Imagine parting with 240 grand for a Light Sabre only to discover it's something somebody cobbled together out of old flashgun parts. It's like your worst eBay nightmare come true.
Hopefully the seller is putting the cash to good use by buying plutonium for his DeLorean based time machine.
Why is this in the hardware section? Is it a review? Did Luke's dad buy the thing after a review in El Reg? I'm sure Logitech and Casio probably made them in the 80s...
I had the joy of seeing the Star Wars exhibit when it came to the museum in my town. Was pretty cool. I was struck though by how cheap and junky everything looked up close. The cockpit light in the Millennium Falcon was a cheap, bulbous LED that had been hastily and badly soldered (although in 76' when it was built, admittedly LEDs were pretty new tech), and I thought the lights on the Darth Vader costume looked like someone's home-brew electronics project from the 70s as well. Of course the props were only part of the magic of the movie's special effects, which turned these objects which could have been made by an industrious high-schooler into the slickest thing we'd ever seen on film in 1977.
And like Gilbert Wham said, I'd have to say that a Nostromo crew jacket would be pretty cool to have.
.... bought one of the pulse rifle props from aliens at auction back in the day when such purchases weren't too madly expensive. He then had a bit of a whizzo idea and made up a mould and recouped most of what he spent churning out fibreglass replicas that film buffs stuck on their walls. He worked with film props a lot, and it was easy. A quarter of million dollars though for this prop ? Wow ! He's either really, really a big time rich star wars geek or he's going to have to run off an awful lot of unauthorised replicas......
@Dave Edmondston - well flashguns aren't exactly software, are they? ;)
Speed Graphic and MPP flashguns have long sold for way over their value as flashguns (close to zero) to those wishing to create their own lightsabres. Not quite as way over as this, though...
Original lightsabre sale brings big, big bucks
Matt Underwood
Uh oh. Somebody's going to be upset #
Posted Monday 15th December 2008 15:19 GMT
Imagine parting with 240 grand for a Light Sabre only to discover it's something somebody cobbled together out of old flashgun parts. It's like your worst eBay nightmare come true.
Hopefully the seller is putting the cash to good use by buying plutonium for his DeLorean based time machine.
Dave Edmondston
Why...? #
Posted Monday 15th December 2008 15:19 GMT
Why is this in the hardware section? Is it a review? Did Luke's dad buy the thing after a review in El Reg? I'm sure Logitech and Casio probably made them in the 80s...
Joe K
What a piece of crap #
Posted Monday 15th December 2008 15:19 GMT
It never looked like such a flaky bit of metal junk in the films, surely?
Maybe my rose-tinted glasses need a polish, but thats not what i remember.
Special effects!
Iain
$90,000 (£60,000/€66,000) for the leather Wolverine suit from X-Men #
Posted Monday 15th December 2008 15:19 GMT
There must be more than one of these, I seem to remember that the suit got ripped once or twice during the film...
Anonymous John
Waves hand #
Posted Monday 15th December 2008 17:07 GMT
This isn't the bargain you're looking for.
ElFatbob
FFS #
Posted Monday 15th December 2008 17:07 GMT
Quarter of a mill for that bit of crud!! And wait till he finds out it doesn't work ;-)
'Other buyers also paid out $120,000 (£80,000/€89,000) for C-3PO’s helmet'
Now that made me snigger...
Anonymous Coward
@ Matt Underwood #
Posted Monday 15th December 2008 18:51 GMT
Still on them old-fashioned plutonium-powered time machines, eh?
*pats pile of trash and Mr Fusion*
Anonymous Coward
[heavy breathing] #
Posted Monday 15th December 2008 20:10 GMT
eBay, I am your father.
Gilbert Wham
What I want... #
Posted Monday 15th December 2008 20:10 GMT
...is a Nostromo crew jacket. Which I would wear till it fell to bits.
Anonymous Coward
which only goes to show #
Posted Monday 15th December 2008 22:45 GMT
that some folks have way more money than common sense.
now you know why paris is here...
Anonymous Coward
Saw the Star Wars exhibit... #
Posted Monday 15th December 2008 22:45 GMT
I had the joy of seeing the Star Wars exhibit when it came to the museum in my town. Was pretty cool. I was struck though by how cheap and junky everything looked up close. The cockpit light in the Millennium Falcon was a cheap, bulbous LED that had been hastily and badly soldered (although in 76' when it was built, admittedly LEDs were pretty new tech), and I thought the lights on the Darth Vader costume looked like someone's home-brew electronics project from the 70s as well. Of course the props were only part of the magic of the movie's special effects, which turned these objects which could have been made by an industrious high-schooler into the slickest thing we'd ever seen on film in 1977.
And like Gilbert Wham said, I'd have to say that a Nostromo crew jacket would be pretty cool to have.
Neoc
What the...? #
Posted Monday 15th December 2008 23:25 GMT
Caption on the photo: "Luke Hamill's lightsabre sold for $240,000"
*Luke Hamill*? Egads.
And on the Nostromo subject: I got one of the caps, does that count? ^_^
Anonymous Coward
Nostromo Crew Jacket? #
Posted Tuesday 16th December 2008 08:06 GMT
Awsome
I want one!
Henry Wertz
Re: What a piece of crap #
Posted Tuesday 16th December 2008 08:07 GMT
"It never looked like such a flaky bit of metal junk in the films, surely?"
Well, to be fair in the movies there's a light beam coming out the end of it.
Andy Enderby
a guy I once knew.... #
Posted Tuesday 16th December 2008 10:06 GMT
.... bought one of the pulse rifle props from aliens at auction back in the day when such purchases weren't too madly expensive. He then had a bit of a whizzo idea and made up a mould and recouped most of what he spent churning out fibreglass replicas that film buffs stuck on their walls. He worked with film props a lot, and it was easy. A quarter of million dollars though for this prop ? Wow ! He's either really, really a big time rich star wars geek or he's going to have to run off an awful lot of unauthorised replicas......
Andy Worth
Re:What a piece of crap #
Posted Tuesday 16th December 2008 10:06 GMT
"It never looked like such a flaky bit of metal junk in the films, surely?"
But remember, that WAS a long time ago in a galaxy far away so it has travelled a long way and is rather old.....
Dr Patrick J R Harkin
@Neoc #
Posted Tuesday 16th December 2008 10:06 GMT
Well, imagine how much more it would have gone for if it had been Luke Skywalker's lightsabre!
Ed
@Gilbert Wham #
Posted Wednesday 17th December 2008 10:28 GMT
Now thats an auction iwould bid on!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anonymous Coward
Well... #
Posted Wednesday 17th December 2008 13:32 GMT
@Dave Edmondston - well flashguns aren't exactly software, are they? ;)
Speed Graphic and MPP flashguns have long sold for way over their value as flashguns (close to zero) to those wishing to create their own lightsabres. Not quite as way over as this, though...
dudeskinn
What's the returns policy? #
Posted Friday 19th December 2008 22:57 GMT
I bet they mystery buyer will be well pissed off when they can't get it to work.
weirdcult
@Gilbert Wham #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 14:21 GMT
I would also like one of those please.