Entertainment

The 10 Most Iconic Special Effects Memorabilia Up for Auction

Special Effects legend Phil Tippett is auctioning off a collection of his work on some of the most iconic movies in history. 

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If you’re a Star Wars or Jurassic Park fan with some extra cash, then now is your time to own a piece of cinema history. Special effects legend Phil Tippett — whose work on a wide range of films that also include Dragonslayer, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, RoboCop, and Starship Troopers — is holding an exclusive online auction through auction house Propstore where people can bid on his personal collection of behind the scenes trinkets. The vast variety of lots includes props, illustrations, puppets, models, production materials, and more.

Over 400 lots are up for bidding right now, and the entire auction goes until October 21. Thankfully, a bunch of the items are fairly affordable even if you aren’t a superfan, which makes it even better if you’re the kind of person who gets excited about possibly owning a mask from the cantina scene in Star Wars.

Here are the 10 best items we found that are up for grabs to the highest bidder.

Quit monkeying around with this 'Jumanji' memorabilia. 

Prop Store

10. Monkey Throwing Toaster Maquette

  • Starting bid: $300

If you want to own a little piece of mid-‘90s Jumanji nostalgia, you can get a maquette of a monkey throwing a toaster. We’re not sure what you can use it for, but hey, it’s Halloween and at least you can maybe use it to scare the hell out of an unsuspecting friend or family member.

Coolest satin jacket ever? Coolest satin jacket ever.

Prop Store

9. ILM Special Effects Crew Jacket

  • Starting bid: $70

Who needs that cheesy satin Drive jacket when you could have this killer ILM jacket that will never go out of style if you roll with the right crowd. Seriously, between the old school ILM magician logo and that embroidered “Special Effects” label on the chest you’ll be the coolest nerd on the block wearing this any time.

Relive the 'Temple of Doom' nightmares of your childhood with this binder.

Prop Store

8. Human Sacrifice Printed Storyboard Notebook

  • Starting bid: $50

Ever wanted a rough illustration of one of the most disturbing moments in a PG-rated movie ever put on film? Here’s your item! This piece is worth it only for the label on the front bearing the movie’s original title: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death.

7. Washington Square Ghost Stop-Motion Puppet

  • Starting bid: $1,500

Ghostbusters 2 might be unfairly maligned for essentially being a retread of the original movie, but it had some of the best creature designs in the original franchise. Case in point, this ugly dude who terrorized folks in Washington Square during the sequel’s ghoulish montage.

6. Duros Cantina Alien Mask

  • Starting bid: $25,000

This guy can be seen chatting up another distinctly weird-looking alien in the famous cantina sequence from A New Hope, which was actually reshot during the original movie’s post production in 1977 because George Lucas wanted to add even more alien creatures to the scene. This one is gonna cost you, but it’ll be worth it.

5. Brain Bug Maquette

  • Starting bid: $2,000

The only good bug is a dead bug, or maybe if it’s a meticulously designed maquette of one of the grossest creature designs in cinema history.

You probably won't be able to bring these on a plane with you anywhere.

Prop Store

4. Wolverine’s Claws

  • Starting bid: $600

Look, we probably won’t get a worse X-Men movie than X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but you can’t get any cooler than the hero himself. These claws weren’t created by Tippett, and were only used as reference during production, but where else are you going to get a trio of Adamantium claws like this?

Gross and fascinating.

Prop Store

3. Emperor Forehead Appliance

  • Starting bid: $1,500

The first time Emperor Palpatine appeared in the original Star Wars trilogy, he was actually a woman wearing a weird skin-thing. Makeup designer Rick Baker’s wife Elaine famously played the Emperor in one scene, wearing this appliance over her face. She has since been replaced with updated special effects featuring actor Ian McDiarmid to make the Emperor more congruous to his look in the rest of the saga, but if you want to own her old wrinkly forehead, now’s your chance.

This scene is ever terrifying on paper. 

Prop Store

2. T. Rex Binder

  • Starting bid: $70

Theres nothing outwardly flashy about this item whatsoever. It’s a binder, so what? But Jurassic Park fans will be more than happy to fork over the cash for what’s inside: Over 200 storyboard pieces outlining the incredible Tyrannosaurus attack sequences in the 1993 film.

Dead or alive, you can't be outbid by me.

Prop Store

1. RoboCop’s Costume

  • Starting bid: $15,000

The best Halloween costume you could possibly own. It’s from RoboCop 2, but you don’t have to tell anybody that.

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