Tuesday 25th November saw Fantha Tracks head down to The Cumberland Hotel on Great Cumberland Place in London for an invite-only, up-close-and-personal look at some incredible movie treasures including Buddy’s outfit frorm Elf, Marty’s hoverboard from Back to the Future 2, Alan Rickman’s script from Die Hard, and most significantly to GFFA fans Boba Fett’s Screen, Photo, and Serial Number-Matched EE-3 Carbine Rifle from The Empire Strikes Back. All are going under the hammer at the Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction – London Winter 2025 which takes place on 5th December at the Cumberland Hotel and online on the 6th and 7th December.
With the event kicking off at 9.00am my plan was to head out from the very cheap and cheerful room I’d travelled down to the night before near Euston and bimble along to the station to take the Victoria line to Oxford Circus and change to the Central line and the couple of stops to Marble Arch tube, just round the corner from the Cumberland. However, a problem at Green Park meant a late change of plan, so instead I found myself in a taxi and by 9.20am I was walking into the very impressive Cumberland Hotel and making my way downstairs to the lower floor and a brief walk (past some delicious pastries and drinks) to a room that was loaded with movie memories.
The star of this auction (from a Star Wars point of view) is Boba Fett’s the Hero Screen, Photo, and Serial Number-Matched EE-3 Carbine Rifle from The Empire Strikes Back, which carries an estimate of £350,000–700,000 ($462,000–924,000). The carbine has an amazing real world history, one that you can hear more about on a special episode of Making Tracks.
Like the Darth Vader lightsaber event back in August, my friend and fellow ILM and Skywalker Sound blog writer Jamie Benning from Filmumentaries was there, and I was thrilled to see my pals Paul and James from the excellent Code Clearance Blue podcast, along with numerous media outlets who were all there to soak up the magic.
The EE-3 wasn’t the only Star Wars attraction on display, there was plenty more to shakle your head in awe at. For example, the Rebel Pilots helmet from ‘Empire‘, as worn by one of the heroic snowspeeder pilots who defended Echo Base from the invading forces of the Empire. To see such a key item in such amazing condition, and up so close was a treat.
There’s a very famous missing hand in The Empire Strikes Back, and at the Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction – London Winter 2025 you could buy two. With an estimate of £15,000 – £30,000 you can purchase the left and right hands of C-3PO (before he loses one of them in The Force Awakens), and if you’ve got £75,000 – £150,000 then maybe you can place the lightweight hero The Phantom Menace lightsaber of Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi into his golden palm. To see the screen-matched, hand-painted Ralph McQuarrie Cloud City artwork was a genuine privilege, while the Luke Skywalker Force-Jump Puppet was intriguing, a modified Kenner 12″ Luke Skywalker action figure with brown tape used to make his costume (and a snip at £50,000 – £100,000). If you can stretch to £15,000 – £30,000 for another ‘Empire‘ item, the Second Unit Insert Clapperboard then perhaps the Hero Blank-Firing Imperial Stormtrooper E-11 Blaster Rifle with Original Dressing Components from Return of the Jedi (£100,000 – £200,000 estimate) is a possibility. Mind-blowing, grin-inducing stuff.
As well as the incredible Star Wars items there was an equally iconic piece of headware that fans across the globe would recognise. The last auction brought us the whip and gun holster from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, and this time from Temple of Doom we have Henry Jones Jr’s unmistakeable fedora.
While our focus is on items from the Lucasfilm realm, there was plenty more to take in and enjoy, with props and costumes from the worlds of Harry Potter, Disney, The Simpsons, The Fifth Element, Bond, Die Hard, The Matrix, Superman and more to marvel at.
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You can hear myself, Brandon Alinger, Stephen Lane and Jamie Benning discuss the history of this incredible GFFA weapon along with many of the other items in the auction on a special episode of Making Tracks.
Thanks as always to Miranda and the team at Propstore for the invite, which gives us the chance to get up close and personal with these priceless pieces of our collective movie memories.
