Reference supporting info from collectors and reproductions

[Nezhdanov]

Hi,
 
I’m sure many of you will know this already but for those that don’t there have been some interesting Tusken parts appearing in the collector market in recent years. Some of this has been put on these forums before but I thought I’d put it together here. I’m thinking this as supporting information for those interested in making the same elements for their own costume which is mainly for A New Hope (ANH).
 
The caveats would be that some of the head colours will likely have altered in the 47 or 48 years since they were created, some restoration work has been done and some of the materials are not the same as they would have been especially with the bust, this is mentioned in the videos.
 
The information is publicly available and although named people from the film and Star Wars archives are mentioned, it is always helpful to keep in mind that it is information from the internet and a collector will want to increase the value of what they have collected and a company that has quite pricey products to sell will also have it’s own interests at heart. However it could be useful as another source of information towards costume builds.
 
I’ve taken some stills from the videos and highlighted similar elements from all the ‘head’ videos together to talk about the parts of the ANH head to look out for when creating your own head for a costume or if thinking of buying a complete head or kit.
 
So to start with is a well known video of a collector showing the Peter Diamond head. A link to the video is included at the end of the post.
 
There are three separate videos of a reproduction bust created by scanning a different ANH Tusken head. One is by the company who made it and the other two are from some who have bought the product. This time it is Alan Fernandes Tusken head who was one of the ANH Tuskens and also one of the animal handlers but not one of the three seen in the close up film shots if I understand it correctly. Links are included.
 
Here is a reference image we use a lot. It is the Peter Diamond head from ANH. You can see the orientation of the eye cutouts and the lip on the splitter
 

 
Here is the same detail from the video

 
Here is the reproduction bust of Alan Fernandes showing the same details

 
The camera work in this video made the head distorted but the lip and orientation of the cutouts are clear. The arrow on the inside of the eye stalk show no cutouts meaning the cutouts are not horizontal on this head

 

 
Here are shown the leather layout of both heads which are different for each head. Note how the leather wraps round the bottom of the mouth and the head wraps drop in between the eye stalks. There is a leather layer just around the top of the nose metal. Also a good view of the mouth folds

 

 
Nose leather and thin leather wrap around. Alan’s mouth folds are different to Peter’s. The Alan bust has had the mouth folds painted and is not leather as it is from a scan

 

 
Here are shown how not uniform in arrangement and width the head wraps are with the wraps being around the head spikes. Also shows the weave of the wraps well

 

 

 
Here is seen the nose cutouts to be not uniform on the Peter Diamond head and the metal nose placement

 

 

 
The discoloured leather in between the eye stalks and the splitters as mentioned in the Peter Diamond video and the difference in colour on the bust

 

 
The Alan head bust also shows the breather that seems to have a subtle curve and also some detail of the width of the cap ridges and how soon the rod bends at the end of the breather

 

 
It is possible a can like this one may have been used

 
The video suggests that the Alan Fernandes head was this one used in a book but it is useful to remember how different this costume image is from a film reference photo of Alan Fernandes

 

 
Finally are two videos of Tusken gaffi accessories that have been produced from ANH and Mandalorian series one. Accessories are not a requirement for 501st clearance but if you were going to make one for the relevant costumes then this could be helpful for supporting information. Links included
 
This is a reproduction of a ANH gaffi

 

 

 

 
A Mandalorian series gaffi is above ANH

 
Mandalorian gaffi

 

 
Links