Where did the movie props go?

[yoda]

Guys from seeing that picture of Lucus standing amongst all the ships and creatures on stormcabs earlier thread. The thread about swapping your collection for a prop.
It got me thinking and wondering does anyone know where they all ended up? I mean everything in that picture. Wer they sold off at auctions? Or did he keep them at his ranch? I never thought of this before and the amount of ships and creatures is amazing.
Has anyone ever seen these up close or can anyone go to see them on display? Or is it even possible to buy any of them at certain times? I certainly couldn't afford anything in that picture just dream about them.
Maybe someone on here does own something from that picture.

 

[x-pack]

I would guess he still has loads of stuff, but a lot was probably given away or sold off. I thought you could actually go to the ranch and, if you're lucky, get a look around. Sure somebody somewhere recently posted photos of them in some sort of Lucas Star Wars/prop museum. Or maybe I wanted it to be true so badly I just imagined it :?

 

[MarkG]

I think Skywalker Ranch and Steve Sansweet will have the majority of props.. Gary Kurtz and Jason Joined have a few between them too. Others that ended up in skips were either destroyed or grabbed by fans... hence a few screen used Stormtrooper costumes and various helmets in private hands.

I have heard you can visit Skywalker Ranch but not sure how you go about it.

 

[Robstyley]

I believe that at the end of making Return of the Jedi they (George Lucas, Gary Kurtz and co) realised that all the props and models etc from the films had historical significance and should be preserved and so the Lucasfilm archives were created. I think it's basically a big warehouse with all that stuff in it. Ive seen a couple of videos of it. It's Star Wars nirvana 8)

 

[stormcab]

Several years ago there was an exhibition at the Barbican in London. They had some of the screen used ships, but not much, and I was pretty disappointed. I'm guessing after a few decades they are too fragile to be being transported around the world.

 

[x-pack]

There are stories of props and sets just dumped at the back of Elstree studios, left outside to rot for years. I'll bet only really choice props were purposely kept, things like weapons, main costumes and models. There are probably thousands of different stories out there about how props came into private hands ...and that's a book I would love to read!


At Elstree Empire Day there were some pretty cool pieces on display from the Kurtz Joiner archive. Aside from iconic costumes there were random bits and bobs including; a battered Treadwell droid, large part of Luke's landspeeder, a knackered Gaffee stick, various actor contracts, the slider control panel used to fire the Death Star in ANH, Luke's Hoth goggles and a seat from the Millenium Falcon. Fascinating stuff

While I'm not that interested in owning props, seeing as they are so pricey now, I do like the 'tales of what happened' to them. I have this notion in my head of a heirarchy, that there are guys who went out in the late 80's/90's and bought old shop stock and collected when the getting was good. Then you had guys who collected shop stock in the 80's when the stuff was just being fazed out. Then you had guys who were jumping in the bins at the toy factories collecting prototypes and the like as toy production was still going. And THEN you have the guys who somehow, someway picked up screen used props from god knows where just after movie production finished! Hats off to them for they are truly the collector kings! :wink:

 

[Palifan]

I went to Seattle in the US last year and around the corner from where the family and I stayed they were advertising for tickets for TFA at the cinema. It was a nice cinema which only played one film at a time (I think it only had one big screen), and when I poked my head in with my boy I couldn't believe what I saw in the foyer. In two large glass cabinets they had screen used costumes and props from the OT films as well as a battle damaged TIE fighter from episode 4

I was very surprised to see them in a cinema and it was nice not to have to pay for once to take a close look at some of these items. I'll have to post a few pictures up of them at some point but I guess these original props and costumes do the rounds from time to time for the fans. Thank god it's not all been sold off as we'd never get to see any of it.

Ian

 

[robpmarsh]

I know that there used to be a snowspeeder and skiff in the backlot at MGM Studios Tour before they closed the ride. They also had Vader and Stormtrooper costumes on show too.

 

[Joe]

Some screen used props still do the rounds with exhibitions, most recently the Identities exhibit: http://www.starwarsidentities.com/#!/collection

There are various props that are in the hands of collectors too though, here is a link to a certain persons collection: https://www.flickr.com/photos/toysrgus/sets/72157637755128786/

And if you ever fancy owning a prop just check with places like propstore etc, they had an awesome auction back in 2014, here are some of the SW bits: http://propstore.auctionserver.net/view-auctions/catalog/id/10/?page=1&key=star+wars&cat=&xclosed=no (full catalogue here: http://propstore.auctionserver.net/view-auctions/catalog/id/10/ )

 

[x-pack]

I know that there used to be a snowspeeder and skiff in the backlot at MGM Studios Tour before they closed the ride. They also had Vader and Stormtrooper costumes on show too.

:shock: are they screen used props? It was one of those Florida places where they had vehicles from Indiana Jones and, I think, Dick Tracy. The MGM Indiana Jones show and Muppet theatre were great. That was by far my favourite place out there

 

[Clarkspie&chips]

The Stsr wars collector archive has some great stories about rescued props, my favourites are the krayt dragon skeleton in Tunisia beibg scavenged and used it to patch up the locals homes and the bloke who got hold of the endor bunker and made a fence out of it.

http://theswca.com/images-props.html

 

[robpmarsh]

I asked a member of staff about the Snowspeeder and was told it was the one that Luke went down in before the AT-AT crushed it (well.....the small model anyway)

She wasn't too sure about the Skiff though....but it did look the right size for about 4-6 people to stand on.

 

[yoda]

Some great links and pictures put up and all new to me. The stories are also very interesting where numinous props are now displayed that some of you have seen.
I hope in the next year or so to try and get a holiday to the States booked. And if it is possible to visit the Skywalker Ranch it would be on my to do list.
Hopefully this Starwars world that Disney our planing to build also soon gets completed.
I think it will be amazing to walk through by the sounds of it.
Imagine boarding the Falcon or the ewok village or even seeing anything up close. Things you thought would never be possible when you watched starwars for the first time.
My starwars world at home was sitting in cardboard boxes with a bmx helmet on believing I was piloting the Millennium Falcon