Minifigure Price Guide did an exhaustive research on one of the rarest minifigure to be created by LEGO on the face of the planet – the ultra rare LEGO Solid Gold 14K C-3PO minifigure. For those who are not familiar with this minifig, this was created by LEGO back in 2007 as part of a contest first advertised in their March-April 2007 LEGO Magazine. The contest was organized as a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars franchise where five lucky winners were chosen to receive a solid gold 14K C-3PO minifigure. Here are the copies of LEGO’s ads related to the contest. Credits go to Minifigure Price Guide for the pics.
Eventually, five names were chosen and awarded with these holy grail of LEGO Star Wars minifigs:
Little has been known about the status of these ultra rare minifigures after it was shipped to their respective owners. However, in July 2011, a certain JimH said that he has one of these solid gold minifigs saying that his son, Andrew Hoffman, was one of the proud winners in the contest. He snapped and shared this picture over at the Eurobricks forum.
Now fast forward to 2015, JimH said that he will leave the decision to his son Andrew, if or when he wants his much coveted prize to be sold or auctioned. According to JimH, “My son is now over 18 and if anyone wants to seriously try to negotiate for it, just send me your email addy and I will pass it along to him. Please note at this time he isn’t looking to sell it unless someone makes him an offer he just can’t pass up.”
Since then, this is the only piece of info that we ever had with regards to the fate of the solid gold C-3PO minifigures that were raffled away in 2007. Our best guess is that the four winners would rather not disclose their treasures, knowing how much they can be of worth. There are no exact numbers, but for all its value and worth, it is kind of easy to grasp if ever its price will shoot up on a five-figure scale if one of these five minifigs lands on the second-hand market.
Then just when we thought that there is only one good soul who is kind enough to share with the world his prize, another one came out sharing a picture of his (or her) prize.
Minifigure Price Guide wasn’t keen on the details on who send this photo to him. Saying that he received it via Facebook, the photo shows the solid gold C-3PO including the Certificate of Authenticity as described by JimH. The certificate indicates that the minifigure on the foreground was 4 out 5. Though JimH did not mention anything about the series number of his minifig back in 2011 for fear someone might copy it and end up ripping-off people, a comparison of these images will suggest that we might be looking at different minifigures.
JimH’s solid gold C-3PO has an intentional long neck since as he says, that is how far the head piece will go without him worrying that he might damage or scratch the minifig. On the other hand, the more recent photo shows a head piece that is fully pushed down the neck as any minifigure should be. That being the case, then most probably we’re looking at two different minifigures here. Furthermore, this may also suggest that we have two owners who have decided to come out and share their strictly guarded treasures.
Admittedly, these are just conjectures so we hope to see more information from the persons who shared this photo. We also understand the need to be ‘secretive’ on these things since the last thing that you want to worry about is a persistent stalker who will relentlessly convince you to sell your most prized possession.
So what do you think about this ultra-rare solid-gold 14K C-3PO minifigure? How much will you haggle for it if given the opportunity? Share us your thoughts in the comments section below.
FYI,
I know for a fact that this is a different one. I was asked not to disclose where this one came from. But, it is definitely a different one. I have heard that the one you are referring to is available for about hefty price.
Thanks for sharing your story. I appreciate the very thorough research that you went through to track down these ultra rare pieces. I understand if the current owners of the these minifigs will not fully disclose their identities, but the community will definitely be thankful if they can tell the story of their prize without jeopardizing their anonymity. Now that we have confirmed that two out of five minifigs have been found, that lead us with three more to (hopefully) document.