{"id":489842,"date":"2026-02-25T15:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/489842\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T15:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:28:09","slug":"behold-the-haunting-gaze-of-c-3pos-disembodied-head-from-the-empire-strikes-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/489842\/","title":{"rendered":"Behold the Haunting Gaze of C-3PO’s Disembodied Head From ‘The Empire Strikes Back’"},"content":{"rendered":"

C-3PO body parts<\/a> come up for auction every so often; the Star Wars droid was always falling apart and being put back together<\/a> onscreen, so it\u2019s not surprising when, say, a shiny foot (as seen in 2025<\/a>) hits the block. But a light-up head from The Empire Strikes Back is an extremely rare find, which is why Propstore is estimating it will fetch $350,000 to $700,000 at its upcoming entertainment memorabilia sale.<\/p>\n

According to the auction house, it\u2019s \u201cthe only known example of Threepio\u2019s head from the second film to appear on the collector market.\u201d So if you snag this one, the protocol droid will be staring you and you alone down with an expression that suggests worry, concern, and the irrepressible urge to tell you the odds.<\/p>\n

If that sounds like too much emotional labor (with the price tag to match), another nifty piece of Star Wars history is also part of Propstore\u2019s event. It\u2019s Luke\u2019s hero lightsaber hilt that appears in The Force Awakens\u2014the one that Rey is drawn to while everyone else is gabbing with Maz Kanata and that Rey and Finn use in their forest face-off with Kylo Ren. At the end of the movie, we see her head to Ahch-To and return the lightsaber to Luke, though of course most of that memorable encounter was saved for The Last Jedi.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a close-up look at the Rey-Luke lightsaber hilt; it\u2019s estimated to go for $50,000 to $100,000\u2014a downright bargain when you recall Propstore sold one of Darth Vader\u2019s sabers<\/a> last year for almost $4 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Rey\u00a9 Propstore <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in Southern California, you can check out a special public preview exhibit of auction items at the Maybourne Hotel in Beverly Hills on March 11; more details on that here<\/a>. Otherwise, the full auction catalog<\/a>\u2014including some highly coveted Jaws props, which io9 wrote about here<\/a>\u2014is available for viewing now. Bidding kicks off March 25.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"C-3PO body parts come up for auction every so often; the Star Wars droid was always falling apart…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[186166,88,206,224823,5295,63088,12473],"class_list":{"0":"post-489842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-c-3po","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-propstore","12":"tag-star-wars","13":"tag-star-wars-the-force-awakens","14":"tag-the-empire-strikes-back"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}