In previous incarnations, the Toxico Corporation Lab was a playroom, but this year we moved it downstairs into the dining room, which made a lot more sense. We got plastic silverware and square metal looking paper plates to go with the theme.
You exit the Lab through the decontamination chamber which takes you out to the Zombie Bar. There is a continuing narrative going on. The Z Bar is frequented by Zombies created by the Toxico toxic spills, and this is the lab where they are monitoring the spills. The computer monitor warns of rather dire systems status.
Yes, that yellow box is an actual Geiger Counter.
The gas mask is a Halloween prop inside two plastic frames.
To get the glowing beaker effect, the beakers are filled with Quinine water. A blacklight is behind the beakers. The two slightly melted looking beakers to the left are from Ikea. Why anyone would want them we could not imagine, but they were perfect for us and very inexpensive. They are a good source for lab glassware. The clear beaker to the right bubbles away, thanks to a hidden aquarium bubbler and a clear plastic tube.
Some of the glass beakers in the Lab, including the one far right in the picture, are original props from the 1975 horror movie Bug. Then titled The Hephaestus Plague after the novel it was based on, part of it was shot at the University of California Riverside. Center SEE co-founder Kris Booth’s dad, a Museum Preparator for the Geology Department, was one of the guys the crew had to come to for access to labs, offices, and museum displays. Kris did get to see one day of filming with the star, Bradford Dillman. Kris’ father was surprised to see that in one of the labs where the movie crew set up lots of scientific looking equipment there were some antique beakers. He figured they had been used in labs for horror films by the studio for years. When he found out that the schedule for the next day would include smashing much of the equipment in the room, he came in the night before and switched out a few beakers for peanut butter jars filled with liquid.
This still below is the exact room this glassware was “rescued” from by Kris’ dad, who had no respect for film continuity.
One of the notices on the wall mentions the abrupt resignation of one of the physicists, Hal Macy, who was heading up the Quantum Teleportation experiments. He turns up outside in the Zombie Bar as in the picture below.
His identifying name tag hangs below him.