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The Smiler


th13teen

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DOsA6XQ.png
Always nice to see they found a good use for Cameron Diaz...
Seriously though, I love that image. And the spider thing looks amazing too. Pleeeease make it that design.
As for the lexicon thing: a lexicon is a bank of words or essentially, a vocabulary. It's not going to be the spider thing. Basically The Smiler will feature it's own jargonised language, possibly as a way of making the processes and experiments performed there part of an inaccessible elite to outsiders who won't understand terms like "Marmalisation" and "Inoculation" in the context of The Smiler.
And also, it'd be worth noting Tussauds/Merlin were/are a bit crap when it comes to OTSRs in promo images. Stealth Inferno anyone?
stealth.jpg
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A Press Release from the park:

ALTON TOWERS RESORT BAFFLES THE NATION IN A BAAAARMY HOAX

Alton Towers Resort stages a hoax as it prepares to launch The Smiler, the brand new coaster for 2013

Today, Alton Towers Resort has admitted responsibility for the mysterious branding of sheep which has swept across the UK. It was all part of an elaborate stunt to reveal the name of its new rollercoaster for 2013, The Smiler. The stunt, which has puzzled the nation for the past week, saw hundreds of sheep across the county emblazoned with a strange symbol. The symbol has been identified as the logo for The Smiler, which will open to the public later this year.

Last week a group of farmers, who were recruited by the Resort, branded their flocks of sheep using black livestock aerosol marker and a stencil of The Smiler symbol. Pictures of the painted sheep were leaked on Twitter after being posted by the farmers involved and bewildered members of the public. The pictures soon went viral as many people re-tweeted the posts and sharing their own thoughts and theories on what the symbol meant. A number of newspapers and websites picked up the story causing widespread confusion across the country.

It has since been revealed that it was all part of a stunt for Alton Towers Resort. Katherine Duckworth from the Resort commented, “We wanted to create some mystery around the name of our new world first rollercoaster, The Smiler. We’ve managed to baffle the nation and hopefully made a few people smile. The Smiler will be our biggest and most thrilling attraction the Resort has ever seen and we can’t wait for guests to join us in May and experience it for themselves.”

Ros Turner, a farmer from Melton Mowbray said: “Everyone loves a mystery and it was great to be involved in the hoax. It made a nice change from milking cows and ploughing fields!”

The Smiler is the new world-first rollercoaster coming to the Alton Towers Resort in 2013. The Smiler is an all-knowing controlling force that will make riders compliant until they become a smiling advocate.

The ride, which is the Resort’s biggest ever investment, will feature a track the length of ten football fields, gut-wrenching 30-meter drops and hurtling speeds of up to 85km per hour. For more details on the The Smiler, coming to Alton Towers Resort in 2013 visitwww.altontowers.com/thesmiler

Notes to editor:

About The Smiler:

In 2013, Alton Towers Resort will launch its biggest ever rollercoaster – The Smiler (www.altontowers.com/thesmiler). The first of its kind in the world, The Smiler will be the biggest ever investment for a ride at the Resort. Whilst many of the details are still a closely guarded secret, here are a few exclusive facts:

· Highest drop – 30m

· Maximum speed – approx 85km/hr which is 10km/hr faster than Air

· Track length – 1,170m. This is 3x the length of Oblivion

· Ride time – 165 seconds which is 3x the ride time of Rita

· Passengers per ride train – 16 (4x rows of 4)

· Minimum rider height – 1.4m

· Location – X Sector, on the site of the old Black Hole ride

· Investment for the Resort - £18m

http://press.altontowers.com/news-alton-towers-resort-baffles-the-nation-in-a-baaarmy-hoax-11714 - Source

Particularly, note this: "The Smiler will be our biggest and most thrilling attraction the Resort has ever seen and we can’t wait for guests to join us in May and experience it for themselves.”

Opening date seems to be in May then!

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I must say, I've been impressed with the way this project has evolved.

2 months ago I wasn't particularly excited about Alton's new coaster, a probably gimmicky, possibly rough-riding Gerstlauer, painted black and styled (as is the Merlin way of late) on a horror-based theme.

If the finished product is as creative and story-led as the marketing and promotion for the ride would lead us to believe, though, then I think we might be in for a treat. Let's hope the ride experience matches up to the stellar advertising of it. And as far as I'm concerned, a May opening is just fine - would much rather wait than see a rushed job in March.

