LOS ANGELES (AP) — Luke Skywalker's lightsaber has been on Star Wars movie fans' Christmas lists for more than 30 years.

On Thursday, one fan spent $240,000 to get the real thing: the movie prop that Mark Hamill used in the first two films in the original "Star Wars" trilogy.

The lightsaber highlighted several Hollywood memorabilia sold at an auction in Los Angeles by Profiles in History. The auction house said it sold about $3.5 million in memorabilia.

The droid helmet worn by Anthony Daniels to play C-3PO sold for $120,000, and the costume Marlon Brando wore in the "Superman" movie went for $72,000.

The first British edition of "You Only Live Twice" inscribed by Ian Fleming sold for $84,000. Roald Dahl's handwritten screenplay for the movie of the same title sold for $96,000.

I observed a few visitors to my blog were searching for The Heaven's Fall sword from Hong Kong's 2005 'Seven Swords' movie directed by Tsui Hark. Yes, I do monitor my blog's traffic profile to see what visitors look for and try to fill in the 'missing link' whenever I can. I hope they come back again and find this post useful. Seven Swords was the opening film to the 2005 Venice Film Festival. Adapted from the Chinese novel 'Seven Swords of Mount Heaven' written by renowned Wuxia author Liang Yusheng, Seven Swords is also a tribute movie to Akira Kurosawa's infamous 1954 film 'Seven Samurai'. The film is the first of a planned trilogy and was originally four hours long before edited down to 153 minutes. There's even a Hong Kong TV series version, I only watched a few episodes cause Donnie Yen's not in it. Otherwise I would be glued to my TV set instead of my laptop.

The movie starts with Master Shadow-glow who leaves behind the mundane affairs of the world and goes hermit among the peaks of Mount Heaven. After spending few decades there, he became a great master of sword-casting and made seven prized swords. They were given the names The Unlearn, The Dragon, The Transcience, The Star-chasers, The Celestial Beam, The Deity and The Heaven's Fall. The seven swords represent the seven states of period and mind that Master Shadow-glow experienced on Mount Heaven. Each one of them bears a different meaning.

The Heaven's Fall sword had a unique origin. Master Shadow-glow practices austerity by casting swords and had over a thousand swords with different styles and functions. However, when these swords are compared with The Deity, they are inferior in both shape and spirit. One day, as usual, Master Shadow-glow was watching the clouds and mountains from afar. Out of the blue, a stream of clouds plunged down like a waterfall, drawing a frozen line across the sky. Master Shadow-glow suddenly was enlightened with the fact that The Deity is too primitive and is thus restrained in both shape and spirit. In a bid to break the confines of The Deity, Master Shadow-glow melted a hundred swords to cast The Heaven's Fall. The sword was later given to Wu Yuanyin.

The Heaven's Fall attack form is free-style and follows the mind of the swordsman who wield it. Wu Yuanying was initially unable to control the sword until she learnt how to free her mind. The sword is an elemental sword of water especially unique with a handle that resembles a flute. The holes in the handle respond to different functions, used to slide the blade from one side of the handle to the other. With its affinity to water, The Heaven’s Fall is extremely deadly when wet, as energy can be channelled into the sword and the water droplets on it be directed towards enemies as projectiles weapons. It is used most effectively together with The Unlearnt and The Star Chasers.

The Heaven Fall Sword Movie Replica by Topicool has three circle cut outs which allow the blade to be locked in place in the handle. The blade slides from one end of the handle to the other just like in the movies. The movie sword can even be used with the handle locked in the center of the blade, so you will get the blade coming out of each side of the handle (like a short bo with blades). The movie sword has an overall length of 40", blade length 27.5" and handle length 12.25". Blade thickness is about 0.125" and the whole sword weighs approximately 5 lbs.

This is my first video in YouTube. It's a simple visual guide to complement the previous post Japanese Katana Terminology for Movie Sword Replica Collectors.

Today I installed a new template for this blog, took me a while to get a hang of the hardcoded scripts but it's been fun and a great learning experience too. Let me know what you think and if there are any features that could improve your surfing experience here, please drop a comment.