Electric Bill
(Started page about something... Will keep adding to.) |
|||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| − | '''Electric Bill''' is the | + | '''Electric Bill''' (also known as '''Skeleton Bob''', '''William Sparks''', '''Bill Electrique''', '''Kumar Dixit''' or simply '''Bill''') is the animatronic skeleton from ''Duel'' (previously known as ''The Haunted House'') at [[Alton Towers]]. It is in fact a real person's soul trapped inside the figuritive cage of the fibreglass skull, leading to the owner of the soul to believe he is by the mystery of the figure, though in fact he is just mentally disturbed. But you will learn more about that when you study Quantum Dark Ride Theory. Anyway, the animatronic was built by Spark's Creative Services after a design by Barry Lee and Andrew Howarth. It was installed on the ride in 1993 as part of the new Skeleton Corridor scene (see below), being a replacment for a previous scene named the 'Ghost Corridor', which totally, epically, miserably failed. Tut tut, Keith Sparks! ''Again''... |
| + | |||
| + | ==Ghost Corridor and Early Years== | ||
| + | Only several months after opening day in 1992, one of the Haunted House's major effects began to cause problems. It broke, basically. The Flying Ghost was supposed to glide over riders' heads and down the Ghost Corridor before disappearing behind a wall. The effect was achieved using an inverted track that the ghost prop ran along, situated overhead. The effect worked like a [[Rollercoaster|rollercoaster]]. The prop was released at the top of the track, it ran down to the other end using gravity, before entering a lift hill hidden behind the wall which took it back up to the top. Sounds neat, does it not? B&M were busy at the time, so the track was manufactured by Arrow Dynamics instead. Problems started after enthusiastic members of staff mistook it for a real [[Rollercoaster|rollercoaster]], and proceeded to ride the ghost along the corridor until flaking paint/death occured. Arrow were called in to rectify the issues caused by the misuse, but unfortunately had since gone bust. | ||
| + | |||
| + | [[John_Wardley|John Wardley]] called in Barry Lee and Andrew Howarth (two Haunted House project workers) to redesign the whole scene with replacement effects. These included: a skeleton on a toilet; a skeleton with a bomb; a skeleton in bed; an exploded skeleton lying in the remains of another toilet. So, an insight into the minds of Lee and Howarth, there. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Along with the new infestation of peculiar skeltons, Electric Bill was installed at the beginning of the scene. The effect consisted of the skeleton, dressed in gentleman's clothes, pulling at a lever on an old fashioned electrical fuse box which turned off the lights. When first installed, the figure had a hat, though this mysteriously disappeared at around 2006. Along with this, the lower jaw and wig were | ||
Revision as of 14:54, 13 June 2010
Electric Bill (also known as Skeleton Bob, William Sparks, Bill Electrique, Kumar Dixit or simply Bill) is the animatronic skeleton from Duel (previously known as The Haunted House) at Alton Towers. It is in fact a real person's soul trapped inside the figuritive cage of the fibreglass skull, leading to the owner of the soul to believe he is by the mystery of the figure, though in fact he is just mentally disturbed. But you will learn more about that when you study Quantum Dark Ride Theory. Anyway, the animatronic was built by Spark's Creative Services after a design by Barry Lee and Andrew Howarth. It was installed on the ride in 1993 as part of the new Skeleton Corridor scene (see below), being a replacment for a previous scene named the 'Ghost Corridor', which totally, epically, miserably failed. Tut tut, Keith Sparks! Again...
Ghost Corridor and Early Years
Only several months after opening day in 1992, one of the Haunted House's major effects began to cause problems. It broke, basically. The Flying Ghost was supposed to glide over riders' heads and down the Ghost Corridor before disappearing behind a wall. The effect was achieved using an inverted track that the ghost prop ran along, situated overhead. The effect worked like a rollercoaster. The prop was released at the top of the track, it ran down to the other end using gravity, before entering a lift hill hidden behind the wall which took it back up to the top. Sounds neat, does it not? B&M were busy at the time, so the track was manufactured by Arrow Dynamics instead. Problems started after enthusiastic members of staff mistook it for a real rollercoaster, and proceeded to ride the ghost along the corridor until flaking paint/death occured. Arrow were called in to rectify the issues caused by the misuse, but unfortunately had since gone bust.
John Wardley called in Barry Lee and Andrew Howarth (two Haunted House project workers) to redesign the whole scene with replacement effects. These included: a skeleton on a toilet; a skeleton with a bomb; a skeleton in bed; an exploded skeleton lying in the remains of another toilet. So, an insight into the minds of Lee and Howarth, there.
Along with the new infestation of peculiar skeltons, Electric Bill was installed at the beginning of the scene. The effect consisted of the skeleton, dressed in gentleman's clothes, pulling at a lever on an old fashioned electrical fuse box which turned off the lights. When first installed, the figure had a hat, though this mysteriously disappeared at around 2006. Along with this, the lower jaw and wig were
