Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid. So said Han Solo in the original Star Wars, later retrofitted as A New Hope. Now someone, somewhere can walk around with Solo's rather ancient blaster at their side.
And it only cost them a mere $200,000.
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That was the winning bid in an online auction for the blaster, which took place over the weekend, according to the California-based seller, Profiles in History. The buyer is anonymous by default, but we've reached out to Profiles in History to see if his or her customer will come forward.
The battered film prop, like many from Star Wars, is based on a World War II original. In this case, the inspiration was a German Mauser C96 semi-automatic pistol without the shoulder stock.
What sold on Saturday isn't even the pistol Harrison Ford used in A New Hope; no one knows where that is, or if it even survived the filming process at Elstree. This prop is the version that replaced it, from Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
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If you remember the scene where Solo shot at Darth Vader in Cloud City, only to have Vader deflect the blasts and grab the blaster from a distance, this is that weapon. The auction house notes that this may also have been the prop blaster used briefly by Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker when he enters Cloud City.
Despite all that, the blaster actually sold on the low end of its estimate. Profiles in History expected that it might bring as much as $300,000. But given that the company sold some of those "ancient weapons" Han Solo was talking about — the lightsaber props used in the film — back in 2005 for a mere $60,000 apiece, that's some serious Star Wars inflation.
Hokey religions, meanwhile, remain basically free.
Image: Profiles in History