Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Profiles in History has annouced a personal property auction of items owned by the late Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. Among Fisher’s portion is the life-sized Princess Leia statue featured in the Bright Lights documentry.
Portions of the proceeds will go to the Thalians and The Jedi Foundation. Their joint estate in Hollywood is also being sold.
Just in time for the 40th anniversary of Star Wars, it’s the new batch of #WearStarWarsEveryDay auctions. I’m turning apparel items that were donated for me to wear in my charity fundraising campaign for Collateral Repair Project into an additional way to raise funds for them to continue providing assistance to refugees.
Here’s what we got this time:
In the first batch of auction items, the two Star Wars Celebration exclusive shirts sold, raising $81 for Collateral Repair Project. Don’t forget to check out the fundraising results & breakdown of what I wore in the main wear-a-thon of my Wear Star Wars Every Day fundraiser – we raised over $7,900 for Collateral Repair Project.
While I finished up the wear-a-thon part of my Wear Star Wars Every Day charity fundraising project after completing the entire year of 2016 by wearing a different Star Wars apparel item each day, the project is now moving onto a new phase with extra fundraising through the auction of donated clothing. Starting us off for Star Wars Day and the first week of May, we have five t-shirts and a hat up on eBay for folks to bid on. Or you can just donate directly to the Wear Star Wars Every Day site to benefit Collateral Repair Project, a non-profit that provides emergency assistance, education, and community support for urban refugees in Amman, Jordan.
Here’s what we have in this first round of auctions, with 100% of the proceeds going to Collateral Repair Project:
For those who are looking to make a lasting impression this holiday season, Santa Maul notes that the blaster of one “Han Solo” will be auctioned off in the coming weeks. With a minimum bid of $200,000 this is not an option for those who suffer from the lack of dollars. But Santa Maul is certain that any scoundrel or scoundrel-lover will appreciate the effort.
If you wish to be more frugal (or perhaps, less willing to incite violence) in your wooing, the bidding on Professor Jones’ glasses starts at $7,000.
Other items of note in said auction include the hand of a weakling Jedi Master, the sword Excalibur, a golden ticket, a Dalek and several fetching tuxedos.
A pair of bleached Levis worn by Mark Hamill in the original Star Wars are at auction today. They’re currently going for $36,000 with just over an hour to go.
I’ll let you make your own jokes.
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.