You call Marty McFly's hoverboard a movie prop? Nahhh.... this is a movie prop. The Tie Fighter that dinged Vader's own craft, sending him spinning out of the Death Star trench? Yes, the very same, from the original Star Wars movie. It could be yours, if you take part in an Ebay Hollywood auction scheduled for Thursday. And, of course, if you have around US$170,000 lying around—and probably a bit more too, as the estimated price goes to US$200,000. The 17-inch high resin, plastic and metal model comes with a letter of authenticity from effects wiz Richard Edlund, and two shooting reports describing its use in the film. It's legit, it seems. Hmmm.... sports car/tie fighter, sports car/tie fighter. Tricky choice. [Ebay via Geekologie]

The original hoverboard used by Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future 2 is now on the auction block, starting at US$30,000. If you have that kind of money around, prepare more because this prop--made of wood and metal, including original stickers, textured paint job, and the hole left by the handlebar that Marty McFly pulls at the beginning of the chase sequence-- may reach US$50,000 according to the seller.

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For sci-fi and comic book movie fans, it doesn't get much better than right now. This week has brought both Dark Knight and the Watchmen trailer, and later this month, the Profiles in History auction house in Hollywood is opening up the prop vaults from just about every classic film over the last, oh, fifty years and isn't stopping until everything is gone, gone, gone! Marty's hover board? Check. Capt. Kirk's phaser from Search For Spock? Yep. The actual holy grail from The Last Crusade? Oh yeah! No shitty replicas here--all are the actual props used on screen, and they can be yours. But those are just the beginning.

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We were surprised to learn that one of the stars of Steve Carell's Get Smart is actually a Swiss Army knife, albeit one whose talents are slightly more impressive than your own trusty multi-tool. It's got your scissors, saw, magnifying glass and can opener, but how about a flame thrower that shoots six feet? Or a crossbow with stow-away bolts? Or a blowgun with its own fold-out sight? The crazy part is, even though this thing is a movie prop, the producers had to make it really work. We scored exclusive schematics of the knife itself, and caught up with prop-meister Tim Wiles to learn how the thing was made fully operational for the cameras.

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A serious Star Trek fan and collector died recently, and an anonymous tipster sent us pictures of the Star Trek memorabilia he left behind. Here's a heads up to dedicated Trekkies everywhere: These items will be appearing on eBay next week, so check out the gallery on the next page; maybe there's something you'd care to bid on.

There are prop replica phasers, communicators and a pinball machine in the lot, all in pristine condition, and some are autographed by William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Patrick Stewart. There's no information about pricing, but these precious artifacts probably won't be cheap.

What would happen if comic-obsessed Internet nerds remade Back to the Future? This steampunk flux capacitor would replace the normal one, and it would be in the back of a carriage pulled by a steam engine made of brass with leather accents rather than a DeLorean. Also, instead of "Great Scott!," Doc's catchphrase would be "LOL what." This particular example of homemade steampunkism was made as an accessory to a "19th century time traveler" Halloween costume, which makes your "Golf Pro" costume look even more half-assed. [Flickr via Boing Boing]

It took 100 hours of Jon C. Acosta's time to make this rather humbling lightsaber. The steampunk and Star Wars fan planned his work with military precision, naming the finished article Lumen Ex Consilium (Light From Within Wisdom) and even cut, using a diamond bit, the hand-painted crystal himself. There's more of Jon's labor of love over at StarDestroyer, but check out the gallery below. [StarDestroyer via Sci-Fi Tech]

Did you like the Transformers movie? If you weren't a total nerd wet blanket then you saw it for what it was: a fun as hell summer blockbuster. If you also have a whole boatload of money sitting around, maybe you'll be interested in buying the Allspark Cube prop used in the movie.

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Aliens fans will recognize this gun. In the original movie, the M41-A fired 45 caliber bullets, 12 gauge shot gun rounds and mini grenades. Apparently the prop wasn't just the product of sci-fi movie magic, but of real, current (80s) technologies. That's why one totally enlightened loony guy spent 18 months and $1,000 building an M41 of his own.

The parts are difficult to find. Remaining true to the original prop construction, and remaining within the guidlines of the US law, I decided to go with as many real gun parts as possible.

Good call. And even though he promised to have deactivated the gun, we're sure there is a small patch of forest in Canada where it seems a bus-sized asteroid attacked with fury. I'm generally a pacifist, but should robots or aliens ever decide to enslave Man I'll be glad to have this link bookmarked. – Mark Wilson Project Page [via gearfuse]