TT Advent Calendar 2011

djtruefitt · Wed Dec 07, 2011 8:24 pm

Im not doing too well tonight with my mistakes on the forum!

Anyway back on topic, cheers for all the updates guys, I cant wait to see what else you have!

Thu Dec 08, 2011 6:53 pm

Found today's update particularly interesting - especially with the teaser of it on the advent calendar for the last seven or so days!

For some reason I prefer the conceptual name as opposed to Ripsaw - it sounds more... straight to the point. :P

Thu Dec 08, 2011 6:57 pm

It's amazing how close to the Oblivion theming that Ripsaw shop looked. I suppose it's no secret how popular the industrial look was back in the late 90s. Did that shop actually materialise?

As for the name - Ripsaw all the way!

djtruefitt · Thu Dec 08, 2011 7:36 pm

I much prefer the name Ripsaw rather than the Screw, but just think of all the inuendos you could have had with the Screw though!

When Ripsaw opened it did have a shop I belive, as it also sold on ride photos, which is now the food outlet next to Ripsaw, however I have no idea what it turned out to look like.

AstroDan · Thu Dec 08, 2011 7:51 pm

Staff used to call Corkscrew "Screw" anyway...

Thu Dec 08, 2011 10:31 pm

I believe the main focus of the shop became on ride photos, so not really as seen. It was known as Ripsaw's Relics, but was quite shortlived before being replaced by an arcade and the the current eatery in 2002 when Air opened.

Sat Dec 10, 2011 1:57 pm

I may have been on the sherry lasy night and popped into the update a deliberate mistake into the last advent calander update, it has been corrected now thanks an anonymous Dormiens-Informant.

As a bit of recompence santa has dropped off an extra concept board for the update as well, so check it out!

djtruefitt · Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:41 pm

Im liking todays update, it seems the robo idea was a pretty big idea for them as it does feature on all the different ideas and different areas.

I think they could work quite well in the blackhole tent, and looking at the plans they were planning to have ten of them in there.

I also like the look of that tilt coaster, I think that would have been much more thrilling than TH13TEEN.

DiogoJ42 · Thu Dec 15, 2011 5:58 am

I am loving today's update! Given that for two and a half years of my life I passed Battersea Power Station twice a day, I had always wondered what the planned park would look like. I even made my own fantasy version in RCT2.

Though mine was basically a hard-thrills amusement park with coaster tracks squeezed into the ruins as they were in the early 00s.

The whole concept is very 90s... simulators, arcades, cinemas, RETAIL ... reminds me of the Trocadero on steroids. kindawhat you would expect from a large indoor amusement park of the time really. These days with compact coasters being more common, we would probably see something like Winjas in there as well. But I had no idea about the plans for a coaster and rapids outside. That makes the whole project seem so mch bigger!

Thanks guys!

Thu Dec 15, 2011 11:48 am

This looks VERY similar to Spirit of London. Maybe when Tussauds bought Alton Towers, they got their hands on the plans for this as well...?

Dormiens-Dave · Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:48 pm

Well they definately had the plans available to them as all of the pictures on this update came from the Alton Towers archive.

Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:03 pm

Also of interest it looks an awful lot like the concept for that dark ride drew on Wicked Witches Haunted at Thorpe Park, which featured those very distinctive black shell cars.

I have to say having just spent a little time looking at what we've got coming up over the next week or so, I firmly believe we've saved the best for last and from here on out I'm rather excited by all the additions coming up in the calendar!

SpinballEdders · Sun Dec 18, 2011 12:42 am

how comes when i try to open the calender early in the morning it won't let me? right now it's quarter to one in the morning but it wouldn't let open today's door

Big Dave · Sun Dec 18, 2011 12:46 am

Because you are too early. Good things come to those who wait!

Sun Dec 18, 2011 12:53 am

SpinballEdders wrote: how comes when i try to open the calender early in the morning it won't let me? right now it's quarter to one in the morning but it wouldn't let open today's door

Normally the door is unlocked at around 2am.

Yes...you can tell I stay up far to late for my own good!

Mon Dec 19, 2011 12:50 pm

I've fallen quite far behind on the Advent Calendar and only just court up. Really good job. I'm surprised there have not been more comments.

The Battersea plans are a really good find. How they ever planned to afford it is a mystery.

