Tomb Blaster

[Glitch]

23 minutes ago, SteveJ said:

High praise from random Twitter bloggers paid in free tickets to say good things about the park

Let's all wait to see what it's actually like in person. Who knows

They haven't been paid lol, too much of a niche. From reports its a much better experience, as with Chessington as a whole this year.

Also don't ever support that Coasting guy. He's a creep.

[SteveJ]

3 minutes ago, Glitch said:

From reports its a much better experience

I would be impressed if it could be any worse than the last revamp a couple years ago, which was also praised by the same bloggers as being much improved.

 

I'm not judging this revamp mind you, I havnt seen it for myself, I'm just saying this kind of hype over "changes" happens every year.

[Whatever]

I’m gonna be pretty sad if the music changes. I actually really liked it. Brings back a lot of good memories.

[yeah]

1 hour ago, Glitch said:

Also don't ever support that Coasting guy. He's a creep.

Not supporting him, he's worse than a creep. Just that he was the only other one who posted anything substantial about the updates.

 

In fairness I didn't see anyone say the last revamp was any good, I only ever heard bad things. Calling this one of the best UK dark rides though? Probably a bit far ahaha

[Stuntman707]

I'm cautiously optimistic its been improved. They can't have made it any worse than it was. Hopefully there is more of a story with hints of a darker theme again and better lighting. Audio will have to wait until I hear a recording. I'm not expecting it to be better than Valhalla though!

[SteveJ]

1 hour ago, Stuntman707 said:

They can't have made it any worse than it was.

I agree, but "It's better than nothing" seems to be the saying for nearly every UK park now! Is it entertaining though, is it a good ride?  That's what really matters. Like Vampire it should never have got into the state it was in

With stories in dark rides, much better to be entertaining and no literal story, than have a shoved in story but a dull attraction. To weave a new story through Tomb they'd have to do a lot of work, lot of budget and make it totally fresh. I'm expecting a video on some TVs and some signs, but Id love to be proved wrong!

[StevenVig]

This is a completely unbiased opinion, but the music change is fully welcome. I know that we have all grown to love the original theme music, and it holds many memories for us all. But the time has definitely come for the ride to have new life breathed into it.

 

Judging by the below video of this ride, the lighting and sound engineers have done an absolutely stellar job and I for one am extremely excited to get back on Tomb Blaster!

 

https://youtu.be/FQHxO92mm-8

[JoshC.]

4 hours ago, StevenVig said:

This is a completely unbiased opinion, but the music change is fully welcome. 

If you have to say that, it usually means it is a biased opinion...

 

Also how in earth you can use a 12 second video of mostly pitch black to judge the quality of the ride's upgrades is beyond me.

[Glitch]

 

Thanks to Chessington Buzz for the recorded POV. Wonder if they had permission?

[Ringo]

19 minutes ago, Glitch said:

 

Thanks to Chessington Buzz for the recorded POV. Wonder if they had permission?

They should remove the targets if they are staying switched off.

 

RIP another Chessington classic gone. (was gone years ago really)

 

Sounds like they solved the audio problems, shame about the audio being played though 

[Mattgwise]

1 hour ago, Ringo said:

They should remove the targets if they are staying switched off.

 

RIP another Chessington classic gone. (was gone years ago really)

 

Sounds like they solved the audio problems, shame about the audio being played though 

🤔  Think of whether it has been improved on last season not years and years ago!

 

It is certainly an improvement! Animatronics virtually all working for once, targets that do work look neater, it's much darker in the scenes, the audio works and it attempts to tell a story. As for the audio, it is not in any way catchy or memorable but it works for what its trying to do with the storyline being added.

I think it's a MASSIVE improvement on recent years. Well done Chessington.

[Marc]

Audio and Lighting is a lot better - agree odd they’ve left disabled targets in places a lot of people did seem confused but overall much better! Airgates in the station too help with loading are a good addition.

 

 

[SteveJ]

8 hours ago, StevenVig said:

Judging by the below video of this ride, the lighting and sound engineers have done an absolutely stellar job

Judging by that video, they have managed to make a light turn on and off?

Seriously people have to go see these things for themselves. Don't listen to all these social media people who get free tickets to say good things and personally know the park managers. I remember Chessington Buzz overhyping the last Tomb revamp too. It took some time after the season started for the obvious to settle—that the ride was still terrible

The old Tomb music was brilliant, it was more the sound system that was botched not the music itself. There must be a reason theyve changed it, maybe to go in a darker direction. Not just someone trying to give Nick Hutson a break I hope. Be prepared for him to tell absolutely everybody on earth that he did the new music.

Whatever, I will go in with an open mind, I'm sure we would all love for Tomb to be an entertaining attraction again. Not just "better than before", because anything is better than before.

[Glitch]

1 hour ago, SteveJ said:

Judging by that video, they have managed to make a light turn on and off?

