Stormtrooper Helmet from ‘A New Hope’ Sells for Over $250,000

Someone paid a pretty penny for a piece of Star Wars history.

On Sunday, July 27, Julien’s Auctions and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) concluded their “Echoes from the Galaxy” event held at Comic-Con Museum in San Diego with an auction of the world’s largest collection of Star Wars artifacts from renowned collectors, fans and insiders of the epic franchise.

The top seller, a Stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, sold for $256,000. This original stunt helmet was used in the production and is believed to have been featured in scenes on Tatooine as a “Sandtrooper” helmet.

The helmet is one of only six stunt helmets known to have survived and been accounted for in private collections.

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The helmet was previously exhibited at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library’s 2024 exhibition “Defending America and the Galaxy: Star Wars and SDI.”

The top-grossing item was just one of several from the original film. Also up for auction was a credit sheet signed by the beloved stars of the film and a personally signed letter from Harrison Ford and Paul Blake to a fan

A few other big-ticket mementos from the beloved film franchise sold for impressive prices. Three lightsabers brought in money at the auction, part of the proceeds from which will benefit the Comic-Con Museum.

The three were: the original stunt lightsaber prop used by Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, as well as an original bladed lightsaber prop used by Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn and an original lightsaber hilt prop, screen-used by Darth Maul (played by Ray Park) in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. The three sold for a combined total of $153,600.

An original Hero Metal GLIE-44 blaster used by Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens also sold for $44,800.

Nearly 300 of some of the sci-fi franchise’s most coveted props, production materials and memorabilia assembled by world-renowned Star Wars memorabilia collectors, Steve Sansweet, Gus Lopez, Duncan Jenkins, Lisa Stevens and Vic Wertz, were offered to the public with the intention of creating The Saga Museum® of Star Wars Memorabilia. Proceeds from the auction will also help lay the cornerstone of the future Saga Museum’s permanent home for its collections.