Body parts come alive, strange things rests in jars, colorful flasks glow and bubbling liquids gurgle -- the Mad Scientist set up shop in our front yard for 2006.  

We received a slightly higher number of TOTs this year, close to 45.  Most rewarding was the mom who said her kids asked if they were going to "that house" this year, remembering our decorations from 2005 and looking forward to 2006.  We've had some new families with young kids move into the neighborhood this year, so it sounds like next year there's lots of interest in expanding our neighborhood's Halloween offerings -- excellent!

As before, daylight photos and using the flash doesn't do justice to the creepiness factor that people experienced.  Now, on to the props... 

  We laid things out on a long table, with "static" items to one side and "living" items on the other.  This is the "static" side.

  The test tubes were button containers, and the other jars were found at Goodwill, etc.  Fluorescent craft paint diluted with water made a liquid that would glow, and the black UV spotlights in the foreground lit things up brightly.  

  Gold metallic paint does wonders for things, and this boring red garage-sale skull looks a bit more proper after a few coats.  The footed skull bowl came from ACC, we stuck a LED tealight inside for a subtle glow; tealights were scattered throughout the props, plus a couple of LED candlesticks also got used for some mood lighting.  

The containers on the left, middle, and right hold molded clay body parts painted then shellacked, and stored in diluted cola for a murky look.  (We didn't use quite enough coats of shellac, as the props started melting when we had them out for our Saturday party.  Since we just needed them for two nights it didn't hurt the effect at all, and actually made it a tad creepier.)

  Some "science" drawings found online were aged using teabags, and given appropriate labels suitable for a Mad Scientist's Laboratory.  The lab notebook came from a site having some nifty papercraft projects.

  Our "living" props included a heart, eyes, brain, and skull.  The heart was enclosed in a recycled aquarium, painted with metallic paint, and plastic tubes painted red and blue transported apparent oxygenated and spent blood.  A cut circuit board was connected via ribbon cable to the eyes, while flickering lights on the board and atop the aquarium gave the feeling of a working device.  

The eyes are housed in a biscotti container, with a metal bowl (metallic painted) and old pressure gauge attached on top.  Wires ran from the ribbon cable into the water and connected to the eyes, which also had torn fabric attached for an "optic nerve" effect.

Hoses from an aquarium pump ran into each container, providing vigorous bubbles to help keep the organs alive.

  Another circuit board is connected to the brain (and to the eyes) via wiring, while a flashing light inside the strobe at top shined out.   A gardening pot saucer holds the brain, with diluted fluorescent craft paint providing a bloody solution.  The bucket actually holds a small pump, which bathed the brain.

  The skull is mounted on a stand, with a tealight illuminating it from below.

  Plastic eyeballs suspended in a lime/lemon Jell-O(tm) mixture are another of the Mad Scientist's preserved items.

Two props are not pictured.  A large human/spider hybrid skeleton from ACC hung behind everything, lit with a creepy red spotlight.  Also, an old lamp was hooked to a thunder/lightning machine and flickered in time to crackling electrical sounds.

For an overall soundtrack, I found a bunch of audio samples of lab sounds, heartbeats, EEG machine output, and looped it all together onto a CD.  

Hope you enjoyed our Mad Scientist's Laboratory!