DALLAS: A miniature X-wing Starfighter from a “Star Wars” film sold for over $3 million during an auction over the weekend of items both amassed and created by long-time Hollywood model-maker Greg Jein.
The collection by Jein —who passed away last year at the age of 76 —brought in approximately $13.6 million during an event at Heritage Auctions in Dallas. The auction house said that everyone from model-makers to collectors and science-fiction enthusiasts attended, making the event its most well-attended in years.
Joe Maddalena, Heritage’s executive vice president and friend of Jein’s, said in a press release that the auction was “a profound testament to my friend as both a visual-effects master and one of the great collectors.”
Jein not only had an Oscar and Emmy-nominated career crafting miniature models for nearly five decades, but he also spent a lifetime collecting props, costumes, scripts, photographs, artwork and models from beloved shows.
The Red Leader X-wing Starfighter from 1977 film “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope” sold for approximately $3.1 million after a bidding duel between two collectors, the auction house said.
Furthermore, going for an eye-popping amount was a “Star Wars” Stormtrooper costume that sold for $645,000.
Notably, a rare surviving spacesuit from Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey” commanded a price of $447,000.
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Jein’s affinity for “Star Trek” before he worked on the franchise — and some of the items that he collected were popular at the auction. The filming model of the “SS Botany Bay” vessel from “Star Trek: The Original Series” from the 1960s secured a bid of $200,000 while prop devices such as hero phaser and a tricorder went for $187,500 and $175,000, respectively.
Jein, grew up in Los Angeles, was still early in his career when he led the team that created the mothership for Steven Spielberg’s 1977 film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
