Hake’s Auction #232 closed on Wednesday, and set a record of $3.6 million in sales of rare collectibles. That included the sale of a Kenner Starr Wars “Rocket-Firing” Boba Fett prototype action figure from 1979.
The figure, one of around 30 known to exist, has a legendary reputation among Star Wars toy collectors. Available only in prototype form, the figure’s “rocket-firing” feature was removed by Kenner before its release as a mail-away offer, after a child choked on a small rocket fired from a Battlestar Galactica toy.
A non-firing Boba Fett figure was eventually sent to kids through the mail and sold in stores, but employees at Kenner held on to some of the prototypes. They eventually made it onto the secondary market, were they’ve commanded insane prices over the years.
in 2019, a rocket-firing Boba Fett prototype sold for a record $185,850. Last year, however, one sold for a mere $62,239 at auction.
The Hake’s auction of one of prototypes, which was encased and graded at 85 by the Action Figure Authority, sold for an eye-popping $165,200 when bidding closed on Wednesday. That price includes the 18% buyer’s premium, but shows just how strong the market is for vintage Star Wars figures.
This particular figure earned higher bids because it still had the “firing mechanism” within the backpack, something other prototypes did not have.
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