Head Goes Under Hammer
December 11, 2006
The head of Star Wars robot R2D2, which was dumped in a skip because it was too heavy to use, is now set to fetch ?50,000 at auction. The famous dome belonging to Luke Skywalker's sidekick was thrown away after 72-year-old actor Kenny Baker found it too difficult to work with. It was dumped by film studios in Ellestree, Hertfordshire, and replaced with a lighter model.
US auction house Profiles In History, which is putting the prop under the hammer, told the Daily Mirror: "Kenny was almost 70 when he operated R2D2 for The Phantom Menace. He found he wasn't strong enough to move the head around any more. It was replaced for Attack of the Clones and the old one thrown out. Luckily, someone spotted it for the piece of movie history it is."
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Who would throw that out? I smell the dark-side!
