Location:  

Current Status:  

  Closed

Specifications:  

Trivia:  

The Fifth Dimension was no longer pulling in the crowds. The futuristic ride was now a step into the past. Something needed to be done, and done it was. The ride was "transformed" into Forbidden Tomb, and Indianna Jones style adventure following an egyptian tourist tycoon named Abdab and his adventures to try and find the ancient jewel of the tomb. When I say transformed, I really mean that the sets were changed. The actual ride system was the same: same trains but for a lick of paint and the removal of some old non-functioning buttons.

However, the outside and inside were heavily rethemed. Outside, an impressive tomb with a water fountain and bridges to form the queuelines, where you were bombarded with the worlds shortest theme park music loop. You may still be able to remember it - full of men sighing, and chickens clucking.

Inside, the queue was themed very well and you are led onto a station around a booth where the sleeping Abdab snores loudly. The ride system is quite unique - whilst the ride is formed of trains, the individual cars can swivel around to face the action, basically creating a moving theatre audience. In places around the ride, the train would stop round a bend, facing an elaborate set - with the audience placed around like an auditorium. Since the ride has now snuffed it, I shall proceed with the plot:

As you round the first corner, a figure stands with lamp in his hand, obviously not happy with you, and the twinkling of an egyptian town behind him. Those who had been concentrating on the theming in the queue line would recognise him as Abdab, the tour guide who has now closed the tomb to search for the Ancient Jewel that is supposed to be concealed somewhere inside it.

"What are you doing here? Get out! This tomb is closed, shut gettit? No more stupid tourists in this tomb! OI! Come Back! You won't get out, you'll see, you'll pay for this! The Emerald's mine! You hear? Mine! hehehehhe - they'll get you in there! hehehehhe - they'll get you alright!"

At which point, he would suddenly stop, and then shout the whole lot again for the benefit of the back of the train who had only just cleared the corner, but loud enough for the front riders to hear the whole speil again. You make your way up a straight hill - arches either side of you, as a boulder comes rolling down above you, Indianna Jones style. The Boulder became famous for its usual lack of rolling: Sometimes it would trundle down the hill, but wouldn't actually roll. Sometimes it would roll, but would never move down from the top of the hill. And sometimes whilst you would hear the rumbling, you would never see the boulder move at all. As the train reached the top of the lift, the rumbling would suddenly cut out for a second, then repeat again. This became a trademark of the ride. Then, three dramatic chords would strike, before the train rounded another corner into a snake pit, full of hisses and snakes wriggling around the rock cavern. Every so often, a snakw would pop up with a loud hiss and the aid of some strobes, and would get screams all round from the front seat riders. Abdab is pulling open a hatch to let more snakes into the pit - however they are in fact just rubber snakes on a revolving drum. Another effect that gained a reputation as looking so obviously bad. Goodness knows had it managed to survive into Tomb Blaster...

As you exit the scene, you round another corner, with the cars all facing some crumbling walls - with more snakes concealed within stone skulls. These would jump out, but oddly enough, never with any hissing noises...

The train then rounded into its first stopping scene, where a collection of spikes (one with the skull of a prevoius rider impaled upon it) lays. One of the spikes is pulled back to give the front of the train riders an idication of what happens, however whilst a loud creaking noise was played, the spike would keep still, then suddenly jump most of the way back, and slowly close into position. Another animatronic fault from opening. Abdab stands holding a ring set into the ground, and shouts:

"This is it! You're going to get spiked! A ha haa!"

At which points he pulls the lever, which seems to activate a set of strobe lights. Ha, but that is not all - for eventually the platform which he is on rotates around to trap him into a secret passage. "

Woh - what is this? I think I'm onto something!"

We hear Abdab exclaim from behind the secret door. Suddenly, to our left, a guaze gets shone through from behind to reveal a coffin and Abdab leaning quite serverly into it.

