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Crystal Maze at Home

Currently in the process of making my courtyard at home in a subtle theme of the Aztec Zone! I've already bought some Aztec Mayan Totem Statues from the local garden centre... yes can you tell how obsessed I am with The Crystal Maze? The maze puzzle books have lots of great Aztec Symbols to draw inspiration from. Still got a lot to do yet, it is work in progress. Phil, group member has his living room as the Aztec Zone haha. Last week I was at the real Aztec Zone Set and it was a dream come true, I will live with those memories forever. One day I hope our team finally make it on TV.

 

We entered The CRYSTAL MAZE!!!

The 16th April 2018 will be a day we will never forget, we finally got our chance to enter the real Crystal Maze Studios - A lifelong, childhood dream for all of us, myself included. I don't want to reveal much detail as to the circumstances which led to that, but we had a blast as Official Games Testers for Series 2. The Studios were fantastic. I am not allowed to disclose any detail about the sets, or the new games, or any other information as I have signed a non-disclosure Channel 4 legal agreement - so will just leave you with some photographs of us at the Hotel before we set off for Bottleyard Studios that day. The night before we were all so excited, it was the same night that The Crystal Maze was back on Television (Second half of Series 1). Me and Phil laid out all our maze memorabelia, props and books, etc in the hotel room. We could of opened a Crystal Maze Museum! 

We had such a fantastic day down at the Studios, the highlight for me was meeting all the crew, and in particular, James Dillon, the Production Designer and Mastermind behind the Original 1990s and 21st Century Crystal Mazes. I was slightly gutted I couldn't meet Neale Simpson, Exec Producer, he was out that day. We got pix of us in all of the Zones, including with James Dillon himself - but we will not be allowed copies of these photographs until the next series airs - understandable, of course. I will write more about our day later this year, once I confirm I am legally able to do so. All I can say is, we were impressed with our experience. 

Zero Crystals! New Crystal Maze Records

Last week (15th April 2018), saw the return of the second half of Series 1 of the Maze. We saw the Hauxwell's take on TCM, and unfortunately for them they set two rather embarrassing record Crystal Maze firsts in the history of the show. Record #1  One Contestant actually managed to get locked in twice on the same episode. Record #2 The team failed miserably and collected ZERO CRYSTALS! This is a scenario that never played out before in the original series - the least amount of Crystals being 5 seconds at the Dome. In the Original, they would simply collect tokens for 5 seconds; the underscore and fans ending rather abruptly. Interestingly with the Zero Crystal Scenario, Ayoade presented a secondary Start/Stop Whistle and blew both simultaneously! The fans whimpered and stopped immediately. How embarrassing, but such a funny episode. I am glad that conventions are being broken down, and we are finally getting answers to new maze scenarios we always wondered about in the original series. This episode was spoken about on Radio 1 the next day, and the incident trended on Twitter that evening!

Still on Cloud 9 today. Had the best day of our lives yesterday. Sadly can't reveal why or post any details. You'll have to wait until the end of the year before I can write anything. I was so tired today. Thank you to those that made it happen and brought our dreams come true, and I hope our work and input helped.

Crystal Maze is back this Sunday 8pm Channel 4! And I am so excited for Monday, I just wish I could say why! It's going to be the best day of our lives, put it that way.

Rare unseen Crystal Maze Photos from a 90's Publication! Exclusive to the Maze Fan Blog - With the coolest Photograph of Richard O'Brien in the Ocean Zone! Wow.

The Crystal Maze - Second Half of Series 1 and Series 2

A Social Media post by the official Crystal Maze TV group posted the exciting news today that The Crystal Maze returns back on our screens on 15th April on Channel 4. These portion of episodes were filmed in 2017 and held back for 2018, so some viewers may feel a bit confused when they see similar games from before. This is due to the broadcast lag time. However, filming for Series 2 is shortly to begin - this comprises of 12 episodes, 6 Civilian and 6 Celebrity episodes. We are unsure when Series 2 will air yet, but an easy guess would be later towards the end of 2018.

We look forward to watching the rest of the episodes from Series 1, and in particular, look forward to watching Series 2. I can't reveal why yet until probably later on in the year once Series 2 has aired. I won't be revealing any specifics, but we've been given an awesome and incredible opportunity here at the Maze Fan Blog - it's not quite what we initially expected or planned, but we aren't complaining at all and very much look forward to what lies and waits for us. With our deep love and obsession for the Maze, we're not going the full whole hog yet (tragic because we love to fly the flag for our favourite show). We won't be giving up - but we've been gifted the next best thing to achieving our dream. That's all I can say, and we are really honoured.

The long journey to bring back The Crystal Maze

Visit This webpage article for a fantastic article of how stressful and tough it was to bring back The Crystal Maze to our screens. I came across this insightful article this evening. It began way back in April 2011. Interestingly, I created a lot of bring back TCM YouTube videos and Petitions around 2009/2010.

It was just very good luck that the Production Company had links to a French Broadcaster who owned the rights to TCM. It was also very lucky that the Live Experience provided a platform for C4 to test the waters with a pilot episode before C4 splashed serious money on a massive set - something they couldn't do before. We have Neale Simpson to thank for his pitching to C4 to bring the show back. His hard work has paid off. I still can't believe it's finally properly back at last. I love how it is back and I really like the sets and games.

My only minor niggles, I'd say, would be that the fantasy element isn't used as much as the original - e.g. too many references to the set, rather than the zone themes they move between. Richard O'Brien and Edward Tudor-Pole used to make up fantastic stories about each of the themed worlds which made the viewer believe they were really there, and Richard Ayoade spends a lot of time telling us its a set when we know it is a set. I wish they would cut this mockery out as there is a real risk the maze could become a parody of its own self.

I also wish they include Easter Eggs - i.e. regular references to the original series, as what happened in the SU2C Special with O'Brien, and photo of Pole on the wall. Finally, even if it's for one episode, use the classic theme and map / Get O'Brien back and into a cell in person to offer a contestant a riddle. Sorry, I don''t want much. :) Celebrity editions I would stay clear of. Sorry, demanding fan here, lol. I know they need to make it modern and appealling to new audiences but they need to let it stick to its roots as well. Long live the Maze! Watched Team 'Love it' this evening, they played well in the Futuristic and Medieval Zones. I laughed when Ayoade joked that the Industrial Tool game was like an IKEA CSI!