Juicer Bug

The Juicer Bug (1998), sometimes called the Lightning Bug, functions as a back-up power source for the Forevertron. It collects lightning and stores it inside its body in case it’s needed as a power source when a traveler is launched into space from the Forevertron. Eventually, electrical cables will connect the Juicer Bug to the Forevertron to enable this transfer of power.

At 46 feet long, the Juicer Bug weighs in at 60,000 pounds and is made from brass, copper and stainless steel. Although impressive in size, it’s not fully grown yet. Eventually, the Juicer Bug will stand 21 feet off the ground on six huge legs that shoot out at a curve, and are made from steel boiler tubing, which each leg ending on a foot pad that measures three inches thick. The main body of the Juicer Bug is made from a stainless steel mixing pot that had been used in a pharmaceutical industry plant in Verona, Wisconsin. The wings are made from high-pressure gas tanks originally located at a plant in Berlin, Wisconsin. Rows of popsicle molds line the underside of each wing.

Perhaps the most striking part of the Juicer Bug is the eyes. Huge and round, measuring 4 inches in diameter and each covered with dozens of small brass surveyor markers, their intricate detail gives the giant bug a lifelike feeling. The brass circles are made from surveyor markers obtained from Bernstein International Inc. located on the east side of Madison. The markers were all rejects, each with a mistake of some sort—often in the casting or with a misspelled word printed on it. More than just an artistic wonder, the eyes are a design wonder also. People who walk by the Juicer Bug may marvel at the brass markers that appear to be welded to steel. In reality, they aren’t of course! Dr. Evermor dropped the neck of each of the brass markers into a nut and then wire welded around it.

Author Credit: Leslie Huber