"Here it is! I've found it!"

he shouts, in a completely diffent tone of voice to his previous commentary,

"Come to Abdab my beauty, er, ah, AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

In his quest to reach the jewel, he falls into the coffin, another cringing effect, and a really annoying scream which made the speakers it was being played on crackle with distortion. The coffin closed to reveal a skeleton with the jewel in his hand! They have trapped Abdab! The skeleton starts laughing, and you are moved on into a passageway, where a wherewolf suddenly starts shaking an iron gate, again causing multiple screams. Past a skeleton winding a wheel, attached to a rope from which dangles a man head first into an apparant pool of lava. Round a corner, into some at first nifty Effects. A shadow on the ride (in reality a tiny little cutout man in front of a bright light) suddenly jerks to the left, and a knife appears in the wall on the other side of the train. You pass several of these, before a horrible form above you on the right, attempts to throw an axe at riders but in reality, never lets go.

Through into an impressive scene in its own right, the Anibus scene - with a HUGE moveing anibus head staring at riders over a pool of lava. To the left, there is a crumbling pillar where Abdab is clinging on to, trying to grab the Jewel set into Anibus' paw. How he got out of the coffin he was trapped in, we don't know, and how he got on the pillar we don't know, but he is there now - and he is screaming again. God help us. The pillar cracks under the weight. Through another passage and through to a revolving tunnel.

Oddly enough, the cars swing to the right just before you enter the tunnel, seemingly to try and stop you from noticing it. But as it was wildly apparant from the start of the passage, it seems a little odd. Revolving Tunnels are neat tricks - but this one never worked. First of all, there was a Fire Escape sign at the end of it, and there was a whopping great gap in the middle of the tunnel.

Then into another stopping scene, where some stone heads move their mouths in the darkness. We see abdab strapped into a coffin with some huge spikes set in the lid, not yet shut. Suddenly, a spot of feedback, and a mummy to the right (hideously similar to Marilyn Manson) starts shouting a rock song, the lyrics which were never quite worked out but went somehting like this:

"Gonna Spike your brain, gonna steal your soul, gonna lift your life, WAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

At which point, the music would come to a stop, and the Mummy Manson would look over to Abdab and shout

"You DARE to steal the Ancient Jewel! So now YOU will become a GHOUL! WAAAAAAAAH"

And starts singing again. Some egyptian dancers bob too and fro behind him, whilst a huge organ sticks tounges out at people and blows bubbles.

The spiked coffin lid raises and closed, where Abdab screams annoyingly again, and the train resumes its journey. Now through a dark dark passage, where you can see some mummy's set in the wall. Suddenly, they jump out of you and light up. But since you could actually just about see them in the dark anyway, they don't scare. Past another model of Abdab, complete with several red puncture holes inside him. He snarles: "See? I said you'ld never get it!" about 28 times, and you pass a bit of sand in a fish aquarium. (No I am not joking. We never could figure out what this was for.)

Above you, some strobes light some flying faces with odd synthesised groans being emitted from them. An idea stolen form the Haunted House at Alton Towers, but it wasn't implemented properly as the light from the approaching exit station meant you could see them flying around on their poles.

You would exit to your left, and round a ramped corner where there was a plastic head set into the wall, and a sign saying "Now take the challange yourself". Inside, a hologram of the jewel rotating. When you entered your hand to reach for it, a burst of air would blow onto your hands causing kids to have a heart attack, some red lights would shine and a voice would boom "You try and steal the ancient Jewel? Now you TOO shall become a Ghoul!" A tacky end, to a cheesy ride.

It tried to do a lot, but bad planning and some odd effects ruined it. My personal view is that the reason the effects seemed a little disjointed was because they were trying to fill dead bits in a ride system not designed for the ride. Fitting a new story into the chapters of an old one was always going to create some problems. Especially when the story was a continuous play. The shoot-em-up of the new Tomb Blaster works much better, because whilst the random effects are still around, you expect them in a shoot-em-up.

The Tomb was interesting while it lasted, but it has finally met its end. Thankfully.