10 Pieces of Movie Memorabilia Fans Lust Over!

Ok, so this week€™s Top 10 may seem a little random, but inspired by the purchasing of a few new vintage movie posters (I€™m an avid collector!) and the approach of Profiles in History€™s 44th Hollywood Auction this Saturday, I began to think about some of the most cherished pieces of movie memorabilia that fans would surely love to own. We all have a favourite film star, director, franchise or standalone film, which lead the movie memorabilia trade to boom as people found they had much more extra cash over the economically kind years between the 80s and mid 00s. This Saturday will see those lucky enough to still be in this position, battling over the real Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (estimated to sell for between $1-2million!), James Dean€™s tweed jacket from Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Jeff Bridges€™ €˜The Dude€™ jumper from The Big Lebowski (1998), to name but a few items in the 1600 strong catalogue of memorabilia pieces. Whilst we may not have as much cash to splash on such luxuries as screen used Gladiator (2000) weapons or Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) costumes €“ or in fact the golden headdress worn by Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra (1963), which is being auctioned amongst other Hollywood treasures by Debbie Reynolds in June this year €“ there€™s no harm in lusting over some of the most prized items of memorabilia from movie history€ 10. Darth Vader€™s Actual Helmet from STAR WARS: EPISODE V €“ THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980) It€™s one of the most menacing and ominous €˜faces€™ to have been captured on celluloid, a face that freaked out countless droves of children since the 1980s! The toy versions of the masks are pretty realistic, especially with their voice deformer and heavy breathing features, but simply put€they don€™t compare to the real thing! For one anonymous bidder, who forked out $115000 in 2003, they can finally ditch the imitation and walk around in a sinister way with the actual screen used one on their noggin! The helmet was worn by Olympic fencing champion Bob Anderson in Star Wars: Episode V and was used extensively in the climactic fight sequences between Vader and Luke Skywalker. With modifications from the standard helmet, including brown tinted lenses that appear to be black from the outside (rather than the black lenses of the standard one) and clear Perspex around the cheek and neck areas to improve vision, this is the only helmet like this that exists. Memorabilia from the Star Wars franchise is some of the most commonly auctioned movie ephemera, as the relentless fan-base the films have maintain its popularity. Other pieces of screen used props/costumes to be sold include: C-3PO€™s helmet (for £66444) and hands (for £20000) from Return of the Jedi (1983), plus a part from the original Death Star used in A New Hope (1977) for £13300. However, nothing could beat scaring the crap out of your Star Wars obsessed, annoying little brother with Vader€™s iconic helmet€it€™s really a shame I didn€™t have $115000 to hand in 2003! 09. Hydraulic Velociraptor from THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK II (1997) It€™d certainly make an interesting garden ornament €“ nothing like scaring the living bejesus out of your neighbours!! €“ but for any guy owning a lifesize, moving dinosaur must surely be one of the coolest possibilities ever! Well, that€™s exactly what one lucky annoymous bidder managed to do when they purchased a fully animatronic, screen used velociraptor from the JP sequel! Paying $115000 back in 2009 for the pleasure, this bidder bagged a rare prize that really is one of a kind. Jurassic Park screen used memorabilia is extremely hard to come by and very few items have made it to the auctionhouse. Other notable pieces that have gone on sale include: a full scale T-Rex head from the original 1993 film, which went for $126500 and maquette models of the velociraptor and T-Rex used to demonstrate the look of the full scale versions (for approval by Steven Spielberg himself) going for $65000 and $40000 respectively. With the real things going to auction very rarely and demanding such hefty price tags precisely because of this, I think I€™ll have to stick with my JP plastic toy versions€which incidentally have become highly collectable (mainly if they€™ve been kept in their original packaging), along with other items of memorabilia from the films release. Check out internet auction sites for some much more affordable additions to your collection! 