17 minutes ago
The lightsaber is without a doubt the most iconic weapon to come out of Star Wars, but the blaster is a close second. When you don't have any magical powers, then the blaster is the way to go and just about every non-Jedi character has fired one off at some point. This is especially true for Han Solo, who carries around his own modified blaster that has become very popular with Star Wars fans. So popular, in fact, that the real prop used on set during the filming of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi recently sold at auction for over $500,000.
Han Solo's blaster sold for the ridiculous sum of $550,000 at an auction in Las Vegas, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The blaster was a prop used on the set of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and was once graced by the hands of Harrison Ford himself. The item was a part of a collection owned by the U.S. art director on the film, James L. Schoppe, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for his work on the movie. Ripley's Believe it or Not bought Han's blaster, so one would wager that the blaster will be put on display at one point in the future for people to see it (or believe it) for themselves.
The prop was the top-selling item of the Hollywood Legends auction. However, the high-selling blaster wasn't the only Star Wars item that received some love at the auction. An Imperial Scout Trooper Blaster from the movie was also up for grabs and was sold for $90,625. Other movie items that were available, including Superman's outfit from Superman III (worn by Christopher Reeve) and a black wool dress worn by Marilyn Monroe. The Superman costume sold for a whopping $200,000, while the dress went for $50,000 to benefit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation.
It's not very surprising that Star Wars items sell for that much money, but still, $550,000 is a crap ton of money. To add some perspective, Luke's lightsaber from A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back sold for $450,000 last year, not so coincidentally, to Ripley's Believe It or Not. However, an original R2-D2 unit put both weapons to shame and sold for $3 million.
Maybe you missed out on your chance to finally spend that half a million dollars you had laying around the house, but a movie ticket is barely a fraction of that! Solo: A Star Wars Story, which tells the origin story of a young blaster who goes on adventures with some guy and his bear, is still playing in some theaters if you'd like to see the blaster in action.