Han Solo Blaster: 2025 Studio auctions / Goldin auctions
- Thread starter Halliwax
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PVmodels
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I’m not happy that I found the 2011 auction information that matched the auction gun.
I would have been in awe if, after almost 50 years, more of the ANH hero would have surfaced. If that Mauser had 2813 on the side and the barrel was right and the side had repairs from the scope mounts bolts or mystery disc, man I would have been happy. You know bapty have searched their inventory for that because they know that would be like printing money. With the $1M price of the last one, anyone from the production team who might have taken it would have already cashed in knowing it would be even higher.
Hopefully in the end though, finding the truth about this non-fully intact, non-matching anything c96 reduces the stupidity of these auctions. The amount of detailed knowledge of members of the RPF is going to catch their BS every time.
Similarly, I too am not happy that I read the expiration date on a can in my pantry and denied myself the pleasure of eating rotten tuna.
JK
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Whats crazy is how little research this person (or persons) did in tryin to recreate this prop. They put way to much faith in what BF offers I guess. An aluminum heak sink grille thats all one piece?! Not even an accurate replica in its own right at that yet there it is trying to pass as original and authentic. It doesn't take that much research to figure some of this stuff out yet... this dude missed the mark so badly.
Something to keep in mind: Productions like the original STAR WARS and STAR TREK were relatively low-budget, and were not the juggernaut franchises they later became.
In the case of TREK, we have documentation that there were four hero phasers. Then, because those props were complex/expensive/fragile, came the vacuformed Crapazoids. Those weren’t great, though, so, by the end of the first season came the midgrades: Dummies with less detail than the heroes, which could even be used in the occasional close-up.
Realistically speaking, there probably weren’t many midgrades. At most, maybe 5-7 people would need a phaser on-camera at the same time. And there would also probably be a few backups. I’d guess that no more than a dozen were made. Probably less.
Yet, auction after auction, over the decades.
In the case of STAR WARS, we know there were two Vader sabers, and most likely two Kenobi sabers, not counting the rotating-blade stunts. There’s never been any evidence of more than one Graflex, however, despite its being a more important prop than the other two sabers. Either there was just the one hero—which is a bad idea, in the prop world, since accidents happen, and having backups avoids time and trouble—or the one hero we know was the only one ever used and photographed.
And, more to the point, we’ve only ever had evidence of the live-fire DL-44 hero and the MGC Greedo Killer, the latter of which was thrown together for one insert close-up in post-production. We know there were resin castings of the hero used for the Merr Sonn, etc. but no evidence whatsoever of any other heroes or backups.
There’s never been direct evidence to support the idea of a resin casting being used as a belt-holster version for Harrison Ford. It really seems like the live-fire hero was used both for shooting blanks AND in the holster. Which indicates that there was only one hero, with no backups. Again, not standard procedure on a film set, but it IS possible.
My point is that: A) There are probably a lot fewer of these props floating around out there than people think; B) The most iconic hero props are probably long since gone—disassembled and/or reused in other productions (just as the DL-44 hero Mauser had been before STAR WARS), trashed, lost, or held in private hands.
At the time, STAR WARS was just another schlocky little sci-fi movie everyone thought would fail, or be a modest success at best. The only reason that the Lucasfilm Archives contains as much as it does is because George Lucas is a forward-thinking packrat. Otherwise, most of it would have been sold off, given to Fox for reuse/recycling in other movies, or destroyed.
The real Graflex and DL-44 may show up, someday. I never expected to see the TMOST phaser and Kirk communicator, that’s for sure. Miracles happen.
But Occam’s Razor tells us that pretty much anything which pops up will be a fake. And, in this auction’s case, a very blatant and sloppy fake.
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Let me add to this.. if there where backups made and/or multiple resin props made to be used as holster fillers. Why is our HERO being used here in this scene simply as a holster filler?? This was pointed out by Scott back in the day and answers so many questions about how may blasters where made and where they where used.
Why would they take the scope off and use it for this scene IF they had more resin props or backups available!?
In this scene they used both the resin MS and the ANH Hero.. all signs point in one direction. One hero… only one was ever made and/or used..
Excellent point.
There are a grand total of two scenes in which the hero was needed to fire blanks. And, judging from the look of the weight of the holster blaster, it's likely that Ford just grumbled through with that heavy hero gun on his belt.
As long as the hero worked in those two gunplay scenes where it needed to work, they probably didn't see a need to spend time and money making backups or dummies.
Also, if one looks at the shooting schedule, the majority of the Tatooine/Death Star/Yavin scenes shot on stage at Elstree were already done by the time that the prop's scope was removed and used for that random Imperial blaster.
I do remember learning during the Pawn Stars epidemic that Bapty at the time had the ability to weld, machine and regularly made molds of their items. It could very well be that molding of the guns themselves was a Bapty thing and not easily done for on-set needs.
I’m spitballing though, as has been said resin ones existed (Merr-Sonn) and still weren’t used for Hans holster.
I’m spitballing though, as has been said resin ones existed (Merr-Sonn) and still weren’t used for Hans holster.
Again , you fellas know way more about this movie than I do but rental houses such as Bapty re-purpose stuff as standard...they don know if a film will be a hit,it's just a Gun prop that has to earn its keep ! The more they can rent it out the better...all the doo-dads normally get removed as they are not the stock look !
Ya I believe that’s the story on why this hero has been lost to history. Retuned to Bapty after filming and they themselves took it apart. The individual parts went back into where ever they keep them.. waiting patiently for the next movie/tv project that came along.
Also not in their catalog.
My personal hunch is that the technician that gets shot was originally given a resin Mer Sonn and it broke (thus creating the broken one we've all seen that was inexplicably given a different designation but I digress). He did fall right on the holster side. So they give him the Solo for Take 2 because the steel could take the fall.
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Or, the metal hero was in his belt for most of the scene, then swapped out for the resin version when he did the stunt fall.
The use of the Solo was discovered in the first place in framegrabs of the fall.
Oh, okay. I’ve haven’t studied that scene frame by frame, or anything.
I guess they really DID think that it wasn’t a big deal to use it for the stunt, since the bulk of filming with Ford using it was done!
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