movie props

Terminator Arm Prop Heads To Auction

Filed under: Auctions

The only known surviving piece from one of the original 1984 Terminator movie robots, a prop metal arm retrieved by a crew member from the debris of an explosion in the film's climax scene is headed for auction this summer. The two-foot-long prop "T-800 Terminator" metal arm (the robot played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) will be offered in a Beverly Hills, California auction by Heritage Auction Galleries on July 17, 2010.

"It's from the private collection of Shay Austin of Los Angeles who was an assistant art director on the movie, and she's kept it for over a quarter-century. No one was saving props for their future value as memorabilia in those days, and that's why original items from this classic film are so hard to find," said Doug Norwine of Heritage Auction Galleries. He estimates it will sell for $15,000 or more.

There were two full-size Terminator robots made for the movie, one for close-ups and one to be blown up in the movie. "After the explosion I ran up with the special effects crew to see what was left," Austin recalled. "We started picking up the pieces and I picked up the arm. In the year we shot, no one was thinking about keeping this stuff, but I tossed the arm into a box with some other leftover props, and then into my storage."

The plot of the second Terminator movie hinged on the technology left behind by a single arm and CPU from the previous Terminator causing Norwine to joke: "Who knows, the entire fate of humankind could rest on the right bidder buying this piece and keeping it safe from those who would use it for nefarious ends."

Tags: arnold schwarzenegger, Heritage Auction, heritage auctions, memorabilia, movie, movie props, terminator