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Wow! So much news! Though over night (thanks to a theme park related dream B)) The Smiler name grew on me, funny enough I find out this morning, it is the actual name, still abit mixed about it, lets hope Merlin don't follow this trend of ride naming's beginning with The and second word beginning with S! ;)

The marketing image is fantastic, everything coming together! But MAY?! Better late than never I guess... It should be opening around about the same time as Gatekeeper! Lets get ready for #TheSmiler

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Right, so I have decided to re-evaluate my opinion of The Smiler as a name and it's now completely contradictary to what I said last night. When the name is next to the logo and the new poster that was released on the minisite, I think it fits in perfectly! I think we was all assuming that this ride would have a very sinister, dark approach like Oblivion; and whilst the story is quite sinister, the ride seems to be marketed in a different way. From the posters we have seen so far, it's almost as if Alton are not taking the story as seriously as they could be. Sure the story is quite sinister, but when you compare it to the poster it seems almost quite jokey! I think that if Alton were to develop this ride like Oblivion to have ''No happy ending'', to quote th Lord of Darkness, then a more punchy menacing name would be appropriate. But I don't get the impression that this SW will be like that. It's almost as if Alton have a dark story, but they are playing around with it and marketing the ride to be a bit less disturbing. Which is a change I welcome amongst the darker rides Merlin have been churning out as of late...

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I don't like the name. I just can't imagine saying 'Let's go ride The Smiler.' :ninja: Anyway, with the May opening, does this mean Oblivion and the rest of X-Sector will not be opening until then too? Being as the construction fences and vehicles and everything else seem to be taking up quite a lot of the space in the open areas of X-Sector... Would be nice if they could confirm something nearer the time.

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Luckily no spoilers on this page. I just want to say that Oblivion and Nemesis would have sounded just as ridiculous when they first came out. On top of that Towers doesn't need another Nemesis or Oblivion, they need something for 2013 and with the recent push back to surveillance state in the media and in general with the internet this works really well. I want theme parks to be pushing boundaries, not staying in comfort zones which I would definitely count monster names and abstract words.

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Luckily no spoilers on this page. I just want to say that Oblivion and Nemesis would have sounded just as ridiculous when they first came out.

No, they didn't! I remember everyone going mad over the word "Nemesis" back in 1994. It sounded dramatic and terrifying. Oblivion also has that sinister dystopian sound to it.

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No, they didn't! I remember everyone going mad over the word "Nemesis" back in 1994. It sounded dramatic and terrifying. Oblivion also has that sinister dystopian sound to it.

I don't personally know what the reaction was, but the rest of his post was spot on. This line in the press release is especially brilliant: "The Smiler is an all-knowing controlling force that will make riders compliant until they become a smiling advocate."

This kind of name and theme is definitely something no one was expecting and it's all for the better. After Saw and Th13teen, it's great to see Merlin still have it in them to create a backdrop story full of originality and intrigue such as The Swarm and now The Smiler.

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I might of been a tad extreme with what I said about the name last night. I suppose I'm reversing my decision on the name. With the poster and all it fits quite well, I'm still abit unsure but I'm sure it will grow on me. As for the spider I love that they are including it. It will be awesome to weave through it . As for "The Inoculator" could it possibly be a renaming for Enterprise or Submission or the name for the spider or even the secret element.

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I can't believe it is actually the smiler! I got an email just now to tell me what it's called, personally I think it's a stupid name but the ride will live up to expectations :)

What's up with 'the' at the moment?

The swarm

The smiler

I know this is all but surely merlin are going to keep adding 'the' at begining of rides, I'm starting to catch on now and call samurai 'the samurai' and vortex 'the vortex' :P

Also in the artwork, it seems that the 4x4 cars are Floorless, I know this may not be anything to do with it but is that anything to do with the 'worlds first' also I really don't want Colossus taking over but I am really confused because intamin have already planned a 12 looping coaster but gerstular and just creeping ahead ;)

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I'm somewhat glad it's now going to be open in May - means things won't be rushed (although a March opening would have been impossible I think). Track should be finished within a month hopefully, giving plently of time for theming, testing etc. I reckon we could see a soft opening in April though.

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