Kitbashed Blaster: How Han Solo’s Iconic Weapon Was Made

Up Close & Peculiar

More than 100 years ago, the globetrotting Robert Ripley began collecting artifacts from his journeys around the world, which today form the heart of the greatest collection of oddities ever assembled.  Up Close & Peculiar brings the curious history of these pieces to a personal level as our Exhibits Buyer, Kurtis Moellmann, explores the strange relics that lie within our Warehouse walls! Become a part of the story as we share pieces for every history buff, pop culture junkie, and oddities collector alike.

Today: Han Solo’s Blaster ®    

Our most expensive Star Wars® purchase yet, Han Solo’s blaster was featured in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi ™ and is from the collection of James Schoppe, the Art Director for the film. The base of the clumsy weapon is a German Mauser C96 pistol and the accouterments are, what many call, kitbashed: a process used to create a new scale model by taking pieces out of commercial kits. By the time people started to catch on to the kitbash trend and were well aware that Han’s blaster was modeled off the real C96, the availability of this firearm in the antique gun market became very hard to come by. What directors could get their hands on was a Japanese model cap gun from the same time period. Directors used this new model to create blasters in future  Star Wars® films.