Series by Series - My Favourite Games, Revival Edition

 I fully intended on doing this a few weeks ago while my 90s favourites were still fresh in my mind, but then life got in the way. However, I was watching one of my preferred Twitch streams (If someone's watching game shows on Twitch I'm either lurking or annoying the streamer and chat room inhabitants with a pile of pointless info) and it just got me back to wanting to get this done. 

This list is going to be distinctly shorter as I'm only choosing one game from each round of filming. All4 might have the revived series down as 8 series, but those have been put together as 8 runs from 3 rounds of filming. One round a year in 2017, '18 and '19. This is why most games were seen in multiple series.

So, my 3 favourite games from the revived incarnation of The Crystal Maze. Here we go.

2017

Who Are Next Week's (December 17th) Crystal Maze Contestants?

Another week down and another episode aired, enjoy it? Good. Well there's another one next week and if you aren't sure who's on, or if you do know but have no idea who they actually are, keep reading.

Who Are Next Week's (December 10th) Crystal Maze Contestants?

 Hope we all enjoyed the return of the celebs. Nice high score too. However just as one episode becomes merely what was on yesterday, let's look forward to next week and have a look at who's who.

Who Are Next Week's (December 3rd) Crystal Maze Contestants?

I hope we've all been enjoying the extra few episodes we've been treated to on E4 over the last couple of weeks. They've certainly generated reactions online widely ranging between annoyance and sheer rage.. However it's now that time again where there's going to be celebrity Crystal Maze on the telly, someone inevitably reads that it's a celebrity special, sees a name and asks "Who's that?". Well, allow me to try and fill in some blanks.

Good News! More Crystal Maze Incoming! Bad News! Not in the UK!

In 2017, three episodes never made broadcast. We'd been oversaturated with the same games over 20 episodes and so only 17 got to TV. It's happened again. 

Last year's episodes we haven't seen yet are to be aired on Australian children's channel ABC ME. They've been airing all of last year's episodes and will get the shows we haven't seen yet before we get them.

So, whos coming to Australia with me?

What do you mean 'pandemic'?

@BothersBar Remember how there were those three civilian Crystal Maze episodes that got shown in Australia but not the UK?

Looking like the OTHER unaired Crystal Maze episodes with the celebrities are going to start airing in Australia next week, on a different channel. pic.twitter.com/LBBzcSvFSO

— Captain ACAB, BA* (@TheGrimRecapper) July 3, 2020

My Trip Last Year to Test Out Games For The Crystal Maze

I've been sat around pretty bored of late. I keep ending up on eBay buying Crystal Maze related paraphernalia (more on that lot in another post for another day) so I thought I'd distract myself by recounting my travel last year from the North East to the South West to test games for The Crystal Maze.

I'll start by saying I don't drive, but thankfully we've got pretty good public transport covering the length and breadth of Great Britain. 

So...

Step 1 - Home to Middlesbrough: ~15 Miles. 

This stage is the easy bit. It's a trip I make not uncommonly. I went to Uni over there so it's somewhere I'm familiar with. At this time, McDonalds was doing Grand Big Macs so naturally, I had to go gorge myself on one in my usual combo - large meal, Big Mac, Fries, Strawberry milkshake. They should do GBMs more often because that meal kept me fed for the rest of what would be a long day. The meal in bag in hand, I head back to the bus station to wait for my first coach. I didn't take it on the coach, food in my possession rarely stays uneaten for long.

Step 2 - Middlesbrough to Leeds: ~65 miles

Crystal Maze Games That Were Too Hard 2: 2 Hard 2 Crystal

Ok, I admit it, that title is terrible. I apologize and I promise I'll never do anything that atrocious again until the next time I do it.

Following on from my last post covering all the '90s games that nobody won, I just wanted to have a quick look at all the games that have been used since Richard Ayoade took over which saw nobody walking out one crystal heavier than how they walked in.

Before I start, for reference and photos I'm using David Newton's website www.crystalmazedatabase.com. Much like if you want '90s show details you use Marc Gerrish, David Newton is who you can rely on for revival stats. Marc and David are to adventure game show fans as Stanley Gibbons is to stamp collectors. I only know that thanks to The New Statesman, I've been really ploughing through the boxsets lately.

Your Favourite Crystal Maze Bloggers (because how many of those do you know) On Set

Our favourite TV producer Mr Neale Simpson, whose book The Crystal Maze Challenge is still available from all good book retailers, recently sent us some behind the scenes photos and look, its us!

 

 As we've mentioned we had our visit last year on a camera blocking day, so the crew were lining up shots and rehearsing filming with us as dummy contestants while game testing. As such here we are with Jon in the drink as we offer un-useful advice from the windows as seen through the TV cameras. Here's hoping we get another go this year, it's the best day out I get all year. That Aztec visit is my annual holiday.

