Queensland Holiday Part 3: The Wax Museum

We are still on day 2! This was a busy day but most of the exhibitions only took a couple of hours!

The Wax Museum

Outside the museum. This head was obviously not wax as it would have melted but gives an idea of some of the freaky things inside.

The Wax Museum in Surfers Paradise houses the largest collection of genuine wax models in the Southern Hemisphere. According to the tour guide many modern figures such as those at Madame Tussaud's are made of a different material (though still referred to as wax) that can actually be touched, whereas all but two of these were classic wax, kept behind glass and temperature controlled to prevent melting. 

We began our tour in the chamber of horrors. No photography was allowed in here, although I don't think I would want photographs anyway. Most of the models in here were either torturers or being tortured. The wax models in here had real hair and proper glass eyes. The ones with body hair or finger hair even used real hair! 

In the foyer, this screaming face in a broken open mould gave me House of Wax vibes.

After the chamber of horrors we went upstairs to see the celebrity and historical figures, which were less grotesque but still eerie. Wax figures definitely provoke the uncanny valley response in humans. The concept of uncanny valley "suggests that humanoid objects that imperfectly resemble actual human beings provoke uncanny or strangely familiar feelings of uneasiness and revulsion in observers. "Valley" denotes a dip in the human observer's affinity for the replica, a relation that otherwise increases with the replica's human likeness." Wikipedia.

There was also another tourist on walking around which meant the occasional sound of footsteps made you wonder if any dummies had come to life and were planning to attack us! If you have ever seen horror movies like House of Wax or the Supernatural episode Fallen Idols, you will find being alone in a winding corridor with so many dummies pretty uncomfortable. I got a scare when one of the staff popped out of a corridor next to us to clean the glass.

This model of Madame Tussaud is apparently one of only three that she made of herself. The guide said she must have been a little vain because the figure has the hands of an old lady but no wrinkles on the face!

A descendent of Madame Tussaud apparently made these dioramas of fairytales and Australian history. This one is Red Riding Hood.

Jack and Jill.

Burke and Wills, the ill-fated Australian explorers.

Australian outlaw Ned Kelly. There was also a copy of his death mask downstairs.

Famous movie monsters. They were really the least scary of the bunch!

That was the end of a very busy day. I will post about Day 3 next week!