Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/06/25/han-solos-blaster-sold-for.html
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Huh… think he could have paid off Jabba with that kind of money?
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Damn. I was $549,999 short.
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$90,000 for a Scout Trooper Pistol?
The Scout Troopers looked awesome. Definitely one of the better additions to the Star Wars universe. And the pistol - even when shrunk down to a tiny scale for the toys - was a gem. (An aside: The toy had the “exploding action”, which was kind of awesome!)
Designs for science fiction (and fantasy) either work or they don’t. They key is to look like something that’s usable and useful. That’s often what differentiates the Star Trek and Star Wars universes - the props look not only used, but like they actually CAN BE used.
(I’m a big fan of Star Trek, especially TNG as it was broadcast in my youth, but some of the props were, well… daft.)
Frankly, Han’s blaster always looked like a ramshackle hunk of junk. Which is what it should be, I suppose. But is that thing on top a sight? It looks like a sight. If so, where’s the optic up front? I guess it must be for gas ejection or loading or something…
By contrast, the simple and elegant lines of the Scout Trooper Pistol make it look like it could work, no questions asked. And it fits very well into the whole kit - especially the lighter armour - that those troopers have.
So I’m left with two thoughts - the first being “Wow, you can buy the actual original prop! How cool!”, and the second being “NINETY THOUSAND DOLLARS!!??!?!?!??!?!”.
I mean, I like it enough to write this much about it. But that’s just silly money…
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Man, I can just picture Jack Palance with that iconic delivery from the Believe Or Not tv show…
That’s so 80’s.
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Most of the original trilogy blasters were based on real guns that the prop department modified. IMO this is what helps makes them look “real”. Yes, there are still some fanciful flourishes and greeblies that make a little less sense if one thinks about it, but they feel like real weapons.
In contrast the stuff in the prequels were all dreamed up by the art designers, and while some of them had some elegant lines, you had abominations like the clone trooper blaster where you can tell they took bits of the old basters and stared moving stuff around, including taking what used to be an optic and put it at the bottom for… a handle? And what was formally the folded stock was now on the top as a… what? And while the fakes scopes or sights on many of the original blasters were not practical, they at least offered a visual element that “this was used to aim”, vs the Clone rifle design had nothing - not even able to just sight down the top. I dunno what they were thinking.
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Adam Savage: heartbroken
Adam Savage’s wife: relieved
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He has the means and talent he could make an exact replica from like a Norinco Chinese copy of a real Mauser. Or one of the Japanese blank firing models.
They really must have had an excessive amount of German WWI and II props laying around. That’s an MG42 with some fancy pipes and tubes glued on while the Han Solo gun is a Mauser C96 that has undergone the same treatment.
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Yep. Remember it was filmed in the UK, and thus a lot of the props were from what the studio had on hand. And yes it was a lot of German and British weapons, from WWII movies.
I really want a MG-42 based blaster. There are some really good resin prop replicas out there. I have a really nice regular Stormtrooper blaster based on the Sterling.
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Han “shot first” for far less then that.
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Some people have WAAAAAAY too much money to spend on shit like this while lots of people lack even the bare minimum to keep them freaking alive.
Exorbitant nonsenses like this makes me furious.
I’m more of a fan of the Lewis Guns carried the by the sand troopers.
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Pretty good price, considering Solo got it from Woody Harrelson for free.
Thats a lot of money for such an uncivilized weapon.
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Pft - Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.
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Well, this does explain why the clones rarely ever hit anything.
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