History Main / GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks

* Creator/ToddMcFarlane's Monsters was one of [=McFarlane=] Toys' many attempts to reinvent classic (i.e. PublicDomain) monsters, and they did two {{Frankenstein}}-themed sets. The first was simply called "Frankenstein," and came with a hunchbacked assistant (named Igor, of course) and [=McFarlane=]'s interpretation Frankenstein's Monster. The second set, "''Dr.'' Frankenstein," came with the scientist himself and a second, two-headed creation. The two playsets were connectable. Although the first one only came with one measly Erlenmeyer flask, averting this trope, the second one outdid itself with more glassware (a beaker, a king of oblong flask, a distilling flask and a test tube). Bizarrely, the chemistry equipment from both sets was made of clear blue plastic painted silver, suggestive more of metal than glass.

* Aurora never did a model kit based off of ''TheInvisibleMan'' (either the [[Literature/TheInvisibleMan novel]] or the Creator/ClaudeRains [[Film/TheInvisibleMan film]]), so Moebius Models did an Aurora-themed kit called "Creator/HGWells' ''The Invisible Man''." As its name implies, it's based more on the original novel than the Universal film, and they apparently drew on the chapter titled "The Thousand and One Bottles" for inspiration, because, how howdy, does dear old Mr. Invisible (posed in the middle of removing the wrappings which render him visible) have so much stuff that he puts Aurora's efforts to shame. Not only is there a table with a retort, a graduated cylinder, a mortar and pestle and a flask with "smoke" coming out of it (similar to the bottle in Aurora's Bride of Frankenstein), but also an adjacent bookshelf crammed with loads of beakers, bottles and books, plus a human skull and a terrarium with partially-invisible lab rats. Not quite the "thousand and one" vessels from Wells' book, but it's a lot.

* Aurora never did a model kit based off of ''TheInvisibleMan'' (either the [[Literature/TheInvisibleMan novel]] or the Creator/ClaudeRains [[Film/TheInvisibleMan1933 film]]), so Moebius Models did an Aurora-themed kit called "Creator/HGWells' ''The Invisible Man''." As its name implies, it's based more on the original novel than the Universal film, and they apparently drew on the chapter titled "The Thousand and One Bottles" for inspiration, because, how howdy, does dear old Mr. Invisible (posed in the middle of removing the wrappings which render him visible) have so much stuff that he puts Aurora's efforts to shame. Not only is there a table with a retort, a graduated cylinder, a mortar and pestle and a flask with "smoke" coming out of it (similar to the bottle in Aurora's Bride of Frankenstein), but also an adjacent bookshelf crammed with loads of beakers, bottles and books, plus a human skull and a terrarium with partially-invisible lab rats. Not quite the "thousand and one" vessels from Wells' book, but it's a lot.

* The Aurora models in the 1960s based on various horror and science fiction properties (particularly Franchise/UniversalHorror) loved including gratuitous flasks and other such brick-a-brack wherever it could as part of the models' scenery, justified or not.
** Most famously, "[[Film/BrideOfFrankenstein The Bride of Frankenstein]]* included a shelf behind the Bride's operating table which featured a very large retort (referred to as a "distilling flask" in the instructions) with a distilling head attached to a flask by a glass tube, and on the floor were a measuring cup and a "bound flask" (as per the instructions, a large, round vessel with metal bands around on it), and a big, curved bulbous condenser.

* Silent Screamers was a toyline put out by Aztech Toys and later Mezco which focused on silent horror and sci-fi properties (''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari'', ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', etc.), and Mezco did one based very loosely on the Creator/JohnBarrymore ''[[Film/DrJekyllAndMrHyde1920 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]''. The accompanying display base was two-sided; a street scene for Hyde and a lab scene with a table for Jekyll. The Jekyll side came with two beakers, a long-necked flask Erlenmeyer flask, a large round flask, a small round flask, a distinng flask, and a rack of test tubes, from which the individual test tubes could be removed. The flasks were all also designed to be interchangeable with a stand for "heating" chemicals over an included candle.

