The mechanical features of the character's head suggested the makeup effects category but, due to the camouflage effect, there was a visual effects aspect to the character, as well. When it came time to recognize Predator with an Academy Award nomination, the combination of techniques used had the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officials scratching their heads, unsure as to which category the Predator belonged. And that's why the truth didn't come out until years later." "I never knew it wasn't Arnold," Winston said, "because, from the day it happened, we never spoke of it! I kept waiting for him to bring it up, and he kept waiting for me to bring it up - and neither of us ever did. It wasn't until the following night when, appearing on the same show, Schwarzenegger swore his innocence before a television audience of millions, that Shane Mahan finally confessed, and Winston learned that his own crewmembers had been the culprits. And she wasn't happy." For years, Winston continued to believe Schwarzenegger had initiated the 'frog incident' - and that was how he told the story when he appeared on the Arsenio Hall late-night talk show one night. And Arnold didn't find the frogs - Maria did. What we didn't realize was that Arnold's wife, Maria Shriver, was visiting that weekend. He told us to help him gather up the frogs, and we put them in Arnold's room. "So, of course, Stan assumed Arnold had put the frogs in his room. When Stan got back to his room, after a couple of minutes we could hear him yelling: 'Frogs! Frogs! There're frogs in my room! Who put frogs in my room?' And we stuck our heads in, all innocently, asking, 'Stan, what happened?' He said: 'Somebody put frogs in my room - and I know who did it! Arnold!'" "Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stan were always playing practical jokes on each other," continued Landon. Then we hid and stood back to hear what would happen.
So some of us went down and gathered up a bunch of these frogs - which were huge, half a loaf of bread in size - and filled the shower stall in Stan's room with them.
"The hotel where we were staying in Mexico was right at the edge of a forest," Richard Landon recalled, "and on the lawn were hundreds of frogs hopping out of that forest. Working extremely long and hard days and nights in these conditions, Stan Winston's crew found release in practical jokes. Gunfire from Guatemalan rebels could be heard at night, and poisonous snakes often invaded the production camp.