion here? It's very much The Odd One Out. Along with this, take note of the date. 29th February, a leap year. While to me it seems unlikely for Alton Towers to have a major Oblivion overhaul/removal in 2024 due to numerous other projects currently happening, (Nemesis retrack, 3 new flatrides, Forbidden Valley overhaul, Project Horizon,) 2028 is also a leap year. It's possible that by 2028 all these projects will be complete. It may be possible Alton Towers will want to overhaul X-Sector by then.

April Fools Day Prank
For April Fools Day 2023, Alton Towers posted a tweet saying they were getting rid of Oblivion. Now this, is of course, a prank. But you have to look at the bigger picture here. Alton offering two pieces of evidence towards getting rid of Oblivion put this theory on my radar, and throughout 2023 I started actively looking for more evidence.
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[IMAGE: Alton Towers Official Twitter account: "We have sadly made the decision to close Oblivion on the 5th November 2023, (Written in the American Month-Day-Year format), in order to introduce some new and exciting Retrosquad rides on this coaster's large footprint. Buy your tickets to Oblivion's final day here: [Hyperlink] + [Image of Oblivion].]
Again, because I never saw this tweet when it was up in person, I'm unsure if it's real. I know an Alton Towers parody account posted a similar but slightly different tweet, and a guy named Ben made a Tiktok about Oblivion's closing, but I'm unsure if they were merely spreading the joke further or if one of them created it in the first place and faked the Alton Towers screenshot themselves. Apologies if this tweet is fake, I'm already skeptical of if the official Alton Towers Twitter started the joke post at all, but just in case they did I'm counting it as evidence.

National Rollercoaster Day Q&A With John Burton
On 16th August 2023, Alton Towers release a Q&A video with John Burton. While most people remember this video for John Burton side-eyeing the camera with his RMC cup, everyone seemed to miss this tidbit:

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[IMAGES: John Burton asking: "What's been your favourite Coaster design to work on?" - He answers, "I could already be working on it, so watch this space!" he is stood in the pit outside of Oblivion's drop, implying something new (either a retheme or a new rollercoaster altogether) could be coming to Oblivion's area.]

While this isn't as strong of a piece of evidence as the last bit which practically confirms something is happening, Burton chose to do the RMC tease behind Oblivion's drop. Why this rollercoaster in particular? Although he said "something's on the horizon" in regards to an RMC, I highly doubt Project Horizon will be an RMC. It's too big of a building for a Wild Moose (being able to fit 3 of those,) but too small of a building to fit a traditional RMC. If we assume Project Horizon is in fact Secret Weapon 9... How cool would it be if they held off on the RMC idea for Secret Weapon 10? If they moved Just Chicken, X-Cite, and Oblivion, you could very easily fit an RMC Raptor down that hole and in the surrounding area. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Wickerman Merch Change
While I was at Alton Towers around June, I noticed something about Wickerman's merch. Every rollercoaster generally gets assigned a colour for their merch. Smiler is yellow, Thirteen is green, Nemesis is red, Galactica is blue, Oblivion is orange. Wickerman had to share red with Nemesis, but this year (and I don't know when the change happened exactly), Wickerman's colours seem to be shifting more over to orange.

When I got off a ride on Wickerman, I made sure to grab a picture for comparison.
IMG_7696.jpg

[IMAGE: Two Wickerman hoodies. The newer one is black with orange accents. The older one is black with red accents. In the frame is a Wickerman vest that's black with red accents.]
It's definetly more orange. However, I looked a bit closer and spotted something. The older, redder merch is actually on sale.
IMG_7723.jpg

[IMAGE: The old, red-accented Wickerman vest from the previous image. On it, a red "Reduced" tag reads: Was £20.00, Now £15.00.]
So it definetly seems like they want to get rid of their red Wickerman merch. However, this could just be because they want to free up the colour red so Merlin can really lean hard into the Nemesis merch next year. But that begs the question, why make Wickerman orange? I get that Oblivion doesn't have much merch, only having 4 hoodies/shirts in Buy The Smiler / The X-Sector shop this year, which in my opinion is a missed opportunity because I think Oblivion's logo is best suited to merch (it already looks like a clothing brand logo), but they could have used any other colour for Wickerman. Maybe more of a blood-orange / russet colour? Maroon? Brown? Brown might not show up as well against the black though, but c'mon. They had options.

