Alton Towers - SW7 - "The Smiler"

Advertising is amusingly refreshing.


Coaster looks terrible though. Am I the only one who thinks being upside-down is boring? It just seems like they tried to cram as many dragged out inversions as they could. The only inversions that are fun to me are the ones that whip you around, like old school B&M's. New style inversions that are dragged out just... suck.

Looks better than YOLO Coaster though.

^ Actually it looks like that cobra roll is banked even less than hydra's so you're not really upside down

Originally posted by gouldy

this is good advertising indeed. BUT!!

why the hell is it all in london? would make much more scence to do it around birmingham, manchester, derby. nottingham ect?

the the video is so uninspired but kinda cool at the same time

[gouldy]

Originally posted by gazag

Originally posted by gouldy

this is good advertising indeed. BUT!!

why the hell is it all in london? would make much more scence to do it around birmingham, manchester, derby. nottingham ect?

7 million people live in London and it has many thousands of tourists from across the country and the globe, everyday. That, and I'd guess that most people who live in Brum, Nottingham, Derby or Manchester are pretty well aware of Alton Towers' existence, given their geographical location

I could understand major advertising events in Brum or Manchester, though. But certainly not Nottingham or Derby.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Originally posted by Bottom_Feeder_13

And we have already found the music that's going to be played in the queueline. This is going to be so annoying.

[Coasterkidmwm]

It's legal to project images on to Big Ben? Or is that Photoshop? I figured "classy" UK would forbid such shameless advertisement on a national landmark

its perfect ally legal to project on big ben as long as its not anti government.

Nottingham and derby are actually very big way points for travelers going all over the country.

[youtube]J2Qya-ULEMQ[/youtube]

[gouldy]

Actually, you're free to project whatever you like, wherever you like, even if it is anti-government. Until someone objects to it, it's no issue, but that would only be in the case of a privately owned building, like a house or business.

However, we'll assume Merlin sought prior agreement in the case of these projections [;)]

Their advertising still confuses me, almost every time. Painting the logo onto sheep and then doing voice overs to have the sheep saying things that seem to be intended to be funny, but are, in fact, painfully un-funny. Why? It bears no relevance. It can only be to get people talking about it, but saying what...? "What the heck was that?"

Merlin has such a... weird marketing team.

[gouldy]

Turns out that they definitely are repainting Oblivion.

It was a dull grey, now it's a very dark grey. (I bet no one could have predicted this level of originality from Merlin - to change its colour more than 2 entire shades!?)





In all seriousness, though, does look quite nice

[Coasterkidmwm]

Are you sure those aren't the original Oblivion colors and Oblivion just hasn't been UV faded to hell?

so from a nice 50% gray to a 80%-90% gray?

still its nice to see the track getting a paint and apparently on the trains too.
it really needed it. being an experiment in the first place oblivion should be fresh and clean where as nemesis looks better year n year

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

Are you sure those aren't the original Oblivion colors and Oblivion just hasn't been UV faded to hell?

Haha yeah, I'm pretty sure those were Oblivion's original colors.

The Brits are trying to make this more newsworthy than it is.

Originally posted by gazag

still its nice to see the track getting a paint and apparently on the trains too.
it really needed it. being an experiment in the first place oblivion should be fresh and clean where as nemesis looks better year n year

Blivvy defo needs a new lick of paint, plus the queue needs a complete rehab, i just hope we get a new Holding Break, back in 1998 you got 3 Seconds now u get less of a Dont Look Down more of a Dont.Lo (Drop)

And in regards to Nemmie i agree to an extent however,the station seriosly needs to made back to its 94 standards and athough the track and supports look better with less paint, the bit seriosly needs a de weeding.. I thought nemesis made the pit you see today.. not Nemesis made the pit you see today..but after 18 years the poor sod got lazy and decided to let the wraiths from Th13teen have a test run for the dark forest.

[gouldy]

Originally posted by AJClarke0912

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

Are you sure those aren't the original Oblivion colors and Oblivion just hasn't been UV faded to hell?

Haha yeah, I'm pretty sure those were Oblivion's original colors.

The Brits are trying to make this more newsworthy than it is.

It certainly used to be darker, but it was never this dark; this is almost black. Take a look back at the oldest photos on rcdb, they're from 10/11 years ago, and it's pretty much exactly the same colour as the lighter grey.

But yes, a boring track repaint isn't really news worthy, or rather, it wouldn't be if it happened in the US. But... the UK is a little bit rubbish.

Originally posted by CKidd

^ Actually it looks like that cobra roll is banked even less than hydra's so you're not really upside down

I think you've mentioned a good point, but cobras and immels and dive loop elements on Euro-fighters unbank much later and more quickly so I think this cobra roll will actually have you upside down more than Hydra's does.

[gouldy]

This is an interesting photo.




You can see the area that has previously been covered on aerial photos, but there doesn't seem to even be anything of interest


Also, it seems like I was very wrong to say that Oblivion was never this dark before. I found a picture from when it opened, and it seems as though it was previously exactly this colour




I honestly never remember it being that dark, but I guess it was!

[Coasterkidmwm]

Told ya it was probably a ton darker lol

Considering that Oblivion is getting fairly ancient, in comparison to modern rides, the paint was always going to endure some hefty weathering, and for a colour as dark as this, the fading is never apparent until you see old and new side by side. Personally, I think the Darker shade suits it much more. Grey doesn't say "Oblivion" to me, it says "Rita's above the treeline!"

Not only that, but it felt like much more of a renovation paint than a full re-paint, as The news was suggesting. Silly news.

[gouldy]

Damn, I remember Oblivion opening, does that make me fairly ancient? In fact, scratch that, I remember Nemesis opening... actually, come to think of it, Oblivion is only 4 years younger than Nemesis - damn, seems like only yesterday I was there as a younger person looking at the trench they were digging for Oblivion. That was nearly 15 years ago!

does it make me even more ancient when i say i was at the opening of nemesis and oblivion. man that makes me feel old.

damn you kids and your hair

[Coasterkidmwm]

Originally posted by gazag


damn you kids and your hair

I has it

[gouldy]

woah. That second pic.