An Original Star Wars X-Wing Model Believed To Be Lost For Decades Is Now Up For Auction

Greg Jein was a longtime Hollywood model maker who worked on films like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” (which earned him an Oscar nomination), “1941,” and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” Jein also built the Enterprise-D and several other striking ships for “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” He was, it seems, also a prolific collector of sci-fi memorabilia, and many pieces from his collection are also going to be up for auction through Heritage. Jein passed away in May of 2022, and, according to THR, his collection was carefully cataloged by a team of VFX experts, including Kozicki, Bill George, an old co-worker of Jein’s, Lou Zutavern, and his friend Rob McFalane. During the cataloging process, the missing X-wing was found. It was resting comfortably in a cardboard box, undisturbed since 1978.

Kozicki said:

“I knew something was probably in the box, so I started to carefully scoop out the packaging peanuts when the nose of the X-wing showed itself. […] The four of us knew immediately that it was the actual filming model and then the magnitude of the discovery started to set in.”

The missing X-wing was only one of four close-up models built for “Star Wars.” It is immensely rare, and glorious to have found in such pristine condition. No one knows exactly how Jein came into possession of the starship, so we can only speculate how he got it. Did Jein buy it deliberately, or was it misplaced? Kozicki posited that there might have merely been a small amount of prop “cross-pollination” in the late 1970s, and that certain models drifted in and out of the hands of various VFX guys at the time.