Madame Tussauds has of course come a long way since it started out as a touring show 150 years ago, after fleeing the horrors of the French Revolution where she was forced to make the death masks of friends and acquaintances. At first her show was a moderate success, but when Punch magazine wrote of the infamous Chamber of Horrors, the attraction started to become a must see in London. Now Merlin claim it is the most popular attraction in the city (and the crowds on the street each morning make the boast quite believable, even though one would hope the likes of the free and amazing British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum would garner greater crowds) and have replicated the model with Madame Tussauds attractions springing up in Hollywood, New York, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., Amsterdam, Berlin, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Madame Tussaud, the artisan that started it all
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The reason Madame Tussaud moved to London
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Spiderman and the Hulk have been attractions within the waxworks for a few years now; however, this newest exhibit has now replaced what was the infamous planetarium with the characters taking on new forms. Joining the popular other wax works of the museum; the horror maze SCREAM; and the 400 year old taxi ride through London�s history in the Spirit of London (an attraction that would not feel out of place in Epcot, indeed it feels very much like one could be on Spaceship Earth while riding); the Marvel Super Heroes 4D is an excellent addition to Madame Tussauds. This new exhibit is impressive and demonstrates that Disney could actually produce something quite exciting for their Studios parks (even though much of the creativity experienced here were at the hands of Merlin � operators of Alton Towers, Legoland, and many other excellent attractions world-wide; KRAFTWERK Living Technologies GmbH � makers of high quality exhibits in Europe and Asia ; and Threshold Animation Studios � partners on Mission Space at WDW and Armageddon at WDSP, as well as with Legoland and the Star Trek experience in Vegas).

The new Marvel Super Heroes 4D is an addition at the end of the museum tour. It is included in the cost of standard admissions �28 ($43) for adults and �24 ($37) for children and included as a part of the Merlin Annual Pass programme, however there are other cheaper tickets where the experience is an additional �2.50 ($3.89). The expansion is a part of a five year partnership deal with Marvel that could see the experience develops further, and if it continues with this level of quality, that can only be a good thing.

The exhibition brings together wax figures, interactive experiences and an excellent 9 minute film across 3 floors. Though it is quite small, the quality is first rate. The experience took six months and a diverse collaborative team of experts to bring to life. More than 1000kgs (2200lbs) of clay was used in the making of the Super Hero figures as well as 100 litres (26 gallons) of oil paint to build up the accurate skin tones and 50,000 individually inserted hairs! Each figure cost �150,000 ($233,958).