

The Making of Adam Savage's Admiral Ackbar Costume - uptown
http://www.tested.com/art/makers/456811-making-adam-savages-admiral-ackbar-costume/

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conroy
Every year at Comic-Con, Savage hits the convention floor in full costume,
tweeting out hints to his fans. "Adam Incognito" is his version of Where's
Waldo, and the first fan to find him wins a prize. Here are some photos of his
previous outfits:

2013 Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars
[http://files.tested.com/photos/2013/07/19/64-50337-_v2c0074-...](http://files.tested.com/photos/2013/07/19/64-50337-_v2c0074-1374232199.jpg)

2012 Ring Wraith from Lord of the Rings
[http://p.twimg.com/Axo2wwCCMAAuOHf.jpg:large](http://p.twimg.com/Axo2wwCCMAAuOHf.jpg:large)

2011 No Face from Spirited Away [http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/comic-
con-2011-adam-pictures1.j...](http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/comic-
con-2011-adam-pictures1.jpg)

2010 Storm Trooper from Star Wars
[http://media.corporate.discovery.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads...](http://media.corporate.discovery.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2010/07/21351_199-e1280261358187.jpg)

2009 Joker's henchmen from the Dark Knight
[http://twitpic.com/bn7pu](http://twitpic.com/bn7pu)

2008 Hellboy from Hellboy
[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6v2jitxhm1rnwx2io1_1280.j...](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6v2jitxhm1rnwx2io1_1280.jpg)

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DanBC
The "making" sections on Tested are really interesting. Adam Savage is a prop-
maker, and so items tend to be cosmetically interesting, rather than having
interesting tech. He takes a nice big wooden box, paints it, applies decals,
then distresses it. It's nice, it looks (to my uninformed eye) genuine (it has
big NASA logos on it), but it's entirely fake.

It reminds me of "pretty face" \- a fake shirt collar attached to a jacket so
poor people in communist China could maintain decorum.
([http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/hsc/evrev/mao_suit.htm](http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/hsc/evrev/mao_suit.htm))

There's a movie gun replica (hellboy?) where a bunch of glass tubes and valves
are sourced to get "accurate" versions of what was used for the movie. And he
knows, because he used to work in the industry, that it could be tricky to
source the parts because prop-makers just use whatever is available that looks
"right". So a prop maker could buy some stuff from a junkstore and rip it
apart, which makes it hard for people years later to reproduce it.

EDIT: And this article is full of interesting domain-specific knowledge about
what casts what and why.

~~~
snide
I built the original Tested for Will and Norm while at Whiskey Media. So
excited for these guys, think the site has become something even more awesome
since they joined up with Jamie and Adam. Miss working with them daily.

If you dig science, photography and other general geekery they're worth an RSS
add.

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lhl
For those that have never seen Adam Savage's TED talk on his prop-making, it's
fascinating and well worth the 15 minutes of your time:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/adam_savage_s_obsessions.html](http://www.ted.com/talks/adam_savage_s_obsessions.html)

I was particularly interested by his research and collection of reference
images, but his whole process/thinking is fascinating (and awesome).

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Beltiras
[http://fora.tv/2009/05/30/MythBuster_Adam_Savages_Colossal_F...](http://fora.tv/2009/05/30/MythBuster_Adam_Savages_Colossal_Failures)

This HAS to be his best talk thou. Inspiration in every way.

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mrshoe
Adam,

My wife's uncle made the original Admiral Ackbar costume for the movies. If
you wanted a costume, you could have just emailed me and I would have put you
in touch with him.

Regards, shoe

~~~
joshuak
Where's the fun in that? ;)

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kephra
» the greatest non-human character in film.

"Those are not aliens, but just humans in funny costumes" Marc Miller, author
and guru of Traveller™ SciFi RPG.