08. Freddy Krueger€™s Glove from A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) It€™s one of the most inventive horror villain weapons to appear on screen and makes your spine tingle as soon as you see it: Freddy Krueger€™s glove! The one used in the original film is on display in Planet Hollywood London, but similar items from the later films have occasionally appeared for sale. One fan managed to pick up the glove worn by Robert Englund in Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) €“ which had a guide price of $5000-7000 €“ for $9500. Used for the stunt scenes, the blades were rounded to ensure Englund €“ and now the new owner €“ couldn€™t hurt anybody. Gloves from other films in the series periodically crop up for sale, but regularly sell for many thousands of dollars. With the 2010 remake proving popular with audiences €“ if not with critics €“ interest in the original series was regenerated. Pieces of memorabilia that are much more affordable than the prices achieved by items actually used in the films, are easily found these days. The original one sheet posters from the first film are highly collectible and are sought not only by fans of the franchise, but also 80s cinema aficionados. Selling for a few hundred dollars, this is a much more affordable addition to your 80s horror collection€until you can scrape together a few thousand dollars for the glove that is! 07. Christopher Reeve€™s Costume from SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE (1978) The best way to release your inner fanboy is unquestionably to own a piece of costume history €“ and nothing says this more than owning the one won in the movie of your favourite superhero! Superman is probably the most enduring of these, with fans not getting bored of him through countless television series and feature films. The costume is probably the most instantly recognisable and iconic of all comic book heroes and probably every guy between 13 and 33 must own either an €˜S€™ embossed t-shirt, if not the fancy dress suit itself (complete with overly ambitious and obviously fake muscles included!). Well one lucky bidder managed to scoop up Christopher Reeve€™s costume for $115000 (£58000) back in 2007 €“ flying into history as the owner of such an item. Original costumes from the franchise are very hard to come across, rarely hitting auction salerooms. However, a few others have been sold, including another Reeve€™s worn one in 1999, which consisted of the leotard part (no cape, tights or boots!) used in the flying sequences and was complete with slits for the special effects wires to be fed through. Brandon Routh€™s costume from the often-maligned Superman Returns (2006) also went up for auction last December. With a guide price of $50000-70000, I€™m not convinced it made one little boy€™s Christmas! A lot of Superman themed auctions have come under controversy, with claims that costumes (in particular) are not actually genuine. One such event was a February 2-day sale planned by Dan Murphy Auctions for February 2010. The collection boasted original Superman suits worn by George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, Dean Cain and Kirk Alyn. However, the sale was cancelled amongst claims that the suits were actually fakes allegedly obtained from the failed superhero museum of Dane Nash. With this much controversy and confusion surrounding Superman€™s costume, the likelihood of a genuine one coming up for sale and not going for less than a modestly priced mansion, I think the £30 Argos replica will have to do for now! 06. Ursula Andress€™s Bikini from DR. NO (1962) She€™s the quintessential Bond girl: the original and most iconic. As Ursula Andress €“ a little known Swiss actress back in 1962 €“ walks out of the sea as Honey Ryder in that bikini, boys around the world from every generation fall in lust! Andress herself once said that, "My entrance in the film wearing the bikini on that beautiful beach made me world famous as 'the Bond girl'€ and the scene is not only famous in Bond history, but cinema history itself. The costume went on sale in 2001 at the famous Christies auction house and was picked up by Planet Hollywood co-founder Robert Earl via a telephone bid from New York, for a whopping £35000! Originally estimated to sell for more than £40000, Earl got a bargain€although it is undoubtedly the most expensive piece of swimwear in the history of the world! Also displayed in the London Planet Hollywood restaurant, the public get to enjoy a glimpse of this iconic costume €“ which is nice seeing most memorabilia auctioned off, disappears into the privacy of the purchaser€™s home. The enduring popularity of the Bond series and its loyal fan-base has meant that pieces of memorabilia from the franchise have regularly come up for auction and caused bidding wars between wealthy fans. Other items to have gone under the hammer over recent years include: the prop Walther P99 gun used by Pierce Brosnan in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), selling for £8000 in 2001; casino chips from The World is Not Enough (1999), reaching £1400 also in 2001; as well as original, 1st edition copies of the novels the films were based on sold for £21000 (an inscribed and signed by Fleming copy of Casino Royale) in 2005 and £6500 for another (unsigned) copy of the same novel in 2006. Memorabilia is easy to pick up on the series, but original items are much harder to come across (at least for affordable prices anyway!). For avid fans such as myself, we have to make do with Corgi die-cast models and reproduction posters until the time comes when our bank balances can stretch as ridiculously far as £1400 for a casino chip! 05. A Full-Scale Model T-800 Endoskeleton from TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (1992) They€™re the most badass robots in movieland and the most instantly