Star Wars toy sells at Special Auction Services Newbury for nearly £8,000

Rare 2-1B Surgical Droid from The Empire Strikes Back under the hammer

THIS is the droid you’re looking for.

A rare Star Wars toy has sold for almost £8,000 in Newbury.

The boxed 2-1B Surgical Droid went under the hammer as part of a wider collection of memorabilia at Special Auction Services online on May 27.

Common across the Star Wars galaxy far, far away the 2-1B model first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back, where one of the droids treated Luke Skywalker after he was attacked by a Wampa on the planet Hoth.

The droid treated Skywalker again aboard a medical frigate after he lost his hand in a lightsaber fight with Darth Vader in Cloud City.

SAS director Neil Shuttleworth said that the Palitoy collectable, selling for a few pounds at the time, was a rare item because of its history and it still being boxed.

He said the bidding opened at £80, but the lot “ended up with a battle between two online bidders”, starting at £80 and rising “to a couple of thousand straight away”.

The toy sold for £6,500, but with the SAS premium of 24 per cent this rose to just under £8,000.

The toy was sold to an anonymous UK buyer and was valued between £50 and £500.

Mr Shuttleworth said that only a small number of the toys, which include a ‘Become a Star Wars Bounty Hunter’ sticker, were released before the line was pulled.

“It did extraordinarily well,” he said. “Despite the fact that we can’t have people bidding in the room, I think it’s done remarkably.”

The droid was one of 500 lots sold at SAS that day.

Mr Shuttleworth said that 350 items had belonged to one client in Scotland.

He said: “A couple of years ago we sold a collection for a chap in Scotland that had passed away.

“His best mate got to a stage where he thought ‘do I want to carry on collecting?’

“He was a serious collector, but it was everything from Corgi to Star Wars stuff.

“He had been collecting for 30 years.

“After his friend passed away he had a bit of a revelation and saw that we did such a good job for his best mate and that’s why he contacted us.”

A Return of the Jedi Darth Vader figurine in the collection sold for £280, including commission.

It’s not the first time an obscure Star Wars medical droid toy has fetched a high price at auction.

An FX-7 droid sold for £7,000 in 2014.

Other Star Wars toys with a strong buying force include a Vintage Vinyl Cape Jawa figure, which sold for £21,600 in 2017.

Mr Shuttleworth said: “This is a market place that is very much hot property.

“With all collecting markets it’s about regeneration and bringing back childhood and memories of that.”