electricBlll

I am sorry to hear that you have been annoyed.

You completely failed to see what I meant in my post.In a dark ride everything can be built to look realistic/believable. Unless poorly lighted or constructed, you should not be able to see revealing aspects such as the edges of sets or mechanisms that operate the effects.However, if you stick these things outside in full view of everybody, they look fake! Really fake! Just look at this guy! He is fake!Fake!Fake!Are you really saying that this hard plastic-faced dummy looks like a real person? And that placing him motionless on some dirt by the side of the Vampire queueline is good quality theming? No, it's fake!However, if you see him in the distance in dimmed light, in an enclosed, well themed environment as he moves fluidly and appears to speak to you then it is far more believable. In short, this animatronic was not designed to go outside and therefore looks poor.Stare into his eyes! Stare at the Abdab! See the fakeness within!

There is a Bubbleworks tour as well, but they don't show as much (and it is from Theme Park Review ). You can see that .Yep, very very interesting stuff on Vampire there. Saw it a while ago, still really interesting.

Hmm, I don't think there is anything to suggest that. Thorpe Park had their own budget to spend on theming, regardless of what external companies were involved. In fact, there may have been better theming because less would have been spent on gaining rights to the Saw franchise.

Yes, whatever did happen to the electric shock effects in Saw Alive? I seem to remember an official note from Thorpe Park about electric shocks, so it was not just false rumour or something like that. It seems as if it really was planned at one point.I also remember on that preview day there were reports of people using items of clothing wrapped around their hands to avoid getting shocked. I never heard anybody from that preview actually say they got shocked though.Then, when the attraction opened to the public, all of the stuff about electric shocks just disappeared. I remember there was some loud vibration in that scene, but no shocks. I heard that the shocks had been disabled for health and safety reasons, but it must be more than that because they were obviously made to be perfectly safe. Is there any news on exactly why this happened, or if there ever were shocks at all?Just wondering.

Where is your source for this?Thorpe Park did all their own design work and they came up with their own ideas for Saw The Ride, apart from the fact that it is based on a movie. They planned it to have an indoor section with a horror based theme, and they released concept images with their own planned appearance of the areas. Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures did not design the ride for them.So, no, Saw was not "only well themed because Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures were involved", although the movie companies would have obviously kept watch over the plans that Thorpe were coming up with and had their say on certain parts of the ride. However, it was Merlin's art department that designed Saw and it is thanks to them that Saw is as well themed as it is, not because of Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures. Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures may have pushed the boundaries for them a bit though, but that is as far as I think they could have influenced the ride.

Saw Alive was never meant to be something to spend lots of money on with brilliantly trained actors in the first place. That is why I think it was something of a bad idea to go ahead with a year-round horror maze in the first place. But it was never going to be anything special, just a little something to promote Saw The Ride and give an excuse to say that there was a "new attraction for 2010". The plan worked, even if the maze itself is rather naff.

Theming is essentially artwork and architectural design, with lots of added theming "features" and "objects" as well. It all builds up a big visual picture, and usually the more the better. You descriptive theming and then you have something interactive like effects.Well, yes! You can do loads more than just metal and sounds! That is not theming, really. If it is then it is extremely bad theming and has been done to the lowest level possible, probably to save money. No, theming has to have love and care put into it and must be visually impressive to be really good theming. Give it its own "character" to it as well.The only place where Thorpe Park have ever given something its own unique style and character is Amity Cove. Amity Cove is brilliant though. Well, for a UK park, though it is possibly on a European scale. It certainly would have been if half the effects had gone bust - they really added a lot.Although, I guess Saw is alright, too. Mostly just the inside though which I really like and always have done. It has effects and atmosphere in the queue, lighting, etc. Then the dark section is always a great and essential part of the ride.Apart from that Thorpe Park is terrible with good themework, in my opinion. Europe is getting really advanced with amazing theming, it isn't just the USA anymore. Yet, the UK went the other way and focussed less on theming, it seemed, until very recently. Well, when I say the UK I really just mean Thorpe, Alton and Chessington, pretty much thanks to the laziness of Tussaudes and the rise of Merlin. However, no where else in the UK is a really well themed park anyway, at least nothing that stands out greatly.

