Danny Phantom - Fenton Works Lab, Portal to the Ghost Zone

One of the most underrated settings of any Nickelodeon cartoon was without a doubt the Fenton Works Lab! Ripe with amazing gadgets, cool inventions, and a portal to the Ghost Zone, it truly is hard to beat, and this is why it makes an excellent set idea. This hits all the marks of my dream set as a kid. Having wicked awesome gadgets, a slick space ship (I 100% blame growing up with Star Wars), and many interesting pieces that could be utilized to create other neat or unique ideas through my imagination afterward.

This set idea comes from the cartoon Danny Phantom, a criminally underrated show that seemed to awkwardly cater to the 'Tweens', an age group maybe equally as awkward. That transition place where you are stuck approaching those exciting pre-adult teenage years, yet losing that full kid imagination as you become more conscious of the world you are growing into. But besides having one of the most menacing characters in the show ironically integrated into a PDA obsessed with doing research on a friendly purple back gorilla, it is exactly this demographic sweet spot that allows the cartoon to offer a little bit of something for everyone. The humor that is 50% purposefully terrible elementary puns and 50% cleverly woven in remarks and hidden details that someone older could catch. Where the relatively ambiguous storyline slowly meanders around the absence of a true plot, yet surprisingly culminates in a climactic showdown of epic foes and a romantic love story.

Perhaps not what someone would be thinking while watching this show, but what stuck out most to me was a set of great color palettes, the use of contrast that mimics the half ghost/half boy main character, and a unique coolness factor that made each ghost he encounters incredibly memorable. Thus, I tried to capture these elements within my set design by focusing on capturing a coolness factor in the set design and presenting a contrast between the "reality" world and the Ghost Zone on each side of the portal wall.

The lab has to measure up to the hype obviously, so I brought it with this one. You will notice I built the iconic gadget, the Specter Speeder. This ship often used to fly within the Ghost Zone sits as the centerpiece of the lab. Complete with openable side doors that authentically swing out as well as a pretty true interior within the ship. I designed it to also have the rear of the ship pop off very easily, which opens up to a storage space. This was an extremely technical build. Building the ship took probably around 70% of the time I spent hand building this set design as it was truly difficult to get the details to match to the ship in the show and also have working doors that would swing open nicely in the right direction, all while maintaining proper proportions. The other most iconic part of this show would have to be the portal, which was another fun technical build in this set. The challenge here was symmetrically covering the exterior of the portal, getting it to hang properly from the wall, and designing the interior to match the yellow/black door in the lab, and on the opposing side's portal, the Ghost Zone colors. The laboratory itself is full of gadgets and cool pieces, from the ecto-guns hanging on the wall, to all the high tech machinery. It certainly mimics what always made the lab awesome in the show.

On the outside of the lab, I ended up building a representation of the ghost zone. It just did not feel right to totally neglect such an epic area of the show within the set. However, having built the full lab already and literally about to submit it, my second thoughts ate away at me and I found a way to incorporate it. I did it subtly though as the set already had a perfect footprint for a quality shelf display. I also really wanted to have the opposing sides of the portal in this design. It just looks rad.

As the friendship trio always finds a way to take down ghosts together in each episode, I found it only appropriate to build each of them. This includes Samantha "Sam" Manson, Tucker Foley, and the ghost version of Daniel "Danny" Fenton (Danny Phantom), who is built with a ghost tail and to look like he is coming through the wall of the lab as he frequently passes through walls when fighting. There really are a number of fantastic choices for an opposing ghost character in the set, but it obviously has to be the top foe of Danny. The only other half ghost, half human - Vlad Plasmius, also known as Vlad Masters (his human identity). In terms of accessories, Danny Phantom and Vlad Plasmius both have their specific color of ghost ray. While Tucker, of course, has the PDA he so dearly loves and Sam has the Fenton Thermos, which I built to look like it was pulling a ghost into it (by far one of my favorite details in this set).

I put a lot of work into this design to bring as close of a replica as I could for this secretly great cartoon. I hope any old fans of the show can appreciate those and that anyone who is unfamiliar can connect to this set design as just a super cool concept! If this set resonates with you in any way I would love to receive your vote and make this something we can all buy and build in the future. Thank you for donating your time to checking out my submission! I appreciate your time and any supporting votes greatly.