A rifle fired by the bounty hunter Boba Fett from Star Wars will be auctioned on December 5th when it is expected to realise as much as £700,000.
The EE-3 carbine was carried by the character, played by Jeremy Bulloch, in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the second film in the original Star Wars movie trilogy.
It will be auctioned in PropStore’s December 5 Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction that closes with a live sale that afternoon.
Boba Fett’s reputation exceeds his screentime to some extent. He is introduced to the Star Wars sequence in the Empire Strikes back, when he is engaged by Darth Vader to chase down the Millennium Falcon. He helps to capture the crew, but dies – apparently – early in the next episode as his former captives escape from execution.
The helmeted and originally silent mercenary had a fanbase though. George Lucas used Clint Eastwood’s enigmatic western hero The Man with No Name as a base. Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston (subsequent director of The Rocketeer and Captain America) designed Fett.
Photomatching like this is key to establishing the veracity and value of film props. Image courtesy of PropStore Auction.
He has subsequently been revived in streaming shows The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.
PropStore say this weapon is the only surviving Boba Fett blaster from The Empire Strikes Back and it has been photomatched to footage from the film.
The weapon was made from a World War I British flare pistol and has been restored to match its film appearance.
The gun’s estimate of £350,000 to £700,000 makes it easily the most valuable item in the sale, over a Rebel Pilot Helmet from the same film that is expected to sell for £200,000 to £400,000.
The most valuable Star Wars item yet sold is a lightsaber that Darth Vader swung in The Empire Strikes back and Return of the Jedi. It sold for $3.6m (£2.7m) at another PropStore auction in September this year.
