Han Solo DL-44 Blaster (A New Hope)

A blaster from the armory shelf

Star Wars was made on a limited budget, and its weapons were real guns dressed up to look like they came from another galaxy. For Han Solo, the smuggler played by Harrison Ford, the film's set director Roger Christian chose the parts and armorer Carl Schmidt put them together at Bapty, a London firm that rented firearms to film productions.

The base was a Mauser C96, the German semi-automatic designed by the Feederle brothers and Paul Mauser and built from 1896 to 1937, nicknamed the 'Broomhandle' for its grip. Around it went a flash hider from a World War II-era MG81 machine gun and an early 20th-century Hensoldt-Wetzlar rifle scope, plus 'greebling,' odd mechanical bits including aircraft parts that made it look futuristic. The C96 had already inspired science fiction guns before; it was the model for the Buck Rogers atomic pistol.

Three hero blasters were made for the film in 1976, high-detail versions for close-ups and publicity photographs. In the story, the gun became the BlasTech DL-44 heavy blaster, and the same look carried Han through the original trilogy.

Making Star Wars

Principal photography began in March 1976, in Tunisia and at Elstree Studios near London. George Lucas wanted a 'used future,' with ships, buildings and props that looked worn and lived-in rather than gleaming, and repurposed military hardware suited that idea perfectly.

Ford was not an obvious choice. He had worked for Lucas on American Graffiti, and Lucas considered many others, among them James Caan, Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson, before casting him. The budget grew from $8 million to $11 million.

Star Wars opened on May 25, 1977. It grossed $775.4 million, won six Academy Awards and in 1989 was among the first 25 films chosen for the National Film Registry. Han Solo's blaster, holstered low on his hip, became one of the most recognizable props in movies.

Taken apart, found, rebuilt

The blasters were rented, and when filming ended they went back to the armory. There they were treated like any other stock: according to one account, parts were taken off, barrels were rewelded and pieces were packed away and forgotten. In the strict sense, none of the three survived as finished props.

Decades later the company, under new ownership, set out to recover the original. The C96 itself, feared lost when Britain's 1997 handgun hand-in took so many pistols, turned out to still exist, complete with its rewelded barrel. The original scope turned up in boxes of oddments in 2010, and its mount was found in 2018, according to one detailed account; the Guinness record says the gun was reassembled in 2010. Either way, the rebuild was done by Carl Schmidt, the armorer who first built it, brought out of retirement for the job.

Offered in a three-day firearms auction in Illinois in August 2022 with an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000, it sold on August 30 for $1,057,500. It was bought by a U.S. firearms company for its museum collection. Guinness World Records certified it as the most expensive prop gun sold at auction, well past the $615,000 paid in November 2021 for Captain Kirk's laser rifle from Star Trek.

How original is it?

The core components are the ones used on screen: the Mauser C96, the MG81 flash hider and the Hensoldt-Wetzlar scope. What is missing is the art department's dressing. On set, the art department added gizmos and widgets to make the props look more spacey, and those additions were not recreated. One account judges the rebuilt blaster about 80 percent correct to what is seen in the movie.

That distinction matters to collectors. Other Han Solo blasters exist from the later films, and sources disagree about one of them: one account says a Return of the Jedi blaster sold for $550,000 in 2018, another lists a Return of the Jedi DL-44 at $562,500. This one is described as the only survivor of the three hero props from the first film.

To recognize the type on screen, look for the C96's boxy magazine ahead of the trigger and the round 'broomhandle' grip, the long flared flash hider over a cut-down barrel, and the scope mounted on top.

The gun that defined a hero

Han Solo's blaster helped make a rogue lovable: a smuggler's sidearm, worn low, drawn fast. It inspired generations of toys and fan-built replicas, many of them made on the same Mauser C96 the original used.

Its sale showed how far prop collecting had moved from movie memorabilia toward the firearms market, where a historic pistol with a Hollywood story crossed $1 million for the first time.

The numbers

Film

Star Wars, released May 25, 1977

Shoot

From March 1976, Tunisia and Elstree Studios

Budget

$8 million planned, about $11 million final

Worldwide gross

$775.4 million

Honors

6 Academy Awards; National Film Registry, 1989

Hero blasters made

3, in 1976

Timeline

1. 1896

   Mauser begins production of the C96 pistol, built until 1937.

2. Mar 1976

   Principal photography on Star Wars begins in Tunisia.

3. 1976

   Bapty assembles three hero DL-44 blasters for Han Solo; Carl Schmidt builds them from parts chosen by Roger Christian.

4. May 25, 1977

   Star Wars opens.

5. 1989

   Star Wars is among the first 25 films named to the National Film Registry.

6. 1997

   Britain's handgun hand-in; the blaster's base C96 is feared lost but survives.

7. 2010

   The original scope is found among the armory's oddments; the Guinness record dates the reassembly to this year.

8. 2018

   The original scope mount is found.

9. Nov 2021

   Captain Kirk's laser rifle from Star Trek sells for $615,000, then the record for a movie weapon.

10. Aug 30, 2022

    The blaster sells at auction in Illinois for $1,057,500.

11. Feb 2023

    Guinness World Records announces it as the most expensive prop gun sold at auction.

The world in 1976

• Apr 1, 1976

  Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak form Apple Computer Company.

• May 24, 1976

  Concorde service to Washington, D.C., begins.

• Jul 4, 1976

  The United States celebrates its Bicentennial.

• Jul 20, 1976

  Viking 1 lands on Mars.

• Sep 3, 1976

  Viking 2 lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars.

• Nov 2, 1976

  Jimmy Carter defeats Gerald Ford.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Han Solo DL-44 Blaster (A New Hope) is number 65 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (64 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Han Solo's blaster was built on a real Mauser C96 pistol adapted to fire blanks.
• Its muzzle is the flash hider from a World War II German MG81 machine gun.
• After filming the blaster was stripped back into ordinary armory stock, and its parts were scattered for decades.
• The same armorer who built it in 1976, Carl Schmidt, came out of retirement to rebuild it.
• The rebuilt prop lacks the art department's added gadgets and is judged about 80 percent screen-accurate.
• The C96 also inspired the Buck Rogers atomic pistol, decades before Star Wars.