Great find of the Nemesis site before construction. Although there are so few landmarks in the early pictures it’s hard to even know where everything is in relation to now.

Nice to see the plans for Katanga Canyon as well

Website · Mon Dec 19, 2011 4:13 pm

Am I the only one who can't view the latest 3, I am on Safari, I have tried on the latest version too.

Mon Dec 19, 2011 4:34 pm

Stelios7 wrote: Am I the only one who can't view the latest 3, I am on Safari, I have tried on the latest version too.

Have you tried a hard refresh of the page (CTRL + F5)?

Dormiens-Dave · Mon Dec 19, 2011 5:44 pm

Advent Calendar Recap

Okay so as we are flying into the last 5 days of the calendar time for a little recap of what we have had so far.

So Day 1 kicked off with a trip down memory lane as we visited the Talbot Centre and had a look at the attractions that stood where The Dark Forest is today. We showed some exclusive area plans of the transition from Talbot centre to Festival Park and some never before seen photos.

Day 2 we had a look at some of the past merchandise from the resort, taking a peek at some cuddle Henry Hounds and "Elecopters" as well as a range of diecast models.

Day 3 allowed us to take a look at Project Dolphin, here we viewed some concepts that leaked a few years ago but deserved pride of place in the TT vaults. Some of these concepts lead to future developments such as Sharkbait reef.

Day 4 was a treat for Oblivion fans as we revealed some never before seen construction photos (of special interest was the photos taken from the bottom of the hole). We also got our hands on some exclusive Oblivion concept art!

Day 5 and we moved from the themepark and to the Towers ruins, taking a look at some rare early photo's of the Towers exterior before the House finally fell to a ruin.

Day 6 and we unearthed a rare find, a picture of the short lived SpaceBoat allowing us to bring the history of this ride into the TT archive.

Day 7 we had some exclusive new video footage created for in-house consumption, some showing the 1992 developments and another looking at the success of the Nemesis marketing strategy.

Day 8 we took a look at the concept art for that well known flatride... The Screw, well almost. Here we see the Ripsaw concept and its early name.

Day 9 and we went to the grand entrace to the themepark.... Towers Street, here we had a glance at the construction of the street, concepts for future upgrades to the area and a look at the street of the past.

Day 10 and we got some exclusive never before seen concept art for various new rides that never happened including a Vertical Launch Coaster, a Vekoma Dragonfly coaster, a tilt coaster and a number of incarnations for a RoboArms ride.

Day 11 took us behind the scenes at a little gem so many enthusiasts never knew existed. The Alton Towers Archive located within the ruins themselves where much of the material for this special Advent Calendar has come from.

Day 12 and we got all festive with some rare footage of the 12 days of christmas ice show from 1993

Day 13 and we took a look at some rare construction footage of the monorail, the scale of the undertaking really comes to light in these pictures.

Day 14 took us to the very beginning of the Towers as a host of thrilling rides as we looked at the original fairground.

Day 15 and we moved away from Alton Towers and took a look at the ill-fated Battersea Power station project of John Broome. This astounding project would have made Battersea a major tourist attraction. However it was a financial disaster and led to Broome selling Alton Towers to Tussauds.

Day 16 and we bring you a special treat... Some incredibly rare Nemesis construction photos that demonstrate the appearance of the site before work commenced as well as superb views of construction that are very hard to find.

Day 17 and another video treat this time with a range of assorted adverts of old as well as an in-house consumption concept video for Hex.

Day 18 brings us back to the Towers and this time we go inside in the early 1950’s to look at the house before the beautiful plaster work and fitting where pulled off during the “great sale”

Day 19 Todays update, why don’t you go and have a look... its a great Katanga exclusive.

And i can promise the last 5 days of updates will be the best yet, i also need to say a big thank you to Alton Towers for letting us access the archives back in November as well as a big thank you to Dan B and Russell who spent the morning taking pictures of everything we unearthed.

Enjoy

Tue Dec 20, 2011 1:18 pm

Just a heads up, on the Grand Canyon Rapids gallery, the photo from Dave's Portfolio dosen't show.

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Apache/2.0.63 (FreeBSD) mod_python/3.3.1 Python/2.5.2 PHP/5.2.8 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ssl/2.0.63 OpenSSL/0.9.7e-p1 mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.8.8 Server at old.towerstimes.co.uk Port 80