It was the only one of its kind ever to appear on the collector market, and it just sold for more than a million dollars. The light-up C-3PO head used on set during the filming of The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 sold at a Propstore auction for 1,058,400 dollars, more than three times the low end of its estimate, after the family of a crew member who worked on the film decided it was time to let it go. The prop is made from three fiberglass components assembled around the head of actor Anthony Daniels, who has played the golden droid in nearly every Star Wars film since the original. Inside the helmet, small black shields protected Daniels’ eyes from the working lights, and two tiny holes gave him just enough of a view to navigate the set. One of the eyes still contains the original wiring from the 1980 shoot, and both lights still function.
The prop itself carries a particular place in cinema history. C-3PO delivers the very first line of dialogue in the original Star Wars film and has been a constant presence across the franchise for nearly five decades. The head that sold was crafted by British sculptor Liz Moore and intentionally given a tarnished gold finish to give the character a worn, well-traveled look suited to a droid who had participated in an intergalactic rebellion. The auction took place alongside other notable film props, including a harpoon gun from Jaws and a Wilson volleyball from Cast Away, but neither came close to matching the C-3PO head’s final price. It joins a run of record-setting Star Wars auction results in recent years, following the sale of the franchise’s original promotional painting for 3.9 million dollars and Darth Vader’s lightsaber from the same era for 3.6 million.
