Yard Sale Find of the Year: Stan Winston Predator Statue

Monday morning I got an interesting picture from my father via text message asking me if this thing was something I'd be interested in:



As soon as I saw it, I instantly recognized it for what it was.  It turns out that when they'd finished making the production costumes for the original Predator film, Stan Winston Studios (now known as "Legacy Effects" with the passing of the late great Stan Winston) made four of the foam-filled statues which since found their way into the hands of private collectors.  Then the molds ended up in the hands of Magee FX, who made a few more.  When the molds started to deteriorate, Magee FX resorted to selling partial statues with no backs on them so they'd have to lean against a wall.  The backless statues currently sell for $3799 and if this is one of the few with the full back it'd be worth even more.


I told him that if he could get it, but when he asked it turned out that the seller was claiming it had already been sold.  BLAST!


The next day Dad decided he had to go back for a second look at the rest of the stuff for sale and invited me to join.  When we arrived, we found the same wildly eclectic collection of furniture, tools, golf carts, and statues that were there the day before. 


The same piece was still mixed in with all of the other oddness:



It couldn't help but look out of place:



Closer inspection revealed that all of the key details were intact:



It made me fell pretty good about the paintjob I did on my costume a few years back:



Being taken from the original Stan Winston Studio molds, every aspect of this statue was a perfect reproduction of the screen-used costume.  Unfortunately, to save on reproduction costs, the face was left unfinished and the mandibles were removed:



As I was looking it over, the buyer and his wife turned up and I got to chat with them for a bit before helping them get it out of the pile of random statues and posing for a picture with this great piece:

It was originally designed to fit the late Kevin Peter Hall (who stood 7'2" tall) so it's not small.

This is the worst part: there was a base included with the statue that had a pin to insert into the foot so it would stay upright.  When we were trying to attach it, the Predator kept drooping forward at an unnatural angle.  While we were struggling with it, the seller mentioned "I've got another one of those, let me go grab it"


When he came back, he had another base of the same basic design but with the foot pins in different positions.  When asked where this one came from he said that when he got the Predator statue, there was another one with it that was some kind of big, gray animal skeleton, but it was all in pieces and he threw it away.  Given that Magee FX also sells a few other things with similar bases, I'm pretty sure he threw away one of these.


The head alone would've been worth almost $1400!

Damn.