Update on Fake ‘Star Wars’ Movie Prop Blaster, Message from Author of Letter of Provenance
March 1, 2010 by Jason DeBord
This is an update to two stories published late last year about a replica Star Wars: Return of the Jedi “Biker Scout Blaster” which was marketed for sale as an original from the production. The author of the original Letter of Provenance has written me today and granted permission to publish his initial e-mail for the benefit of the readers of the Original Prop Blog.
The original articles can be found via the links below:
Below is the new update from the author of the Letter of Provenance, Chris Distin:
From: Chris Distin
Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2010 11:59 PM
To: jason@originalpropblog.com
Subject: AJB007 and Star wars…..
Hi Jason,
You left a link to your Website on the AJB007 Forum reference the whereabouts of RAREPROPS, looks like my name creeps up twice on your Website now.
You have some info on there regarding a Star Wars Blaster that I sold/swapped a while back, you have the Letter I gave with the Prop, I’d appreciate if you would at least block the address off the Letter so that I dont get any letters from Nutters that find my address on your Website:-)
I found the Article very Informative and eye-opening, I bought the Blaster years ago from a Guy who assured me that his Uncle worked on the Film.He’d had it in his Possesion for years in a Cabinet.
One of the Main reasons for me buying this was because he said it was ” A Gun made of Wood”, I thought this to be strange, it was definately someone who knew nothing about propmaking and his mails seemed sowewhat naive which either meant he knew nothing about the trade or he was very good at deciept. I paid next to nothing for this Gun so he was definately not out to rip me off!!
When I recieved and inspected it, it turned out to be Resin, which I was hoping. so this told me the guy had no idea what it was. These 2 facts made me start to research the Blaster, also asking Elstree for Info, ( there was no Certificate from Elstree at this time!) They said that the Guys that made the Original Blasters were still around and they would ask their opinion. They contacted me soon after saying that it definately looked good but they would need to inspect it to check what resin mix was used and whether this was the same used back then. this would obviously cost me money. so I didn’t send it.
The things that still bug me about this gun are……. 1, The maker of this Gun went to a lot of effort to Mould this, I mean the Handle looks like it is from the Sten Gun which the Stormtrooper Blaster was based on. 2, Why has there never been another one turn up on the Market? I mean if there was one made, there surely must be more. 3, I couldn’t find any reference material on the Original Blasters? Pictures, Blueprints. Do any exist for these Blasters?
I contacted other people who I thought may be able to help me but with no avail, no-one really had any real info on these kind of Blaster, so I sort of forgot about it and had it around here for ages, I decided to put it on Ebay and see what info I may get from there, I got an offer from a Collector in the UK for a trade…. the Blaster in Exchange for a Bond Prop… which I accepted, the Collector knew himself that there was no definate Provenance and basically said that although the Item i got for it was not worth much, we could both get a good deal from it, If it did turn out to be Original then he would have definately have got the best deal from it.
I myself never entered it into an Auction myself as I could not be 100% sure of its Authenticity.
You can imagine my surprise when I saw this Blaster entered into the Profiles Auction with a Massive price,( which as far as I can tell is not the person I traded with )I took it that someone had done their homework and found it to really be Authentic, the Certificate from Elstree was included so someone had sent this to them to show the original makers.
Anyway, to cut a long story short.. I swapped this in good intention and hope that this clears a few questions for you
You can contact me on cdistin@web.de if you have any further queries.
Many Regards
Chris Distin
Coincidentally, earlier this month, Jason White (see www.MoviePropKing.com) announced his recent acquisition of two prop weapons from Return of the Jedi which he has had authenticated and determined to be authentic. One of the two of these pieces is a biker scout pistol, as pictured below:
Below is a comparison with the piece that is the subject of this series of articles (bottom) and Jason White’s (top):
Jason DeBord
