Club Jade

A number of Star Wars artists and fans have pitched in their talents to help raise money to defray the health care costs of little Princess Leah Esquenazi. As we reported last year, when Leah was just two-months old, she came down with a mysterious illness that kept her mostly hospitalized, and the Star Wars fan community rallied to help her parents offset the costs of her medical bills. Now Leah is over a year old, and continues to require hospitalized ventilator support with the diagnosis of a mitochondrial illness. An ebay auction started on May 25th with over 100 unique and rare Star Wars art pieces and craft items to raise money for Leah’s care. Right now, there are items donated by Matt Busch, Randy Martinez, Amanda Howard, Michael Ramirez, and Joe Corroney.

My friend Lesley, of the 501st Legion’s Southern California Garrison, has been busy organizing the auction, and has a photo album of the donated art pieces. Follow the auction news on Facebook at facebook.com/ArtForLeah. After only 24 hours, there’s already over $1,000 in bids for items. A second group of auction items will going up for bid in a few days. You can also follow Leah and her family via their blog. Check out the auction and find a piece of your own to bid on!

Costume for sale. An original Darth Vader costume – believed to have been from The Empire Strikes Back – will soon be going up for auction at Christie’s in London. It’s being put up for sale by “an American private collector” and is expected to fetch at least $250,000. A percentage of the sale price will go to cancer research.

In spaaaaace. A stable planet orbiting twin stars has been found 49 light-years away. (Alas – it is a gas giant.) Still, researchers have named the planet “Inrakluk,” which sounds pretty Wookiee to me.

Partnerships. Lucas Online has a new partner, Big Spaceship, for some of their digital endeavors. Maybe this means we’ll see a kickass StarWars.com app?

People. USA Weekend interviews Matt Lanter, the actor who angsts enough for two on The Clone Wars and 90210.

Books. Visions is getting some nice press… Check out a profile of contributing artist Robert Bailey, who got to meet George Lucas, from The Edmonton Journal.

Check out the full run of The Empire Muggs Back!

Someone either made a very good or a very bad investment today… The A New Hope lightsaber in the Profiles in History action sold for $240,000, while Threepio’s helmet went for half that. That’s not quite as much as the last high-priced Star Wars item, but it does beat another (or the same?) ANH saber, which went for $170,000 in 2005. (via)

It’s time for another Profiles in History auction! As always, they have plenty of neat movie props and memorabilia, and while it’s probably beyond most of our budgets, at least we can browse!

The Star Wars items start with Lot #345 and include Luke’s blue lightsaber, a piece of the Death Star, C-3PO’s hands and several Vader Project helmets! There’s plenty of Indiana Jones items as well, including a Temple of Doom fedora.

So you’ve had two TV series and a new one on the way.  Your storage room is getting a little overcrowded.  What’s the first rule of organizing?  Purge, people.

And so it is that we have a new legacy auction running of Stargate SG1 and SGA merchandise from the Stargate productions storage room.  Apparently, over 100 items will slowly be going up.

This is really the stuff, folks.  Plus, you get Robert Cooper’s signature on your certificate of authenticity.

Won’t you look cool running through Dragon*Con with this stuff!

GalacticBinder has adjusted for inflation and lists the top ten most expensive Star Wars items ever sold at auction – mostly costumes and props, naturally.

• Weird: I’m not sure which of Bonnie’s finds is more disturbing: “A Love That Transcends Time, Space & Manufacturer” or Jar Jar Salad. Less freaky: Darth Tater’s Great Adventures.

• The ‘whine more’ files: Man sells his “faith in George Lucas” (aka a 12″ Darth Maul) on eBay for $23 Australian. (via)
• Lists: Speeder bikes are one of io9′s five scifi cycles to adore.

Interested in purchasing costumes and props from the Sci-Fi series Battlestar Galactica? Apollo’s or Starbuck’s flight suit? Admiral Adama’s uniform? full size Raptors or Vipers ? (will those even fit in my garage?) Propworx (which has handled Star Trek prop & costume auctions in the past) will be having a series of live and online auctions of 3,000 BSG costumes and props next year, and has started a blog of what they have found in production storage, found at www.battlestarprops.com.

The A New Hope TIE model netted £177,789 ($350,000!) in Profiles of History’s latest movie memorabilia auction. Wow…