Portable Shrinkerscope

For its replacement from The Magic School Bus Rides Again, see Bus Remote.

Portashrinker bogbeast — The Portashrinker

The Porta-Shrinker (spelled Portashrinker prior to Kids in Space, and short for PORTAble SHRINKERscope^[1]) is the main feature of the Bus Remote. It shoots a beam that changes the size of its target. In The Magic School Bus, Professor Frizzle would keep the Porta-Shrinker in her dress pocket, for a sudden field trip idea or to get out of a "large" situation. It debuted in Butterfly and the Bog Beast, and its last appearance was the last (or third-to-last) episode of The Magic School Bus, Gets Programmed. It's the predecessor to and prototype of the Bus Remote.

Porta-Shrinkers are manufactured from recycled plastic. ("Holiday Special") They are sensitive to water, and the one from “Butterfly and the Bog Beast” was unable to work after falling into a puddle until it had dried. When it is damp, an alarm within the Shrinker called the Dew Dinger dings the first six notes of ”Ride on the Magic School Bus”. ("Butterfly and the Bog Beast")

Once while the class visited Wanda's house, her little brother William got into Ms. Frizzle's tool box and shrunk the class and unknowingly the bus with a Porta-Shrinker. He later stepped on it, breaking it. Mrs. Li found it afterwards, and threw it in the toybox. ("Under Construction")

It is a feature on the Bus Remote starting in "Frizzle of the Future," and has been used this way since.

Whether this is the only Porta-Shrinker is unknown. Later episodes show a Porta-Shrinker being used, but the series does not necessarily follow chronological order.

Appearances[]

Broken Portashrinker — The smashed Porta-Shrinker.

Device[]

Bus Remote feature[]

Trivia[]

In "Butterfly and the Bog Beast" and "Cracks a Yolk," the Portable Shrinkerscope also doubles as a Portable Biggifier. Though the term "Bigifier" wasn't coined until later in "Kids in Space."
In "Taking Flight," it has an AC adapter.

↑ Goldstealer

[1] Goldstealer

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