recognisable achievements of CGI technology in the 90s, so a full scale model would be simultaneously the most freaky and awesome addition to any film fan€™s collection! In December 2007, one lucky bidder managed to get their hands on the full scale endoskeleton from the opening scene of Terminator 2: Judgement Day for an equally scary $488750 €“ over 4 times its estimate of $80000-100000! The screen used bot that was sold can be seen in the desolate LA of 2029 at the beginning of T2, stands at 6ft2in and is complete with eyes that illuminate red. It€™s also the only model from any of the films to have been made with metal feet. I hope that whoever the annoymous winning bidder was, that the T-800 has taken pride of place in their home €“ ready to scare the crap out of any unwanted visitors! Unfortunately for the rest of us, this was the first model of its kind to go on general sale to the public and seeing it is virtually a one of a kind piece, it€™s not that likely that we€™ll be getting our hands on our own T-800. However, if the Terminator franchise is what you love, there€™s oodles of memorabilia out there! Posters, action figures, stills and are regularly available to collectors at reasonable prices. But for those of you who want to see a genuine piece of replica screen ephemera, Universal Studios (Los Angeles) has the motorbike famously driven by Arnie whilst he saves John Connor from the T1000 €“ perfect phot opportunity! 04. Batman€™s Costume from BATMAN (1981) €“ THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) Batman has always been one of the coolest superheroes out there, his dark and tormented personality legendary for comic book fans. The enduring popularity of the big screen versions has seen memorabilia connected to them skyrocket in price! To be able to own a costume as instantly recognisable as the Bat Suit is something only the most devoted (and wealthiest) fans have been able to experience. In 2005, a private bidder spent $25100 on a Michael Keaton worn suit. A gamble you might think? But the seller was actually Elstree Studios, so authenticity was guaranteed! Previously, in 1994, an anonymous bidder paid $37375 for another Keaton costume, which was fitted to a mannequin complete with a hand-painted head fashioned from a life mask of the actor (a little freaky if you ask me!). George Clooney€™s costume from the generally loathed Batman & Robin (1997) reached $80000 in 2006 despite the fact the film was a massive flop and a stain on the otherwise solid Batman film franchise. Other items of screen used/worn memorabilia have been auctioned off over recent years, one of the most notable being Michelle Pffeifer€™s Catwoman costume from Batman Returns (1992). The sexy bodysuit that was used for the scene where she lands in a dump truck full of cat litter reached a bargain-ous $8050 back in 1994! Alongside Clooney€™s costume, Alicia Silverstone€™s complete Batgirl getup from the same film sold for $40000 in 2006. 2003 also saw one anonymous bidder part with $32500 for Jim Carey€™s The Riddler suit from Batman Forever (1995). Batman and Robin costumes from the Adam West lead, 1960s TV series sold for $23000 together in 1994 as well. Lower priced TV items that have sold include Mr. Freeze€™s helmet ($1380), a two-piece Riddler suit ($3450) and a Joker costume ($2875). With The Dark Knight Rises shooting now, Batman€™s popularity will also be rising€meaning as soon as a Christian Bale costume sees the inside of a salesroom, the $80000 Clooney record will undoubtedly be broken. I think I better start saving! 03. Luke Skywalker€™s Lightsaber from STAR WARS (1977-1983) Much like Darth Vader€™s helmet, you got the plastic, extendable, light up version, complete with buzzing sound effects when you were 10€what€™s the next logical step in becoming a Jedi? That€™s it, getting your hands on a real life lightsaber! Back in December 2008, one lucky (anonymous) bidder managed to get their hands on the screen used (Episode IV & V) weapon of Mark Hamill€™s Skywalker, for the princely sum of £133000! It may seem as astronomical as space itself, but can you really put a price on the ability to say, €œYes, I am a Jedi €“ in fact, I€™m Luke Skywalker€and I have the lightsaber to prove it!€ For producer Gary Kurtz, seller of the piece, it went from being €˜May the Force be with You€™ to €˜May the Cash be with You€™ very quickly! Pieces as rare as this screen used item demand such high prices, but with the amount of memorabilia attached to these releases (inflated through George Lucas€™s clever marketing ploy of selling tie-in merchandise) means that fans of the saga can regularly pick up interesting items for much less. With the boom of internet auction sites, access to Star Wars memorabilia became much greater and moved away from the convention scene alone. As such, the larger availability drove down prices and this franchise became one of the easiest to build a collection of ephemera around. However, with this, it also lead to a rise in €˜fake€™ merchandise and misleading (later) items being sold as original pieces of memorabilia. The original one sheet poster is probably the best example of this. Many people have paid exorbitant prices thinking they€™re purchasing an