Article Summary: An opinion piece on the prevalence of stunt Star Wars lightsabers, and the impact on the issues that arise from being unable to easily distinguish between authentic, original props and post production replicas.
Star Wars Prequel Stunt Lightsabers: Increasingly Less Collectible
Increasingly over the years, since the release of the three Star Wars Prequel films, the prospect of collecting original stunt lightsabers is bleak.
This is for various reasons: original stunt lightsabers being molded with copies made, a flood of “made for production” sabers being copied and/or finished post production, as well as original molds finding their way into the marketplace, making it easier for exact copies to be produced that are, in raw form, indistinguishable from original props.
Here is an auction listing new to eBay today (item #160109125894): “star wars light saber mould count dooku episode 2 stunt” from bent10_4
As noted in the article Original & Replica Props: The Dynamics of Two Hobbies, the perspective of the replica prop hobbyist and the original prop hobbyist, in general, are at odds, in that the prospect of a mold for a stunt prop being “out there” has potential consequences on the authenticity of an original stunt, in resale. For the replica hobbyist, an original mold represents an opportunity to create an accurate reproduction of an original piece.
This also serves as an example of the risks of collecting stunt and other potentially easily reproduced props.
Jason De Bord