** They also did did a variation on their Mr. Hyde from ''Film/AbbottAndCostelloMeetDrJekyllAndMrHyde'', featuring a figure of Creator/BorisKarloff as Dr. Jekyll. He came with (mostly) the same goodies as Grandpa, with differences in the colors of the "liquids" inside them (notably the contents of the retort became green), one of the flasks was discarded in favor of a really big syringe, neither of the remaining two were labelled anymore and one was painted silver to suggest it was made of metal.

** Most famously, "[[Film/TheBrideOfFrankenstein The Bride of Frankenstein]]* included a shelf behind the Bride's operating table which featured a very large retort (referred to as a "distilling flask" in the instructions) with a distilling head attached to a flask by a glass tube, and on the floor were a measuring cup and a "bound flask" (as per the instructions, a large, round vessel with metal bands around on it), and a big, curved bulbous condenser.

What's the best way to visually demonstrate that a character is a man (or woman!) or science, [[MadScientist mad]] or otherwise? Why, with tons and tons of flasks and beakers, of course! These are usually crammed everywhere conceivable in the scientist's laboratory, connected with spiraling glass tubing and usually filled with bubbling [[TechnicolorScience colored liquids]], even if an experiment isn't actually in progress, and typically it's just there to be set dressing. Often, it's there to be dramatically [[TrashTheSet smashed]] during a fight scene, an experiment gone wrong, or during the MadScientist's transformation. Bonus points if the scientist in question isn't actually a chemist, has no need of such equipment, and/or never actually ''does'' anything with it.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* ''Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000TheMovie'' opens with a close-up shot of flasks filled with steaming, bubbling liquid--then the camera pulls back to show the rest of Dr. Clayton Forrester and his lab. No explanation for the flasks is ever given.

* In Creator/HGWells' ''Literature/TheInvisibleMan'', there's a chapter entitled "The Thousand and One Bottles," wherein Griffin drives Mr. and Mrs. Hall nuts with how much chemistry equipment he sees fit to fill his room at their inn with. And apparently he had to get a lot of his stuff on the fly, since, aside from a rack of test tubes and a laboratory-grade scale, most of the stuff he's using is repurposed from more conventional household items including salad oil bottles.

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[[folder:WebOriginal]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

** Dr. Viper's laboratory in "The Giant Bacteria," is pretty impressive to behold, featuring retorts, racks of test tubes, flasks, beakers and even a microscope that for some reason has smoke pouring out of the eyepiece (!). Besides this, bottles and flasks are stuffed into boxes and cubby holes everywhere in the background. Interestingly, production notes called for even ''more'' chemistry equipment to be seen, but for some reason the animators didn't get the message.

** In "On Leather Wings," when Batman confronts Dr. Kirk Langstrom, there's a long table covered in lab glassware, in particular two huge globes of purple liquid that connect to one another and nothing else, seemingly serving no purpose. Langstrom uses nothing on the table, instead taking the formula he uses to become [=ManBat=] out of his LabCoatOfScienceAndMedicine. When he transforms, he of course smashes everything on the table, then picks up the table itself and throws it at Batman for good measure.
** An ever more complicated-looking array of flasks, test tubes and beakers connected by spiraling glass tubes is seen in "Terror in the Sky." Oddly, all the liquid in them is green (perhaps the colorists were lazy). Once again, Langstrom doesn't do anything with them, but at least this time, they don't get smashed.

* Krank's lab in ''Film/TheCityOfLostChildren'' has loads of goodies, including severed heads (presumably from failed clones) in jars.

