If you’re sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars, Heritage Auctions has a bunch of original movie props that you may be interested in. From Star Wars: A New Hope to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the auction house has listings for some genuinely iconic props. Let’s take a look at a few choice things on offer.
Obi-Wan Kenobi’s hero lightsaber from The Phantom Menace was the first prop I saw when browsing the site. The blade is attached to the hilt, and it appears to be in pretty good condition. Hero sabers are rare. I only had parts of one pass through my prop store years ago, and even then, just a few pieces of the hilt could go for $10k and up. This auction is $100,000, and eight days are left to bid.
In addition to at least one machined, “hero” lightsaber prop hilt being created for Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi by the props department on The Phantom Menace for insert filming, it was decided that a “bladed hero” version would also be required to be built as all of the other “bladed stunt” versions of the Kenobi lightsaber props were simple, rough, painted resin castings of the “hero” without the quality of detailing necessary to stand up to the scrutiny of close-up filming and promotional photography.
Next, we’ll look at two props from A New Hope. First, for $35,000, you could bid on an original Stormtrooper E-11 blaster. The weapon commonly associated with the Empire was a modified version of a Bapty & Co. British Sterling submachine gun. It was easy to recreate these blasters with original parts for a long time, but the British Sterling has become so rare that most replicas today are made from custom machined metal, resin casts, or 3-D printed parts.
The front section of the blaster is an actual Sterling body tube with the central barrel replaced with a simple wooden dowel painted black. The grip and trigger guard are not standard and were custom-made from aluminum. The rear section of the Sterling was cut away, and a solid aluminum billet cast specifically by Bapty & Co for these props was slotted into the rear of the gun. The billet extends from the rear of the Sterling tube past the ejector port and receiver, rendering the piece a non-gun.
Here we go! An original Episode IV Stormtrooper helmet! Not only is this an original prop, but it is one that had a lot of screen time early on in the film. This helmet belonged to the Imperial trooper in the Cantina and attempted to stop the Millenium Falcon from taking off before getting blasted by Han Solo. Oh, expect to pay a lot for this one. The helmet is going for $300,000 right now.
This is the exact helmet worn by the Stormtrooper that talks with the bartender after Obi-Wan Kenobi’s disarming encounter in the Cantina with “Dr. Evazan” and “Ponda Baba.” This helmet also screen-matches 100% with the one worn by the Stormtrooper that questions the mysterious informant “Garindan,” and then rushes his squad to Docking Bay 94 to attempt to stop the Millennium Falcon from fleeing Mos Eisley Spaceport. This Stormtrooper’s last words were “Stop that ship! Blast ’em!“… immediately before being gunned down by Han Solo.
We’ll round out this story with a summary of other unique items Heritage Auctions has listed. There’s an original Iron Man helmet from the first Robert Downey Jr. MCU film. It’s going for $50,000. And yes, the eyes do light up.
Heritage AuctionsNow, this is what I want to see more of, complete costumes. This is Jack Nicholson’s Joker suit from Tim Burton’s Batman. This suit is from the mob boss scene where the Joker announced he was taking over Carl Grissom’s crime empire. The current bid on the costume is up to $65k.
[Source: Heritage Auctions]
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