Interesting selection of items. It's unfortunate that none of the original posters will be in the auction (station or the ones from his 'office') but as I said before, I assume these were painted onto the actual walls, so I doubt they come off (unless the panels can come off from the wall). They will be covered over again I assume. I am still unsure as to why the frames aren't included though? I guess, although drastically modified, the 'bubbleheads' will hold some sentimental value - to know they were in the ride before the refurbishment and weren't just brought in like the ducks were is at least, for some people, something. Others, (like myself) will think actually they are nothing like they were intended to be or look like and have been painted over so whats the point?

 

I do, however find it interesting that many of the larger props/scenery aren't up for grabs. For example, the old beaufart scale, the jacuzzi, big bubblehead, the cow, bottles from the conveyor belt before the lift, the giant 'scary' bubble, the cylinders from the gas room. Although quite substantial in size, a few of the items in the auction are quite big. I am wondering whether some of these will indeed be retained from the old ride to put in the new one. Either that or they will throw them in a skip but surely there are other items that *could* have gone in the auction rather than simply throwing them away - although, come to think of it... that's what the park does best - throwing away.

Most of the original items got auctioned off in the first place, many on here have items from it...

 

It's very sad that the park have to resort to under handed marketing tactics though, so some idiot will buy the mango sign for... Some reason...

I was hoping to pick up the fountains for my garden. Oh well!

I went on Bubbleworks yesterday and the whole experience seemed very...quick.  I haven't been on it for a few years, so I'm not sure if memory is serving me poorly, but does anyone know if the ride has been sped up in any way (by, say, making the flow of the water faster)?  Another reason for me thinking this is that they seemed to struggle to fill every boat because ride staff couldn't organise people quickly enough, and an overflowing queue only took 25 minutes ish, despite being advertised as 55.

 

As for the ride itself, it was dreadful and depressing.  I'm so glad they've decided to give it a lot of attention, since it's actually pretty embarrassing in it's current state.

Well, we had our "Bye bye Bubbleworks" Tour today.

 

I have to say, I was very impressed!

 

The guy playing professor burp was very funny, but most importantly (and somewhat suprising) he knew his stuff!

Right from the get-go, he made it clear that the tour would be talking about the ride as it used to be in 1990, before the 2006 refurb.

And so he did.

He was very knowledgable, going into great detail about the history of the ride and about every room in the tour on how it was originally conceived by

John Wardley, and how it appeared in the final ride! And he wasn't reading from a script, he knew his stuff and seemed very genuine in his enthusiasm for the ride. 

At every stage, he would talk about what used to be there in 1990, what animatronics were there, how they moved, the lines spoken by professor burp during the 4 encounters with him during the ride etc.

Then he would would point our what changed, and he too seemed to hate the imperial leather stuff! I was quite surprised, he knew the ride wasn't a patch on what it used to be.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was worth the £28 for me (Merlin pass discount).

The Gruffalo? Is that IP still popular, I feel like it's so 6 years ago. Why can't anyone just build a half decent haunted house anymore?!

7 hours ago, Merry-go-girl said:

The Gruffalo? Is that IP still popular, I feel like it's so 6 years ago. Why can't anyone just build a half decent haunted house anymore?!

I do feel the IP is still popular! The books are still being sold, the film is shown every year at Christmas, Every British kid born after 2000 probably my owned an edition, I can practically recite the entire thing!

The Gruffalo is not what we wanted or needed but could be a lovely family attraction with some great theming (I'm thinking similar to Scruffydog's theming for IAC but less jungly and more foresty)

Plus animatronics for the characters (please not screens)

But ONLY if Chessington can be bothered.

Which Probably won't happen. They'll photocopy a fleabitten old copy of the book and paste it on the walls everywhere and get a monotone woman to read it out over the speakers.

But wait, didn't Merlin hint the theme would still be a factory tour? 

13 hours ago, Merry-go-girl said:

But wait, didn't Merlin hint the theme would still be a factory tour? 

 

As Charlie is now shut at Alton, Maybe they are moving it to Chessington then?

No, Charlie is closed cos the contract is finished, and probably one of the lifts being buggered...

On Thursday, August 25, 2016 at 1:10 AM, Merry-go-girl said:

But wait, didn't Merlin hint the theme would still be a factory tour? 

A book factory? A Gruffalo factory? Eh, it's probably just marketing.

On 8/25/2016 at 1:10 AM, Merry-go-girl said:

But wait, didn't Merlin hint the theme would still be a factory tour? 

Ha, yes they did. Just like their PR also pretended the is the same as its always been, so that's twice they've lied to you.

What I've been questioning about the Gruffalo theme is how in a million years will it ever fit in with the Transylvanian theme? The guys down at Merlin Magic Making will have to be bloody good to pull that one off...

My favourite thing about the Gruffalo rumour is this (albeit old) article:  http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/I-created-a-monster-julia-donaldson-on-how-the-gruffalo-has-taken-over-her-life-1828845.html

 

Quote

Is there no end to the inexorable rise of The Gruffalo? Oh yes there is, insists its creator. Enough is enough. So, unlike Harry Potter, there will be no accompanying theme park, and certainly nothing as crass as a film version.

 

 

3 hours ago, Kerfuffle said:

What I've been questioning about the Gruffalo theme is how in a million years will it ever fit in with the Transylvanian theme? The guys down at Merlin Magic Making will have to be bloody good to pull that one off...

Give the Gruffalo a hammy Romanian accent. 