Potential Retheme?
But if Oblivion did get rethemed, what to? Well... There's a slight pattern I've noticed with Alton Towers theme colours. Nemesis and Galactica are in the same area, and are red and blue. While those colours aren't directly opposites on the colour wheel, they're generally accepted to be opposites by people. Rita is roughly approximate to pink sometimes, Thirteen is green. Pink is just a shade of red, which IS opposite to green. However, Smiler (yellow) and Oblivion (orange) do not follow this pattern. Yellow and orange are complimentary colours, not opposites. Therefore, I think it may be plausible that if Oblivion were to get rethemed (or removed and replaced with something new), it could use a purple or indigo sort of colour.

Just think about it... Secret Weapon 10, a potential RMC, using Alton Tower's brand colour of purple. It could be the park's new flagship Coaster, next to one of their older and most UK-infamous rollercoasters, The Smiler. I think that could work!


So in conclusion, I believe that Oblivion will either be getting rethemed or removed within the next 5 years or so. It's an old ride, there's better things out there now. While I do admit a lot of this evidence is very situational, a coincidence, or could have other explanations, you can't deny that something definetly seems to be happening. But with that being said... What do you all think could happen with Oblivion in the future?
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I had a chat via email with John Wardley recently and jokingly pitched the idea of running Oblivion with a single backwards facing train as a 'Worlds First Backwards Vertical Drop Rollercoaster - Don't look up" marketing gimmic. Safe to say he hated the idea as it went against the entire original concept 😂

John's response:

"Surely, the whole point of dropping vertically is the fear of height and of hitting the ground. Staring up at the sky and falling backwards totally eliminates these fears and sensations. So in answer to your question, no, I personally don’t think it is a good idea. But if you do, and you want to pitch it to Alton Towers, good luck.

Thank you for your good wishes in my semi-retirement."

Just to add my two cents, Oblivion isn't going anywhere. But a new station, floorless trains and a potential partial re-theme to potentially tie in to The Smiler and retheme X-Sector around that, sure I could see that.
 
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Brilliant! Now with any luck this will finally put an end to this daft idea. It's been suggested for as long as I can remember, and is never going to happen. (Not to mention it wouldn't be a world's first, if you include shuttle coasters with vertical spikes).

... Oh, what am I thinking? There will always be some new youngling who thinks they are the first to come up with this "amazing new concept".
 
If I'm playing devil's advocate on Oblivion being removed, and having to replace it, here's what I would do.

If we can just ignore the logistical challenge of removing the old track from the tunnel for a moment and suspend belief.

I actually think a Vekoma Flying Coaster akin to F.L.Y at Phantasialand could work well. A new station probably set slightly further back with a launched (or not, build suspense) lift hill into a left hand dive down into the tunnel face first would be thrilling, out the other side and into a tight layout with multiple inversions utilising the space left by Enterprise and Submission as well as the Oblivion ride area. I think this ride type could fit a great layout in that space too and potentially fill X-Sector with supports around the restaurant if possible.

Themed to tie in with The Smiler's experimental narrative, with an X-Sector retheme.

And yes, get rid of Galactica whilst retaining a flying coaster in the Park.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Brilliant! Now with any luck this will finally put an end to this daft idea. It's been suggested for as long as I can remember, and is never going to happen. (Not to mention it wouldn't be a world's first, if you include shuttle coasters with vertical spikes).

... Oh, what am I thinking? There will always be some new youngling who thinks they are the first to come up with this "amazing new concept".
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It was only sent as a joke between the two of us. I'm not that young either, I'm 30 next week 😂
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Bless. So young! :tearsofjoy:

Interesting idea there, but given they have the OG flying coaster on the other side of the park... ;)
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I'll take that as a compliment these days 😂

Galactica just seems to be a maintainance headache and always seems to be down for most of the day whenever I've been to the park recently. I love the concept, I just think it's had its day and I've never been a huge fan of the layout and on your back element. I'd expect it to be removed within 5 years anyway.
 