Project Odyssey.

Oops, yes, Mark Fisher.Well, you say Thorpe Park is a "thrill" park and therefore not a theme park. I don't see how being a park aimed more at people who want big thrills means they cannot be a theme park anymore. A "thrill" park can still be a world class theme park, and there are many examples of theme parks that are much more thrilling than Thorpe but also have brilliant design and themework.Also, it isn't as if Thorpe Park's target age market don't care at all about theming. Yes, a significant number of people in Britain are a bit ignorant about theming but they do notice it is there. It makes a massive difference to a ride/experience nonetheless. Also, a theme park is meant to be well themed, it is the main purpose of a theme park to have a sense of escapism and visual pleasure. That is why Chessington did so well when it first opened, people had both the big thrills and the sense of adventure. Thorpe Park were getting somewhere after Tussaudes got hold of it, but then Tussaudes became lazy and half-arsed, meaning most of the developments that were carried out are extremely bad in terms of theming.After all, the easiest option is to do quick and easy theming and focus more on a quick thrill, is it not? That is the easy way out, so I guess that is what Thorpe Park did now and then. I mean, things like Slammer were by no means cheap, but now it looks awful and has a terribly boring queueline, the whole thing is unimaginative. Whereas Saw is an extremely popular ride, yet the actual coaster is fairly unthrilling. People like it because it delivers the whole package - ride and themework together.In my opinion, Thorpe Park is still a theme park, and not an amusement park. They just need to get back up to a good theming standard as well as continuing to build their thrill rides that the GP seem to love so much.

Well, obviously that is how it should be done. Thorpe Park is actually a terrible theme park compared to others thanks to their lazy view on theme and experience. However, recently this seems to have been changed for the better. Still not as good as it could be, but Saw alone has shown that they can pull off something good if they tried.Recently Nick Varney said in an interview that: "A ride like Rita at Alton Towers, whilst being a brilliant coaster is not really a themed ride - theming was an afterthought - and I can’t think we would add a ride without a story now." This is promising for future rides, including Thorpe Park's own LC12. X Raptor at Gardaland and Krake at Heide Park already show signs of big backstories and theming. All good stuff.

No, not removed the windows, just altered the theming features behind the glass.They definitely did it recently, as last year there was that goblin in the style of Hocus Pocus Hall stuck on the wall behind the final window. It seems they were trying to promote Hocus Pocus by adding it, but it has thankfully been absent since the start of this year. However, a lot of the windows are completely empty, it just seems likely that they once had more of a purpose and that there was something behind them.

Yes, welcome Mark. I see you have already made some pretty good posts around here already.I don't think I ever introduced myself on here in the first place. It's a bit late now, but... Hi, I'm Peter, also known as ElectricBill on teh internetz. I think I have been on here for almost a year now, in fact I joined on the 29th December 2009 according to my forum profile info. But, hai anyway!

Noted and have fun? That sounds, erm, ominous.But, good point about the colours! I bet this colour cheapens my posts in some people's view. Bit of a habit of mine, I should stop.

I also hear quite a bit about the corridor leading into the station. I know there are a few bits of ivy, a severed hand and even a gremlin of sorts from Hocus Pocus Hall at one point in those windows on the corridor walls. However, it sounds to me as if that corridor was changed to be less frightening for children at some point in time.I know that the queueline does not stack up in there anymore, since batching happens at the Express Pass merge point, but I remember when I was very young we had to wait in the corridor in the darkness! Also, there are added white lights on the ceiling now which I think were added to make it less dark and spooky.Does anybody know if there used to be more in the windows if this corridor?

