‘Star Wars’ Missing X-Wing Model Up for Auction After Being Found Decades Later
Back in the 1970s, when George Lucas was making the first Star Wars and it was time to work on the attack on the Death Star, ILM built four models of the “hero” ships that would spread their wings forming an X — what we now know as the X-wings. Over the years, one of those four original models went missing… Until now.
VFX historian Gene Kozicki was recently part of a four-person team tasked with cataloging two-time Oscar nominee Greg Jein’s collection, after the artist passed away last year, when they came across the fabled model inside a cardboard box. Kozicki spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the finding:
“This model has not been displayed or modified since it left ILM. For those of us that grew up in the ’70s or ’80s, and those of us that work in visual effects, this model is as significant a find as the ruby red slippers or the Maltese Falcon.”
The “missing X-wing” will now be sold at a Heritage Auction on October 14-15 in Dallas, starting at $400,000. The beginning of the description for the item reads:
Built by the team at Industrial Light & Magic which won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for Star Wars, this 1:24 scale filming miniature is one of only four hero filming miniatures created with servo-controlled wings that spread open into “Attack Position”. Constructed of resin, vacuum-formed styrene, acrylic, and metal components over an aluminum internal armature, expertly painted and finished as a battle-distressed spacecraft, replete with service wear, blast marks and heat-scorching around exhaust nozzles. The top two wings are each painted with a single red stripe, identifying this as “Red Leader” (Red One). The cockpit features a miniature pilot, and a dome of an R2 unit is installed behind the canopy. The miniature has internal wiring to power the lights within the main body of each of the four wing-mounted laser cannons with fiber optics to illuminate each laser tip.
What’s even more interesting about the story is that Greg Jein never worked on Star Wars, so it’s currently unknown how he came into possession of the item. But as Kozicki speculates, it was probably because of the overlapping between the teams working on Lucas’ film and Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, for which Jein was nominated for an Oscar. Said Kozicki:
“We don’t exactly know the circumstances by which he came into possession of this model. And as an active collector/trader, he also obtained items simply because he figured that he could trade them for something more in line with what he wanted for himself. Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars were being made at roughly the same time, and with an overlapping group of people. And at that time no one, not even Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, could anticipate the impact these films would have on the industry or cultural zeitgeist.”
You may find the entire catalog for the auction here.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
