DALLAS, TX.- The world’s smallest bounty hunter is now the world’s most valuable vintage toy.

A 3¾-inch-tall Boba Fett sold for $525,000 during Heritage Auctions’ first Star Wars Signature® Auction, held May 31. It’s one of only two surviving hand-painted, missile-firing action figures promised to kids but ultimately pulled from the Kenner production line in the 1970s.

Its price more than doubled the record for the most expensive Star Wars action figure sold at auction, held by a rocket-firing Boba Fett that realized $236,000 in June 2022.

This miniature Mandalorian also bested a Barbie to become the most valuable vintage toy sold at auction. In 2010, a one-of-a-kind, 1-carat-diamond-wearing Barbie sold for $302,000. Her reign ended Friday thanks to a protracted bidding war that landed this holy grail in one collector’s cargo hold.

“The rocket-firing Boba Fett action figure long ago became such a mythic icon that people worldwide know about it even if they don’t collect anything at all,” says Heritage Auctions Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena. “We knew this one had a chance to enter the record books, and it was thrilling to see it become the most valuable toy in the world.”

The May 31 Star Wars Signature® Auction realized $1,661,916, thanks to more than 1,500 bidders worldwide. The auction’s top two lots were Boba Fetts: The other was a highly graded, still-sealed action figure released by Kenner in 1979 on what’s referred to as a “21 Back B Star Wars Card,” which realized $84,375. There’s only one other Boba Fett with this AFA 95 grade in this galaxy or any other.

The action figure was initially intended as a giveaway: “FREE BOBA FETT,” encouraged the in-store displays, the action-figure packaging and TV ads in 1979, shortly after the armored (and, then, animated) figure debuted as “Darth Vader’s right-hand man” in the Star Wars Holiday Special. All a kid — or their parents — had to do was provide proof they’d purchased four other Star Wars action figures. In return, within six to eight weeks, they would receive Kenner’s 21st Star Wars action figure with the “rocket firing back pack.” Even better, said the promos: “Boba Fett not available in any store.”

Except, quite famously, that rocket-loaded Boba Fett never arrived in the mail — or anywhere else — after reports surfaced in early 1979 that competitor Mattel’s Battlestar Galactica plastic-missile-firing toys had become choking hazards. When he finally did arrive in a plain white box, the rocket had been glued into place, and there was a “Note to Consumers” explaining why the change had been made: “The launcher has been removed from the product for safety reasons.”

Some Kenner employees spared the rocket-firing Boba Fetts destined for the Sarlacc pit. That’s how the few surviving prototypes became the world’s most sought-after Star Wars toy, what Entertainment Weekly’s Andrew Breznican once called “the fulfillment of a broken promise.”

“Projectiles were always touchy subjects,” says former Kenner engineer Jacob Miles III, an original member of the company’s Star Wars team tasked with keeping that rocket safely in Boba Fett’s backpack. “But when Battlestar Galactica had their issues, we immediately just shut it down and destroyed everything. We were concerned about disappointing kids because we had shown that thing [the rocket] taking off. But we had a much bigger concern if we shipped it.”

This Boba Fett has the L-shaped latch in the back, of which there are some 70 known examples of the surviving 100 (or so) prototypes. As longtime Star Wars expert and dealer Brian Rachfal notes in his letter of provenance, “it’s uncertain exactly how many Rocket Firing Boba Fetts were created” or survived 45 years later. But this is absolutely among the rarest.

“One of only two examples known, this hand painted figure is still unique in its class,” Rachfal writes, as it’s the only one with its head and appendages painted gray. This AFA-graded, CIB-authenticated figure has been so thoroughly examined that hobby historians can pinpoint where it was made (“Kenner’s 10th floor at the Kroger building” in Cincinnati), how it got out (“it was salvaged from a box of discarded toys deposited there for employees to take home”) and where it eventually landed (with Justin Kerns, who once had nine unique survivors from the discarded lot).

It now travels to its new owner, as will numerous other significant pieces of Star Wars offered in this landmark event, including the lightsaber built by Anakin Skywalker that Obi-Wan Kenobi handed over to Luke before it was thought lost (along with Luke’s right hand) during Vader and son’s duel on Bespin in The Empire Strikes Back. The so-called Skywalker Lightsaber, which Maz Kanata kept until handing it over to Rey in The Force Awakens, realized $62,500.

Not far behind was one of the most prized pieces in this auction: a third draft (and a very different version) of George Lucas’ screenplay for the first installment in his space opera, back when it was still known as The Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Starkiller. The script, which realized $57,500, has everything a Star Wars fan could want: the original triangular logo design by Ralph McQuarrie, perfect provenance (it hails from the collection of Bunny Alsup, the assistant to Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz) and the signatures of, among others, Lucas, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew and others

This auction also featured another Mandalorian must-have: the helmet Pedro Pascal wore in Season 2 of The Mandalorian and during his appearance on The Book of Boba Fett, which realized $40,000. And a Lucasfilm-sanctioned Darth Vader helmet, armor and chest box made for early 1980s promotional tours sold for $37,500.