Luke Skywalker Lightsaber Sells For $240K
No, it doesn't really work, and it doesn't make that infamous humming sound that "Star Wars" fans happily mimic when mock-fighting Darth Vader. But one fan spent nearly a quarter-million dollars to get the ultimate Christmas present: Luke Skywalker's lightsaber.
On Thursday, the prop that Mark Hamill used in the first two movies of the original "Star Wars" trilogy was sold as part of an auction of Hollywood memorabilia by Profiles in History in Los Angeles.
The auction featured other iconic props, costumes, special effects creations, scripts and posters.
Among the items up for bids: The flying saucer model from "Forbidden Planet"; the costume Marlon Brando wore as Jor-El, the father of "Superman," which went for $72,000; Arnold Schwarzenegger's Outfit from "Terminator 2: Judgment Day"; and the droid helmet worn by Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, which sold for $120,000.
That's just the head, mind you. His hands were sold separately.
Other costumes came from the box office hit "Ghostbusters" and cult favorite "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension."
A tiny piece (20 in. x 48 in.) of the surface of the Death Star used to film the climactic battle in "Star Wars" was up for auction as was the Joker's blood-splattered playing card from "The Dark Knight."
A 1937 Mercedes custom-built for "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (it's actually constructed around a Jaguar Mark IC chassis, powered by a 285-h.p. dual overhead cam engine) still bears dents from when a truck driven by Indiana Jones tried to run them off the road. The buyer should be happy to learn that, according to the auction catalog, "all the fluids have been changed and the brakes have been bled."
Also sold were animatronic puppets, makeup appliances, props and social effects miniatures from "An American Werewolf in London," "Batman and Robin," "Gremlins 2: The New Batch," "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and the "Men in Black" films.
A James Bond aficionado paid $84,000 for the first British edition of "You Only Live Twice," inscribed by Ian Fleming 000, while Roald Dahl's handwritten screenplay for the film version sold for $96,000.
The auction house said it sold about $3.5 million in memorabilia.