* There's a goodly amount of chemical glassware in ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'' in the subway car where the sheep {{Mooks}} distill the Nighthowler serum. There's an extended tracking shot of a fresh batch of blooms yielding their bluish juice through tubing and distilling flasks until being formed into the ammo for a tranq gun.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePagemaster'', a mural depicts Dr. Jekyll (from the [[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde book]]) surrounded by this sort of bric-à-brac. When the characters actually visit Jekyll's mansion, although his "laboratory" is limited to just one table in what appears to be his living room, it's filled to overflowing with all manner of cartoonish-looking lab glassware, none of which Jekyll actually uses (mixing his infamous potion in a martini glass of all things).
* There's a goodly amount of chemical glassware in ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'' in the subway car where the sheep {{Mooks}} distill the Nighthowler serum. There's an extended tracking shot of a fresh batch of blooms yielding their bluish juice through tubing and distilling flasks until being formed into the ammo for a tranq gun.
* ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'': Basil has a chemistry setup in his home, which he actually uses to determine that Fidget's burglary list has come in contact with salt water, leading Basil to deduce that Fidget frequents a sleazy pub "where the sewer meets the riverfront." In fact, when Ratigan snares Basil in his ambush, he chides Basil, "Trouble with the chemistry set, old boy?"
* The AllCGICartoon ''WesternAnimation/{{Igor}}'' shows chemistry glassware in Dr. Glickenstein's castle, though this MadScientist tends to use motors, metallurgy and electricity for creating monsters. Given that the nation of Malaria runs on a MadScientist-based economy, the chemistry setup is likely a standard-issue feature of their castles, along with a TortureCellar and SharkPool. One early unused poster for the movie even had the letters of the title formed out of spiraling chemical glassware.
* Mr. Ages' laboratory in ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH'' features a ton of (human-sized) chemistry apparatus filled with bubbling concoctions which he's seen using once, to prepare a medicinal powder for Mrs. Brisby's feverish child.
* Yzma's [[AirQuotes "secret lab"]] in ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'' not only features a lot of spiraling glass tubing running throughout the room, but also shelves and shelves of ''literally'' a thousand and one bottles of her "[[InsistentTerminology poisons]]" (read: various magical potions). They're all pink in color and are very poorly labelled. {{Lampshaded}} by [[DumbassHasAPoint Kronk]].
* Dr. Finklestein has some of this kind of stuff in his MadScientistLaboratory in ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'', most notably a big, globe-shaped flask with a severed hand floating in it. He never uses any of it, but he ''does'' loan it to Jack Skellington along with a microscope to use for his Christmas experiments.
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* Dr. Andonuts from ''VideoGames/EarthBound'' has several beakers and flasks on both of the desks in his lab, despite only shown working with machines.

* Both the heroes' and villains' bases in ''Series/{{Bibleman}}'' feature flasks and beakers of brightly-colored liquids which they rarely, if ever, uses.

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* ''Film/FrankensteinConquersTheWorld'' follows ''Film/FrankensteinMeetsTheWolfMan'' and begins with an impressive opening credits sequence of the camera following chemicals flowing through different flasks and tubing. In the ColdOpen, [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi]] scientist [[HerrDoktor Dr. Lisendorf]]'s lab is filled with a lot of chemistry glassware containing brightly colored liquids. He smashes it all in a rage when [[ItMakesSenseInContext Frankenstein's heart is confiscated]].

* Just about any given cover for ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' or ''Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde'' will have this in full effect. The Creator/BerniWrightson edition of ''Frankenstein'' goes one step further; all depictions of Victor Frankenstein's work area throughout the book are so chock full of glassware that they can serve ''no'' practical purpose to Frankenstein whatsoever, and, indeed, seem to play no role in his work.

* ''Film/FrankensteinConquersTheWorld'' follows ''Film/FrankensteinMeetsTheWolfMan'' and begins with an impressive opening credits sequence of GratuitousPanning following chemicals flowing through different flasks and tubing. In the ColdOpen, [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi]] scientist [[HerrDoktor Dr. Lisendorf]]'s lab is filled with a lot of chemistry glassware containing brightly colored liquids. He smashes it all in a rage when [[ItMakesSenseInContext Frankenstein's heart is confiscated]].