We've got more pictures at our archive at http://maze.sky-hook.net/gallery/index.php

Christmas Gift Ideas For The Discerning The Crystal Maze/Puzzle Fan

'Tis the season where for one day a year, it's socially acceptable to drink with breakfast. And, unless your name rhymes with Jebeneezer, it's quite common to buy your loved ones/not as loved ones/the couple next door/your sister's partner's niece's goldfish a present. So should they have even a passing interest in our favourite challenge based game show, then perhaps these ideas will stuff a stocking or two:

Graphic Designer Julia Siemon and Possible Pitches For TCM US Title Sequence

Just another quick one, something to share with you all

Last night @FrasyBaby on Twitter brought to our attention some graphic design work for a title sequence for Nickelodeon's Crystal Maze created by designer, animator and director Julia Siemon.

Copyright Julia Siemon

@adamconover : For Those Who Have No Idea

In the same way that Americans are very likely to be totally unfamiliar with the work of Ed Tudor Pole, the vast majority of Brits are unlikely to be aware of the career of Adam Conover, the man taking ownership of the keys to The Crystal Maze for Nickelodeon.

"Adam Conover, 36, he's a TV host and comedian from Wading River, New York, USA"

The First Official Image From The Crystal Maze For Nickelodeon

Thanks to @Danny_L_Kerner for bringing to our attention the first promo image for the US version of The Crystal Maze

Image taken from c21media.net

More Names For Part Two of This Years Series

I've already covered a multitude of names after picking apart a trailer the social media team put up but thanks to a tiny little slip by whoever manages the Youtube channel, a thumbnail for a future show has shown us a couple of names to add to the list.

On the left, we can see former Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United and Manchester United player Michael Owen. The man who scored THAT goal against Argentina in 1998. Alongside him is Kimberly Wyatt, the second former Pussycat Doll to take on the challenge after Ashley Roberts last year. In the middle is someone who I have no idea about but I'm going to take a wild swing at him being from a reality show, probably Love Island. (Thanks to Danker1990, it's Kem from Love Island) Bringing up the rear are two names we've already established: Radio 1 DJ (who always sounds surprised with himself) Matt Edmondson and finally the lovely Debbie McGee. Not my word, simply the often-repeated line by her late husband, magic icon Paul Daniels.

Meet Next Week's (26th July) Celebrity Crystal Maze Contestants

Alas, it's that time again, next week sees the last in the current run of The Crystal Maze before it takes a break. Fear not however as it's not the end of this year's series, it will be back later in the Autumn and again at Christmas. If you struggle between now and then, there's always TCM's sister show Fort Boyard. So for now, let's meet 5 more faces you probably can't place.

Did You Know You Can Watch French Fort Boyard For Free Online And Not In A Piratey Way?

Well, you do now.

EDIT: Seems they've made more recent content private, but there's still plenty available on YouTube

In the last few weeks, following on from the post which featured a clip of Richard O'Brien hosting the British pilot episode of Fort Boyard, I've found myself watching the full French episodes of the newest series on YouTube, and it's only just hit me that I was doing so on the official Fort Boyard YouTube page. As such I wasn't watching something that a fan had uploaded to share with the world, I was watching it because the production company was letting me.

Meet Next Week's (19th July) Celebrity Crystal Maze Contestants

It seems tonights choice of contestant, naming no names, has been a sore topic online. Hasn't so much been a kick of a hornets' nest as it has been a good, hard, wet towel flick to a raging bulls danglers. However it's over, done with and out the way. 

Moving on, here's next weeks intrepid interlopers.

Melvin Odoom (Captain)

Currently heard on BBC Radio 1's 9-11pm show Mondays through to Thursdays alongside Rickie Haywood-Williams and Charlie Hedges, the trio having worked together on the Kiss FM breakfast show previously. However to those of a certain age/immaturity level, he'd be more recognizable as a regular on mid-00's BBC Saturday morning show Dick and Dom in da Bungalow, joking and dancing his way through various sequences usually whilst covered in a variety of... everything.

Two Tiny Issues With The Show So Far

I'm going to preface this by saying "Yes, we were involved in testing, but we didn't test this game so couldn't raise any issue at the time". Now that little disclaimer is out the way, onto my main first point.

So far, I'm loving the new games. I love the look of them, I love the details behind some of them, a good example being the cause and effect mechanical crystal release for the Aztec wobble board game. However, there's something niggling at me in regards to the Eastern Ying Yang game.

New Games Trailer

With a week to go before the new series starts, a trailer has been released showing off some of the new games and Eastern zone. Now we can finally show off some of (games designer) Anna Kidd's marvelous creations.

Nickelodeon Producing The Crystal Maze: How Well Could It Go?

Right, we got a couple of posts out to catch the tide of TCM news, and there's plenty of that about now. So let's just have a calm consideration of what this new series could be like.

The Crystal Maze Fan Group - Get involved

As an administrator for The Crystal Maze Fan Blog / Fan Group - I am delighted that this blog is becoming such a success. We are getting a wide global readership with lots of people getting in touch with us to talk about the Maze. A few years ago, the Maze didn't even exist on Social Media, so it's nice that it has been brought up to date with the times. I absolutely love the show and it's always so fascinating to hear production and contestant stories, as well as the inspirations behind the various games. Next year The Crystal Maze reaches 30 years old, (as old as me!). I am so chuffed that three decades later, the show is still so popular. Please feel free to comment on any of our posts, or message us if you'd like to contribute towards an article, or even join our Crystal Maze Fan Facebook Messenger Group.

- Neil (Admin, Crystal Maze Fan Blog).