The Cosmic Interceptor Fairground Ride
Built by Santiago Plicio in September 2024
It had been a while since my last fairground ride concept thanks to a series of ship and robot themed models, and so suitably refreshed I set out about creating another.
Over the years designing numerous fairground models I feel I have virtually exhausted every conceivable shape and size and so the motivating challenge is always hoping you can come up with something new, and if at all possible, then also theming it as something imaginative too!
Without knowing for sure what I was going to build, I started by constructing a very long base where the new model will sit, whatever its shape, just to ensure that I wasn’t inhibited by the limited size of its feet.
The front of the base was to serve as the entrance to the ride, and a tilting tower was conceived to sit at the far end of the base to hold a rotating large canopy with eight passenger carriages.
Running unchecked with the adrenalin surge each new model design creates, it was soon evident that the new unit was not only large and suitably heavy, but with a diameter of 1.2m I had forgotten to take into consideration the internal dimensions of my car and how I would therefore transport it.
Not quite with my tail between my legs, but just as equally frustrating of course, everything I had built needed to be deconstructed and re-assembled in a slightly reduced redesign just to ensure that I could get the overall width to under 1.1m, but that impacted on all the fittings and structural support, and as such it took a whole day just to get back on track to where I hoped the model was going.
At that stage I was still not sure if the motor would be able to drive this heavy cumbersome unit, but I carried on stubbornly regardless, allowing myself to worry about such things later, and in that way I continued with the extra fittings, embellishments, balustrades, lights, etc.
What I did manage in my redesign was to create the construction in a way that it could be taken apart fairly easily into three main component parts, these being the base unit, the tilting tower, and the rotating canopy, and so I had more than overcome the challenges posed by the need to transport the model in my car from time to time.
It took me about 14 days to finish it but as I wasted one day in having to change it all, I lost out on one of the Sundays when I could have rested!
The test drive seemed to operate nice and smoothly, but it became apparent very quickly that the first motor driving the mechanism was not up to the challenge and an alternative upgrade had to follow quickly.
The overall base dimensions are 1.4m (length), 0.6m (width), 6” (height) and the overall model height is 1.3m. I have also included two sets of lights, a ticket kiosk, and a place for an advertising ride name and tagline.
The end product is yet another twist on a rotating thrill ride fairground attraction, but in my mind it can be so much more too. I also see it as a generating laser shooting defence mechanism, perhaps on standby protecting the earth from the threat from outer space and from the fury of its destructive meteorite missiles.
There was in the early 1970s an iconic collector’s flying ‘rocket’ kit model made by Wayne Keller of Estes Industries aimed at the older child and young-hearted adult which was also called the Cosmic Interceptor and looks like it would have been lots of fun to own and to construct and then test fly it too, though I myself never owned one. However I always believed a true Cosmic Interceptor that would be up to the challenge of protecting humanity would have to be a much bigger beast than a mere flying rocket, and something anchored down but with its eyes fixed permanently on the skies, and as such my new model idea is as much a fairground ride as it is a conceptual defence mechanism, depending on your point of view.
Take a ride in the Cosmic Interceptor — terrorising individuals at the fair while simultaneously keeping the population safe from the skies. Safely existing in a space where you still want to scream!