* ''Film/FrankensteinConquersTheWorld'' follows ''Film/FrankensteinMeetsTheWolfMan'' and begins with an impressive and artistic opening credits sequence of the camera following chemicals flowing through different flasks and tubing. In the ColdOpen, [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi]] scientist [[HerrDoktor Dr. Lisendorf]]'s lab is filled with a lot of chemistry glassware containing brightly colored liquids. He smashes it all in a rage when [[ItMakesSenseInContext Frankenstein's heart is confiscated]].

What's the best way to visually demonstrate that a character is a man (or woman!) or science, [[MadScientist mad]] or otherwise? Why, with tons and tons of flasks and beakers, of course! These are usually crammed everywhere conceivable in the scientist's laboratory, connected with spiraling glass tubing and usually filled with bubbling [[TechnicolorScience colored liquids]], even if an experiment isn't actually in progress, and typically it's just there to be set dressing. Often, it's there to be dramatically smashed during a fight scene, an experiment gone wrong, or during the MadScientist's transformation. Bonus points if the scientist in question isn't actually a chemist, has no need of such equipment, and/or never actually ''does'' anything with it.

What's the best way to visually demonstrate that a character is a man (or woman!) or science, [[MadScientist mad]] or otherwise? Why, with tons and tons of flasks and beakers, of course! These are usually crammed everywhere conceivable in the scientist's laboratory, connected with spiraling glass tubing and usually filled with bubbling [[TechnicolorScience colored liquids]], even if an experiment isn't actually in progress, and typically it's just there to be set dressing. Often, it's there to be dramatically [[DestroyTheSet smashed]] during a fight scene, an experiment gone wrong, or during the MadScientist's transformation. Bonus points if the scientist in question isn't actually a chemist, has no need of such equipment, and/or never actually ''does'' anything with it.

What's the best way to visually demonstrate that a character is a man (or woman!) or science, [[MadScientist mad]] or otherwise? Why, with tons and tons of flasks and beakers, of course! These are usually crammed everywhere conceivable in the scientist's laboratory, connected with spiraling glass tubing and usually filled with bubbling [[TechnicolorScience colored liquids]], even if an experiment isn't actually in progress, and typically it's just there to be set dressing. Often, it's there to be dramatically smashed during a fight scene, an experiment gone wrong, or during the MadScientist's transformation. Bonus points if the scientist in question isn't actually a chemist, has no need of such equipment, and/or never actually ''does'' anything with it.

* In the ''Television/{{Goosebumps}}'' episode "The Haunted Mask," when Carly Beth sneaks into the back room at the costume store, the shopkeeper has a chemistry set on a table for no readily apparent reason which passes by in the foreground. All of the vessels are filled with a bright blue liquid. We later learn he makes the haunted masks himself (and indeed his [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]] in the ''Goosebumps Collector's Cap Book'' pegs him as a failed chemistry student), but the glassware in the episode doesn't seem to serve much purpose besides being set dressing because the shopkeeper never uses any of it or alludes to its role at all.

* In ''Series/HRPufnstuf'' , Dr. Blinky has a laboratory featuring various beakers, flasks, test tubes, retorts, etc. , which he uses in the first episode to brew a magic potion for [[FishOutOfWater Jimmy]] and [[OnlySaneMan Pufnstuf]] to use against [[WickedWitch Witchypoo]] and her [[WhenTreesAttack sentient tree minions]]. [[EverythingTalks One of these test tubes is sentient.]]

* ''SwatKats'':

* In a Creator/ChuckJones-era TomAndJerry short where Jerry concocts a SuperSpeed potion, in the background there are a bunch of flasks for aesthetic purposes.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePagemaster'', a mural depicts Dr. Jekyll (from the [[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde book]]) surrounded by this sort of brick-a-brack. When the characters actually visit Jekyll's mansion, although his "laboratory" is limited to just one table in what appears to be his living room, it's filled to overflowing with all manner of cartoonish-looking lab glassware, none of which Jekyll actually uses (mixing his infamous potion in a martini glass of all things).

->'''Morbulus:''' Very impressive. Looks like you've got everything a mad scientist needs right here.

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