A nearly fifty-year-old Stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars: A New Hope was auctioned for $256,000 (over €218,000) during Comic-Con in San Diego. The helmet was used on the set of the very first Star Wars film in the mid-1970s.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the headgear is one of the six original Stormtrooper helmets that have been preserved.
The auctioned headgear was used in scenes on the desert planet Tatooine, in which Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are questioned by Stormtroopers about their robots C-3PO and R2-D2. In this scene, Kenobi speaks the famous words: “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” With that, he misleads the soldiers of the Galactic Empire.
In addition to the helmet, other Star Wars memorabilia were also auctioned. The handle of Darth Maul’s lightsaber from The Phantom Menace (1999) fetched $76,800. Poe Dameron’s firearm from The Force Awakens (2015) was sold for $44,800. And C-3PO’s right hand from The Empire Strikes Back (1980) went for $16,000.
A portion of the proceeds was donated to the Comic-Con Museum.