original piece of movie paper from the film, only to find that what they€™ve actually purchased is a much less valuable re-release poster or worse still, a worthless reprint. As real lightsabers are few and far between and therefore demand huge price tags, I think we€™ll all be stuck purchasing the lower ticketed items for quite some time€ 02. A Genuine Oscar! Having recently seen a real Oscar in the flesh (Norman Reynolds€™ for Best Art Direction for Raiders of the Lost Ark at a recent anniversary screening) my desire to own one has skyrocketed. Seeing it is highly unlikely I€™d ever win one for myself, purchasing someone else€™s seems to be my best bet. The only problem is that very few have actually gone on sale, mainly due to the fact that a rule introduced in 1950 stipulated that winners and their heirs could not sell the award without first offering to sell it back to the Academy for the princely sum of $1! If the recipient refuses to sign this statement the award is kept by the Academy. Therefore, when the few pre-1950 awards that are not subject to this restriction have reached the open market, they€™ve sold for small fortunes. Steven Spielberg, for example, purchased Bette Davis€™s Best Actress gong for Jezebel (1938) in July 2001 for $578000, as well as her award for Dangerous (1935) for $207500 and Clark Gable€™s It Happened One Night (1934) Best Actor statue for $607500. He did, however, unfortunately (though respectfully) proceed to donate the awards back to the Academy to be stored safely in their vaults. Other famous Oscars to have been auctioned include the Gone With the Wind (1939) Best Picture Oscar that Michael Jackson purchased in 1999 for $1.54million (the current record for the highest price to be paid for such a piece of memorabilia); Vivien Leigh€™s Best Actress statue for the same film, sold in 1993 for $563000 to a private collector; and Ann Revere€™s Best Supporting Actress award for National Velvet (1945) which sold online at Heritage Auctions for $89625 in 2009 to another private collector. The first Oscar of a major star to go under the hammer was that of Joan Crawford€™s for her Best Actress turn in Mildred Pierce (1945) in 1993. It sold for a rather paltry (in comparison) $68500 to an unknown bidder. Since being sold it has disappeared off the radar and is now unfortunately considered €˜lost€™. At the time of the sale former actor Karl Malden, who was then head of the AMPAS, denounced the sale of Oscars stating that they should not become objects of commerce. With the strict regulations on sales and the high prices that these items seem to demand at auction, I think us regular Joe Popcorn movie fans will be waiting €“ and saving up €“ for quite some time! 01. James Bond€™s Aston Martin DB5 from GOLDFINGER (1963) It has to be the most coveted piece of film memorabilia, a truly iconic piece of cinema history the world over €“ James Bond€™s classic Aston Martin! Well one very luck bugger got to purchase the silver model driven by the legendary Sean Connery in both Goldfinger (1964) and Thunderball (1965) for the astonishing price of £2.9million back in October last year! It had previously been owned by US broadcasting boss Jerry Lee, who purchased it in 1969 for $12000 (an ACTUAL steal€I mean you€™re lucky to get a bog standard Ford Focus for that price these days!). Lee decided to put the car under the hammer in aid of his charity, The Jerry Lee Foundation, which raises money to support both education and anti-crime initiatives around the world. The world famous DB5 was expected to reach over £3million (possibly even £4million), but Lee was happy with the £2.6million it eventually raised, saying that he would still get pleasure from the car knowing that it was helping do good around the world. Harry Yeaggy, an American businessman and classic car collector, is the lucky bugger who gets to whizz round and pretend to be Bond now€as well as being the current record holder for owning the most expensive movie car ever sold at auction! Other Bond cars to have hit the auction room include the Aston Martin DB5 driven by Brosnan€™s Bond in GoldenEye (1995), which went for £140000 to a computer leasing company owner from Sheffield in 2001; the Lotus Esprit used in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me, which sold for £111500 in 2008 to another private US bidder; and the Jaguar XKR loaded with additional features from Die Another Day (2002), which fetched £56000 in October 2010. Having been fortunate to visit the Bond exhibit at Beaulieu National Motor Museum years ago €“ which included Goldfinger€™s immense 1937 Rolls Royce Phantom III from the eponymously titled film, Bonds sawn in half (but still beautiful) BMW Z8 from The World is Not Enough (1999) and the aforementioned, incredible Lotus Esprit before its sale €“ I can safely say that my desire to own a car from one of the actual films burns brightly and one day, I WILL!! For now I€™ll have to make do with Corgi models and photos from the exhibit€ Have any movie memorabilia you€™re dying to own, or indeed, already do? Leave a comment below, we€™d love to know!
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

Stuart Cummins hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.