It probably stopped working long before you started riding, MrMan. And it also would have probably only been turned on at night. A shame, really, that things stop working the way they were designed to work.If you look, there is a little door on the other side of the main tower, visible from the queueline when it goes behind the arches, that probably used to lead to inspection cupboards for the old lighting and speaker systems.I do like the fact that they have fixed the exterior music, this year. That brought back lots of memories of queueing outside!

One thing to learn quickly is that you should keep away from 'certain' members... No matter how discriminatory that sounds it is a very important tip for new members! You don't want to be deemed "not worthy of being a member of Mania Hub" like I was!

Ah, that's fine, sorry 'bout that.

Yep. Well, how "realistic" it looks is down to opinion, but the thing about having effects in a particular theatrical environment is always true on every dark ride. That is the main point of every dark ride - to be an enclosed building in which theatrical effects take place with lighting and all the rest. Not necessarily "dark", but usually dark, hence the term "dark ride".And, Tomb Blaster is far more believable than Abdab outside. Just look at him, his paint is coming off and his face is made of hard plastic that has no life in it. Whereas in Tomb Blaster it takes a more careful eye than usual (or flash photography ) to find the edges of sets or mechanisms for the effects. Hope that makes sense.And, good point Benin. Personally I think that Tomb Blaster was one of the better quality rethemes of that time, and the giant snake, for example, is actually nicely impressive. So, it isn't all that bad...

True, but it should not replace Rattlesnake. Rattlesnake is great for slightly taller kids, you see, and fun-loving young adults/teenagers as well. It is a bit of a Chessington classic as well and would be missed sorely.

But then he would look as bad as he does now. Animatronics (in fact, all effects) work best when they are placed in an environment in which they look most realistic/believable. This is usually in the darkness, so that you cannot see the mechanisms that work them. This environment also should include lighting, audio and sensory effects to help the atmosphere. I mean, you would not have Tomb Blaster outdoors would you? Because everything would look wrong and you would not be in an enclosed environment. So, by having Abdab outside in Vampire he looks a bit wrong. Also, if you had him sat in the station just static, staring into space, he would again look fake and wrong.The only other situation I can think of in which there are animatronics outside is in the Rattlesnake queueline. In my opinion, they are really fake and weird, but there are so many of them that I guess it isn't too bad. But, you can easily see the difference between animatronics in a dark ride that look great, and animatronics outside that might be a tad rickety/unconvincing. There just isn't much you can do other than what it was originally designed for. It is a shame Terror/Forbidden Tomb was ever rethemed in the first place.

Yes, lowering the height limit for Rattlesnake would do wonders for the ride and the little thrill seekers.However, removing it altogether just because it has a bit of a high height restriction is a bit extreme. You know, the restriction would only rule out about a third of the visitors to Chessington, not everybody. So there are still loads of people who would want to ride it, not everybody is a child under 1.4m.But, yes, a refurbishment of the ride's rather old fashioned cars would do wonders for it.

Gosh, can you say anything on the internet anymore without somebody jumping at you saying "everybody has an opinion". Yes, I know everybody can have an opinion, including me. And I never said his opinion was "wrong" at all. My post was very light-hearted and positive, please re-read.Well, I don't think they would put him back in Tomb Blaster. He is probably completely knackered on the inside now, and would need replacement mechanisms inside. Also, there would have to be totally new computer programming to tell the animatronic what to move and when to move, and a new audio soundtrack would have to be arranged. I doubt Chessington can be bothered to do all that, which is a shame.Also, where would you put him in Tomb Blaster? He doesn't really fit now, unfortunately. I would like to see him back holding the lamp on that turn just after the train leaves the station (you know the place?). When he used to call out "Oi! No more tourists in this tomb! This tomb is shut! The jewel is mine!" blah blah blah. A little "warning" from him about the tomb would really set up the ride nicely.

Put him in a museum then, not a queueline!He's gonna get all faded and vandalised being in the queue now anyway. They even ripped off the moustache on one of them.

Yeah it has been going on for quite a while before the poster came about. We already know its location and have a good idea of its genre.