A model of Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing starfighter, as seen in the climactic Battle of the Death Star in 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, is about to hit the auction block.
And it’s going to fetch a fortune.
Heritage Auctions says the model was just one of four “hero” X-Wings — that is, models with lights and other details for close-ups — known to have been built by George Lucas‘ effects house Industrial Light and Magic.
Once thought lost forever, the model was recovered in a box among the collection of the late Oscar-nominated modelmaker Greg Jein. It will be sold at a Heritage auction on October 14 and 15 in Dallas, Texas, with the bidding starting at $400,000.
Jein’s collection also has a screen-used suit of Stormtrooper armor from the same film, for which bidding will begin at $200,000, as well as props and costumes from Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey and other classic projects.
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