Here's a closer look at the impressively adorned Akatar warriors that looked so fearsome in the trailers and TV spots for The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Who knew they would only be featured in two scenes and in the second they were all lying on the ground with strategically placed bullet wounds.
Head of make-up Felicity Bowring explains how she took Guy Hendrix Dias' wondrous art for the Akator warriors and turned it into 3D. On the day of filming, 26 make-up persons were working simultaneously, two each to prepare each warrior. The guys playing the parts had previously removed all of their body hair. Then the remaining hair on their heads was shaved and everything from extended earlobes to pebble like art and fake tattoos were applied.
After that their bodies and teeth were dirtied up and some sweet cake decorations was used to stain their lips. In other words, by the end of the day these guys teeth would have started to rot just as much as the warriors they were playing. They were joined by a variant warrior for the scene outside the temple: about 30 Mud-men. However these were much easier to prepare for the shoot as they didn't need to have as many intricate details applied to them, just a dip in non-toxic clay mixed in a cement mixer by Felicity herself.
One of the less muddy warriors was immortalized in plastic as part of Kenner's range of Indy action figures (and another one turned into a Kellogs magic serial spoon!). However, less than a year after the movie was released, you can find entire bins filled to the brim with the slow selling toys for next to nothing in Toyshops all over the world (except for Akator I suppose). So any Indy fans looking to build their own Akatorian army should quickly head out and snatch them up. Maybe the warriors will finally get their revenge on those Red Ruskies (sold separately) or else they can capture Indy and Mutt again (but not Marion, Mac or the Ox, for they Kenner never saw fit to release any of those main characters).
7 out of 10
Head of make-up Felicity Bowring explains how she took Guy Hendrix Dias' wondrous art for the Akator warriors and turned it into 3D. On the day of filming, 26 make-up persons were working simultaneously, two each to prepare each warrior. The guys playing the parts had previously removed all of their body hair. Then the remaining hair on their heads was shaved and everything from extended earlobes to pebble like art and fake tattoos were applied.
After that their bodies and teeth were dirtied up and some sweet cake decorations was used to stain their lips. In other words, by the end of the day these guys teeth would have started to rot just as much as the warriors they were playing. They were joined by a variant warrior for the scene outside the temple: about 30 Mud-men. However these were much easier to prepare for the shoot as they didn't need to have as many intricate details applied to them, just a dip in non-toxic clay mixed in a cement mixer by Felicity herself.
One of the less muddy warriors was immortalized in plastic as part of Kenner's range of Indy action figures (and another one turned into a Kellogs magic serial spoon!). However, less than a year after the movie was released, you can find entire bins filled to the brim with the slow selling toys for next to nothing in Toyshops all over the world (except for Akator I suppose). So any Indy fans looking to build their own Akatorian army should quickly head out and snatch them up. Maybe the warriors will finally get their revenge on those Red Ruskies (sold separately) or else they can capture Indy and Mutt again (but not Marion, Mac or the Ox, for they Kenner never saw fit to release any of those main characters).
7 out of 10