"Silly snake, zoesn't know, zere's no zuch thing zas Gruffelo"

12 hours ago, Kerfuffle said:

What I've been questioning about the Gruffalo theme is how in a million years will it ever fit in with the Transylvanian theme? The guys down at Merlin Magic Making will have to be bloody good to pull that one off...

 

Why does it matter if it doesn't fit in with Transylvania - doesn't normally stop Merlin

Plus a fizzy drink factory/ duck farm doesn't exactly fit in with Transylvania either... In fact, the Gruffalo is set in a forest, so you could say it fits better...

Yes a fizzy drinks factory didn't "fit in with Transylvania" in the first place. Except, back then there were no fiddly theme park enthusiasts to get hung up on that, when they could all be enjoying the brilliant ride and lovely scenic area instead. BubbleWorks had a very European eccetricity inside but that was as far as backstory went.

 

Backstories and "making sense" are an invention for when bad designs need an excuse to sound good anyway, a good ride doesn't need them. Probably even the Gruffalo Storybook Adventure could fit unobtrusively in the area if it were any good.

Wasn't it supposed to be like the lighter side of Transylvsnia though?

 

I'm pretty sure the original area comprised of two main areas. The dark and scary area where Vampire is with the castle and forests whilst the other area where Professor Burps is was supposed to be the upbeat area with town/village a brewery.

 

Ive always thought Transylvania has been one of the most coherent themed areas in the UK (let alone Chessie) and hope this show-horned IP doesn't ruin this. 

 

 

Well either way whatever the new ride is, hopefully it has a similar charm to the original Bubbleworks; maybe musical, maybe colourful, but like Matt said, it has to be the bright and happy side of Transylvania.

3 hours ago, Kerfuffle said:

Well either way whatever the new ride is, hopefully it has a similar charm to the original Bubbleworks; maybe musical, maybe colourful, but like Matt said, it has to be the bright and happy side of Transylvania.

Being an IP I somehow doubt that

6 hours ago, Whatever said:

Plus a fizzy drink factory/ duck farm doesn't exactly fit in with Transylvania either... In fact, the Gruffalo is set in a forest, so you could say it fits better...

But the forest is the other end of Transylvania and it includes a beautiful Arrow Suspended Coaster!

You're misunderstanding the design of the area. It was designed from an experience point of view to have contrast between the eccentric Germanic town area and the darker Vampire area in the trees, a fun thematic thread to pick up on. But it wasn't meant to be explicit as in "this is the lively area, this is the dark area" as such, it was just designed well to have contrast and balance the 2 rides with nice room to explore.

 

However in the last 10 years its just been a mess of stuff and the park clearly don't understand design of anything if they want to paint a building bright purple "to make it scary" and have plastic shower heads greeting you as you enter the area. If asked how Gruffalo fits in Transylvania they'll probably stick up a sign saying "the Gruffalo's taken over the factory" or something trashy, to appease the fans like they did with X Sector in 2013. They don't even consider proper design when they make these decisions.

See, this is what frustrates me, not just about Merlin but big companies in general. I honestly haven't seen one good reaction to the Gruffalo rumours. I want to think Merlin won't be that stupid but with people such as you, @Archive, who are very knowledgeable saying how likely it is put together with the fact that popular rumours about Merlin rides are nearly always right (Thirteen's drop, Smiler's name, Derren Brown's Ghost Train) the more I think "Its going to be the Gruffalo isn't it", and Merlin won't care about our feedback. The same sort of thing is happening in football. For those of you who don't know the EFL (English Football League) want to add another division to football, incorporate Premier League B Teams in and get rid of midweek games. Nobody wants it but it's looking likely it's going to happen in a few years anyway. Merlin won't care about the feedback and some of the people there seem so out of touch they're sat there thinking "Everyone's going to love this" whereas really everyone's just a bit sad Bubbleworks has gone, because its still very popular with young children. For example, when I told my younger cousins Bubbleworks was closing the reaction was "Oh no!" And when I said it's most likely going to be replaced by the Gruffalo they weren't happy. If, or when, Bubbleworks is replaced by the Gruffalo I honestly hope it blows up in Merlin's face, and all anyone ever says about the ride is "We want Bubbleworks back" "Bubbleworks was so much better" not because I think itll make them bring Bubbleworks back, but because hopefully itll make them realise what a stupid mistake they'll have made by replacing a ride which obviously isn't perfect but on its own (let's just imagine Prof. Burps never existed for one second) definetly isn't a bad dark ride, and which lots of people still enjoy. I never experienced Prof. Burps but when I was younger and I viewed Chessington as an "adults park" Bubbleworks was a very magical experience and my favourite ride in the world, and probably about equally as special as Prof. Burps was to kids back then. The Gruffalo would be a stupid, nonsensical, idiotic replacement but as if Merlin will listen to us, we have no say in it and we can either enjoy it or ignore it. I'll most likely be riding it once and on the off chance it's good I'll ride it more but I can't see it being good. Sorry for the long post but the thought of Merlin actually replacing Bubbleworks with the Gruffalo gets me so very angry. Even the fact that stuff like the elephants head is being sold but not the rest of it. You know what'll happen to it? It'll be painted Brown with some spikes on its back, no tail and a Gruffalo's head on it.

Welcome to our pain in 2005. Everything that was wonderful about Bubbleworks was ripped out, destroyed or given away ten years ago. It's probably why I am so less bothered about Gruffalo then others of a younger age because anything special about the ride went a long time ago.