Monsters and Miniatures at The Domes!

You guys might remember The Domes from a previous blog post. A few years back, I shared some photos from their Day of the Dead night time event. This time, we went to see the monster displays they'd put up alongside their annual train show. I know you guys would have loved these displays, especially those of you who are into the old monster movies!

This is what part of the scenery looked like from the entrance. This pic is actually my computer's wallpaper right now.

There were quite a few displays, all integrated nicely with the plants in "The Show Dome". Flowering plants became tiny trees for the monsters to creep around and the pond area became a body of water for Jaws to lurk in.

And also a giant Waldo causing havoc on a bridge!

Each monster display had a made up movie poster to go with it. The posters had close to the original movie titles on them. For instance, we all know who "Kingorilla" is.

You saw a bit of The King earlier on. Here he is with all the teeny tiny people who are trying to take him on. And if you look closely, you can see the leading lady too.

And here's another familiar face:

An entire miniature New York City was built for "The Marshmallow Menace" to wreck havoc in.

We were lucky enough to be there at a moment when smoke was emitted around the scene. The smoke really added to the drama.

The train tracks even wrapped around the little NYC. This pic gives you an idea of how some of these flowering plants had their "trunks" braided and wrapped to make them look like little trees.

I bet you can all guess what "The Glob" is a tribute to.

A miniature drive-in theater was set up with tiny little cars and a bunch of oozing "Glob". If you look at the tiny sign at the bottom of this pic, you'll see they're showing a double feature of Monsters vs. Aliens and Snakes on a Plane.

Looks like "The Glob" has already gobbled up a few cars and a person. This reminds me of Pink Cheese Wiz or a massive amount of bubblegum.

I feel like I should know what "Tremblerz" is a shout-out to. Somebody help me out here. Which movie is this almost like? I'm sure once I find out I'll be shocked that I couldn't think of it!

So these critters look a lot like the sandworms in Beetlejuice. Ah ha! OK, after a little googling, I found this chart: Sandworm Size Chart

And there is my answer. They're from Tremors. Tremblerz = Tremors. Got it. And I'm not going to have a duh moment here, because I'm not up on that reference! But I'm sure some of you are. Should I watch Tremors? I see Kevin Bacon is in it...

Anyway, I really like the way these worms were lit in the late afternoon light.

Looks like this guy is in for it! I notice they have the same striped tongues as the Beetlejuice sandworms. As I compare sandworms from different movies, I'm thinking these worms might be kind of a mashup.

This feels like a Godzilla kind of theme. Be sure to read that clever line at the bottom of the poster. :)

I think this Nuculizard is pretty awesome.

And here's I guess his nemesis, "Mammoth"? A nuclear themed moth?

This may have been my favorite display. I have a soft spot in my heart for Little Shop of Horrors. The adorable "Little Domes of Horrors" poster.

Look how perfectly these three fit into the scenery! And why not? They are plants after all.

I'm not sure if this was by accident, but it looks like this one is chomping on some flowers.

This is a tiny version of The Oriental Theater, which is an old movie theater in Milwaukee. It was standing in front of the Audrey II, III, and IV. :)

Check out what's showing!

This was one of my favorite pictures from the day. And it's amazing how well these turned out for how tiny the figures were!

And in the midst of all this, trains were shooting by every which way.

They were zooming through tunnels, some of which had the piratey sort of decorations that get two thumbs up from me.

I'm guessing we saw these same skulls years back for Day of the Dead, but who knows.

I'm pretty sure these could have been used in a Day of the Dead display. I think they'd look cool with some bright lights inside. I'll have to revisit those old pics and see if these appear in them.

I love these view. You get the skulls, a sea creature, and two trains.

This poster was a surprise, but it was fitting for a train show.

And there he is, lurking around a corner. Thomas like you've never seen him! They actually had a train with a face like this zooming around the tracks. It was going so fast that I couldn't get a clear photo of it. Its eyes were darting from side to side as it zoomed along.

Now, this was something different...

This "sticky ball" had tiny Wisconsin symbols glued all over it. So it looks like we have a sign for the zoo, a cow, and a Harley there. Oh, and the Wisconsin State Fair gate is at the bottom.

This poster is worth reading closely. Look at the names!

Someone made a bunch of amazing shovel spiders that were creeping all over the place, even on the gazebo.

See how his hind end is a shovel head? I think these spiders would make great yard decorations.

A very different and cute spider was hiding in the ivy.

The earth isn't quite standing still here, but pausing briefly.

Read that bottom line. :)

And get a load of this! How cool. I don't even know how many photos I took of him. (Many)

The light was reflecting off him in this way where he looked both silver and gold. This was that great afternoon light.

I love this little farm scene by his foot. I just noticed the teeny, tiny horses.

We had such a good time looking around that we circled the dome twice. It's easy to catch little details you missed the second time around. Actually, the dome got a third visit from us, because there was a light show scheduled before closing. So we went back to hear "Bohemian Rhapsody" set to little blinking lights all over the dome. I was glad to have a reason to go back because the light was much better later in the day and I could get even more photos!

I also had the chance to notice even more little details, like this tiny Bigfoot.

And his little dog companions? Or maybe werewolves? I think people may have had some fun adding extra miniatures from home to these displays. :) Anyway, these were cute.

It's easy not to see miniatures in a really big garden space. I found that getting near the ground to take pictures in what I call "Squirrel Vision" gave me a lot of opportunities to see details at ground level.

Now this little guy wasn't in any of the domes, but in a glass tank in the hallway.

The Creature and his lady friend were posed in a scene with carnivorous plants.

Are you familiar with pitcher plants? I've seen pictures of these online, but this might have been my first time seeing some in person. They trap bugs in the way you'd think they would from looking at them. Although, I just learned that there's a nectar in that pitcher. The nectar attracts and then drowns the unsuspecting bugs.

I loved the look of these. They look like something between a daisy and a succulent. I just read a bit about the Sundew plant, and I think they might have a creepier eating routine than the pitcher plant.

We saw some really great plants and creatures in the desert dome. I may have shared this guy before. This is Steve, the Bearded Dragon. He crawled over in his tank to check us out and I said "Would you like to have your picture taken?" And he chose just that time to nod his head up and down a few times. It was such a fun moment. :) I read later that the nodding is really common with Bearded Dragons and can mean anything from a sign of aggression, to some flirty behavior, to just a casual hello. I'm going to assume this was a casual hello. :)

I saw some pics someone had posted online of Steve in some of the monster displays shown earlier, and it was as cute as you can imagine. A Domes employee must have let him loose to have a good time.

And one more thing I wanted to share was this amazing pine cone:

Yes, pine cone.

Do you remember when I shared pics years ago of the pine trees around here that were candling? There were all these red pine cones on the top of each branch and they resembled candles. Here's a pic I took of those:

Of course seeing this big pine cone reminded me of all those little ones. But this is on a whole other scale.

And reading this sign showed me how lucky we were to be there at this time.

On the way out, I snapped this pic of the three domes. Boy, was I freezing out there, but I really wanted a picture of them in the snow. They have a neat, retro entryway and lamps, don't they?

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that trip to The Domes! I really enjoyed seeing all those monsters and miniatures. I think those were some of my favorite displays of any I've seen at The Domes!