Seriously people have to go see these things for themselves. Don't listen to all these social media people who get free tickets to say good things and personally know the park managers. I remember Chessington Buzz overhyping the last Tomb revamp too. It took some time after the season started for the obvious to settle—that the ride was still terrible

The old Tomb music was brilliant, it was more the sound system that was botched not the music itself. There must be a reason theyve changed it, maybe to go in a darker direction. Not just someone trying to give Nick Hutson a break I hope. Be prepared for him to tell absolutely everybody on earth that he did the new music.

Whatever, I will go in with an open mind, I'm sure we would all love for Tomb to be an entertaining attraction again. Not just "better than before", because anything is better than before.

@SteveJ really does have an agenda against people who get free tickets, well I guess a MAP once purchased is classed as a free ticket nowadays, unless you get the monthly, then you have to pay monthly.

[insider9150]

To be honest, I rode it today and the music was all out of sync with the ride, and I didn't really get it  still. Don't get me wrong, it was far better than the original version, but there was something missing. They shouldn't have open the ride unless everything was working correctly, instead of rushing things. I rode the vampire and was blown away by what chessington has done in the station, the q-line was also 100% better, and sounds fantastic., al I would say was turn those colour changing light off and it would be far better

[yeah]

I've seen a few people say that the missing targets were intentionally turned off rather than broken. Nothing concrete though.

 

[SteveJ]

59 minutes ago, Glitch said:

@SteveJ really does have an agenda against people who get free tickets, well I guess a MAP once purchased is classed as a free ticket nowadays, unless you get the monthly, then you have to pay monthly.

I sure do, it's well known parks are keeping social media "influencers" on their good side by giving them free tickets or invites, either that or a back door relationship with the park managers (nothing serious obviously, just silly though). Or it's the other way around with enthusiasts trying to suck up to park management to get freebies.

The reason I care is it just overhypes things and gets fans to believe this stuff is special (it's just normal maintenance in most parks this size around the world). Or it becomes one big enthusiast clique instead of focussing on entertaining the public.

But I literally have no idea about Tomb V3 and will go in open minded of course

[Mark9]

18 hours ago, Ringo said:

They should remove the targets if they are staying switched off.

 

RIP another Chessington classic gone. (was gone years ago really)

 

Sounds like they solved the audio problems, shame about the audio being played though 

 

You were three when the original Chessington classic went. I was four. God I miss the Fifth Dimension. 

[Matt 236]

Difficult to say whether how great the final product is, but it certainly looks an improvement on what the ride has been the last few years at least.

 

The added storyline certainly gives the ride an extra element and generally seems like a nod to the Terror Tomb days. The music is noticeably less distinctive but seems to work well enough for what’s there.

 

 

[Stuntman707]

The new music is very generic compared to the old music. It fits the theme but it's not as memorable. It's nice to see the effort has been put in this year to reinvent it and fix the awful lighting.

[SteveJ]

The "revamped" Tomb Blaster is marginally better than the broken down version before, but not as good as when Tomb Blaster first opened and still a dull, naff attraction. The hype this revamp is getting is starting to get ridiculous. The new music is good, shame theres no great theme tune like before but it adds something at least. The 'story' thing adds nothing at all and is not what the ride needed.

The whole train looked bored. There's still loads not working and some cringey choices with some moments


 

[JoshC.]

Jesus Christ this updated version of Tomb Blaster is terrible. Where to start...

 

1. Shoehorning in a story by having a weird voice say things in scenes adds nothing. I didn't get what the story was as half the time I was focusing on shooting.

2. Turning targets off and not removing them is poor. Having a shooting / interactive dark ride have scenes take place in darkness with a voiceover is even poorer.

3. Where's the audio?! Portions of the ride are in silence or literally just have the voice over. Dark rides should have some sort of background audio at the very least imo

4. The lighting is...okay? Quite a few scenes are lit up too brightly I'd say.

5. The "ending" is bloody dreadful, and again just shoehorned in.

6. Still don't like the new guns (I'm not a fan of those types of guns in general though).

 

The only positive I can say about Tomb Blaster is the fact that you are batched into the building now, which adds a sense of wonder and excitement to entering it (as opposed to just queueing normally through it). But I fully expect that that's just a Covid measure.

 

When the best thing about an updated ride is it's Covid measures, you know you've done something wrong.

[Ringo]

Some would say the lack of audio is an improvement on the audio it does have these days!

[JoshuaA]

Yeah Tomb Blaster sucks now, I really hope its the next victim of Chessington's vicious assault to refurbish/retheme/replace every aging ride at the park.

[SteveJ]

I'm glad the ride has reopened since lockdown, so that fans can go see for themselves how outstandingly awful the 'new' Tomb Blaster is rather than believe all the social media hype that went on back in spring.