Wednesday 6th August saw Fantha Tracks head down to The Dorchester on Park Lane in Mayfair, London for a very special happening, an invite-only event that allowed a few fan groups to have an up-close-and-personal look at the hero lightsaber hilt used by Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Having been out of the country for 43 years, and with the forthcoming Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction: Los Angeles Summer 2025 taking place on 4th – 6th September, this might be the last chance UK fans and media get to see this hilt in the flesh.
With the event opening doors at 9.00am and kicking off at 9.30am, I arrived early and grabbed some very tasty (and expensive) American pancakes with fruit and yoghurt over the road followed by a cappuccino before heading in (distinctly underdressed for such a prestigeous location, but rocking my RSVLTS shirt nevertheless) and entering a side room, where I was greeted by Stephen Lane and Brandon Alinger from Propstore, and over a very agreeable cuppa chatted about the auction and what an incredible find this hilt is.
9.30am arrived, and as I was joined by Jamie Benning from Filmumentaries, James Burns from Jedi News and Matt Hudson from Star Wars Sessions, along with media outlets including ITV News, BBC, Reuters, the AP and more we moved into the main room where in the center was the star of the show, the Vader hilt.
After a few minutes of media scramble and gazing in wonder at this truly historic piece of movie history, Brandon Alinger snapped on the white gloves, opened the glass case and took out the hilt for everyone to have a closer look at. Seeing it in the case was impressive, but seeing it out in the open was oddly emotional; this is the hilt used in episodes 5 and 6, held by Dave Prowse, Bob Anderson and any number of Empire and Jedi crew. If props could talk, this hilt could write a book.
As the morning moved on Brandon and Stephen Lane spoke to the media, and taking our chance I grabbed Stephen for a few minutes, a chat you’ll be able to hear on this weeks special episode of Making Tracks which is available below.
It’s worth remembering that the hilt wasn’t the only treasure on display at the event. Barbarella’s costume and gun, the clapperboard from Jaws, the helmet of Sauron from Lord of the Rings, the memory wiper from Men in Black and the bullwhip from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were all on display in the room, and while the focus of the world was on Vader’s lightsaber it would be remiss of us to overlook these other incredible items.
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Days like today come rarely, and this year we’ve been fortunate enough to have two with this and the screening of the original 1977 print of Star Wars at the BFI earlier in the year. Also at both events was my fellow ILM.com and SkywalkerSound.com writer Jamie from Filmumentaries, who I also chatted with on Making Tracks.
Finally, as most of the media and sites had left we found ourselves chatting with Brandon about the morning and hopes for the auction when out of the blue he said ‘would you like to hold it?‘ and 3 minutes later our white gloves were on and first Jamie and then myself held this iconic prop which estimates value at between £1m – $3m. To say that was a priviledge would be vastly underestimating how it felt.
Check out our special mini episode of Making Tracks as we chat with Stephen Lane from Propstore and Jamie from Filmumentaries, and huge thanks to the team at Propstore for the invite (and ITV News for interviewing me for the evening news, which you can see in my IG post thanks to Paul Naylor) and we’ll be sure to stay across the auction and the final auction figures as they arrive early next month.