Ares said:
I'll take that as a compliment these days 😂

Galactica just seems to be a maintainance headache and always seems to be down for most of the day whenever I've been to the park recently. I love the concept, I just think it's had its day and I've never been a huge fan of the layout and on your back element. I'd expect it to be removed within 5 years anyway.
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No chance
 
Ares said:
What future do you see for Galactica? The trains seem to be the big issue from my understanding.
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the trains are some of if not the most expensive and complex trains in the industry, with miles of wiring and more than 250 sensors per train! so I am not too suprised, and they probably won't replace them as apparently each train costs in excess of £1M
 
Ares said:
What future do you see for Galactica? The trains seem to be the big issue from my understanding.
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jibbsie said:
the trains are some of if not the most expensive and complex trains in the industry, with miles of wiring and more than 250 sensors per train! so I am not too suprised, and they probably won't replace them as apparently each train costs in excess of £1M
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Technology has advanced tenfold in 22 years. There will be a way to make it more reliable and it'll still be cheaper than building a complete new coaster. It still offers a unique UK ride experience
 
RIPCorky said:
Technology has advanced tenfold in 22 years. There will be a way to make it more reliable and it'll still be cheaper than building a complete new coaster. It still offers a unique UK ride experience
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true, but spending multiple millions of pounds for a new computer system and new/refurbished trains (the trains are a part of the computer system and communicate via a light terminal on the front left of the train) but what is the buisness case?
They will get improved down time but no advertising can be done, no increased guest foot fall, there are benifits to the guest experience with reduced down time but is that worth the millions, better things could be done with the money but that dosn't mean it is impossible or won't happen spinball recently had a new computer system I believe.
 
jibbsie said:
true, but spending multiple millions of pounds for a new computer system and new/refurbished trains (the trains are a part of the computer system and communicate via a light terminal on the front left of the train) but what is the buisness case?
They will get improved down time but no advertising can be done, no increased guest foot fall, there are benifits to the guest experience with reduced down time but is that worth the millions, better things could be done with the money but that dosn't mean it is impossible or won't happen spinball recently had a new computer system I believe.
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I assume it would be part of a complete re-theme of the ride to be honest. I just cannot see them removing any of the SW's especially the B&M's

If they continue development on to the car park behind it, it'll get renewed interest anyway
 
I would quite like to X-Sector to be rethemed into more of a Ministry of Joy theme. Make the area a bit more wacky and less industrial looking. We’ve got the smiler with its crazy theme, I would make oblivion similar, with more of the yellow and black theme which they seem to have done with recently, get some new videos for the queue and station and then add a couple of flat rides and theme them to ministry of joy.

Then I would re do just chicken to make it fit the area.
 
I'd just keep the two tones of Oblivion and Smiler separate. Personally I absolutely despise Smilers Theme, but it has its fans, there's no denying that. I'd enhance Oblivions side of X Sector. Perhaps to justify the two tones, The Ministry of Joy and Oblivions organisation are rivals and they both aim to create the most inhuman contraptions (Oblivion and Smiler). It could work.
 
Cyberpunk themed area with much of a Bladerunner/Tron style of neon theming around X-Sector could actually work very well into making the evil government theme still there but with a modern futuristic twist that helps it look different from Forbidden Valley.

Imagine say the ugly Smiler station building being put to good use to make it look good by plonking bug LED screens on the side which you can play up the 1984 theme with messages like 'happiness is control' or something. Wouldn't be perfect but it would make that ugly concrete block look half decent for once. Actually imagine the idea I said a while back of enclosing Oblivion's layout inside a tube playing up is hole gimmick and making it something of a dark ride experience in which the break run is all enclosed with that area being decorated as a looming tower block with more LED screens around giving more 1984 style messaging from those looking offride and that's not including flat rides ofc. Would all help create colour yet a sinister atmosphere to the area...X-Sector 2098 anyone?
 
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