Star Wars: The Death Star in the trash? The incredible fate of Darth Vader’s ultimate weapon

It can’t be said that we were too close to disappearing forever from an oh-so-iconic creation of pop culture: the original Death Star model that first appeared in Un New Hope.

A creation that we owe especially to the legendary artistic director and producer Norman Reynolds, who left us in early April 2023 at the age of 89, and who rightly won an Oscar for his work on the saga created by George. Lucas..

For a long time, it was believed that many of the props and other models were thrown into the trash after filming. In fact, most of the props and models were stored in a warehouse called Moving and storing dollars. This warehouse was rented by the studio until post-production on the film was completed.

As revealed in a fascinating post on the site The power of pop On that note, the owner of that warehouse informed Lucasfilm that it was going to close. As a result, Lucasfilm and Fox had to leave the building. But the person concerned didn’t hear back from the studio… so the owner asked the employee to throw the items, including the Death Star model, in the trash.

But the latter changed his mind and kept this model in his home in California for almost ten years. In 1988, he moved to Missouri and kept the famous model in a thrift store run by his mother.

A collector of Star Wars objects named Todd Franklin walked by the store one day to discover the model outside. Convinced that it was an original model, he tried to negotiate the purchase price, to no avail.

Death Star turned into a jar

A few weeks later, he returned to the charge to find that the model had finally been sold to an individual who organized country music shows named: star world. This new buyer placed the Death Star on the first floor of his theater.

In 1994, after learning of Star World’s financial difficulties and impending closure, Todd Franklin went there with his brother and a friend and was horrified to find that the dead Star model was now in use. Like a can bin…. When you know the value of accessories from the Star Wars saga that regularly sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction, you wonder. and it hurts

They offered the manager of the country show club to return the iconic model; The latter accepted. New buyers posed for posterity after this quest for the grail.

They contacted Lucasfilm in hopes of reselling the model, but the firm was apparently not interested. In 1999, a famous Star Wars collector named Gus Lopez contacted the trio to offer a deal. Since then, the latter is still the proud owner of this iconic object.

This Death Star is housed in a Plexiglas box with a button on it. When visitors press it, the model’s small lights flash while the Imperial March sounds. We can imagine the shivers running down the viewer’s spine.

Here’s how it looks now, in its box…

Either way, a pretty incredible story that also ends beautifully, with the reassurance that this object that has captured the imagination of millions is now in good hands.