Greg Jein is a model maker who specialized in special effects for a ton of our favorite stuff, largely in the 70s, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind. His team designed the mother ship. He did a lot of Star Trek work, but more importantly for this thread, he was a massive model collection.

He passed away at age 76 in 2022 and his collection hits Heritage Auctions next week. Among the things in it are a full-scale model X-WIng from A New Hope, labeled a Hero model because of its size. It is the ship flow by Red Leader over the Death Star and the minimum bid is $400,000.

He has a ton of Star Wars and Star Trek stuff, but also things dating back to the 1950s and "Forbidden Planet", "Lost in Space,' the original Batman series, and even some Laurel and Hardy stuff - costumes, props, just unreal.

I've posted a few images below, but you really have to see it to believe it all:

Link


Original Batman Batarang



Kirk's uniform from Season 1 of Star Trek





Star Trek Tri-corder



Charlton Heston's costume from Planet of the Apes



Be still, my heart, original shooting scripts from Empire and Jedi



The aforementioned X-Wing



Original ANH 1--piece stormtrooper armor (minimum bid $200,000)



Death Star turbo laser from ANH



Viper model from BSG Original



Draconian Marauder from Buck Rogers



The effin thermopod from Buckaroo Banzai!

Wow! Hell of a collection!

I'm willing to bet most who might click on this thread would have no idea who Greg Jein was. I am not one of those.

Way, way back when, when I was 3, I built (with help from dad) my first model airplane. Been building them ever since (did step away from the hobby during high school - girls and baseball, college and early career. Back in the 70s when I was seeing movies from Star Wars to 1941, I frequently would stay for the credits to listen to the wonderful scores (all John Williams). I got to where I recognized names and always had an interest in what the credits would label as "Chief Model Maker" or some such. That was really the first time I recall having a career aspiration, of wanting to build models for the movies. Jein also worked on 1941, which I consider an underrated Spielberg movie with some glorious miniature work.

Curious that he was nominated for best visual effects for both Close Encounters and 1941, but lost out to Star Wars and Alien. I actually think the effects in CE3K hold up marginally better than Star Wars (I could start a thread on this to explain).