I recall sitting with my friends in a theater in 1977 with a bag of popcorn and a lemonade, watching a newly released film entitled Star Wars. Of course, we enjoyed the picture immensely, and the movie would reach legendary status in the annals of Hollywood and pop culture.
In one of the opening scenes of that film, Princess Leia, played by Carrie Fisher, is seen sporting a strange pistol-like weapon: a blaster. According to the technical wizards who created the minutiae for Star Wars, this particular weapon was referred to as a “Drearian Defense Conglomerate Defender Sporting Blaster Pistol.” This blaster was the first of many wonderfully imaginative weapons to be seen throughout the adventures depicted in the film.
Being interested in military history since childhood, I was intrigued by these interesting-looking weapons. Some of these futuristic guns, however, looked strangely familiar. As I later learned, they looked familiar for a reason. In creating weapons for this fictional space age film, the designers looked to history for ideas. They took existing examples of firearms used in the World Wars and other conflicts and creatively modified them to meet their needs. Princess Leia’s blaster was really an altered Russian Vostok Margolin .22LR target pistol. Let’s take a look at a few of the other Star Wars movie props and the historic weapons that they were built from. I will refer to the movie prop weapons with the technical names they were given.
Han Solo, arguably one of the most popular characters in Star Wars, sports a “BlasTech DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol.” This was actually a German Mauser C96 9mm pistol commonly know as a “Broom Handled Mauser” due to the detachable shoulder stock that doubles as a wooden holster. This pistol was very popular and saw widespread use from the 1899 Boer War through World War II. The C96 has appeared in several films including Lawrence of Arabia, Joe Kidd, and in the James Bond series. For Star Wars this gun was modified by attaching a “bull” barrel sleeve, and muzzle from an MG81 machine gun, and a World War I Hensoldt Wetzler Dialyt 3X scope.
A larger weapon wielded by our heroes in the film is the “BlasTech E11 Blaster Rifle.” This piece was built from a British Sterling L2 A3 submachine gun carried by British Airborne troops in World War II. This piece was modified, among other added cosmetic bits, by attaching Sherman Tank gun sights.
Of course, the bad guys carried weapons too. The “BlasTech DLT-19 Heavy Blaster Rifle” was often carried by Imperial Stormtroopers. This was none other than the German 7.92 x 57mm MG34 General Purpose Machine Gun widely used by the German Army throughout World War II. The creators simply added hardware store metal drawer runners to give it a new look. Incidentally, this was also the same weapon carried by Chewabacca! The Stormtroopers also carried what was called a “BlasTech T-21 Light Repeating Blaster.” This prop was really a modified British Lewis Light Machine Gun. The “Lewis Gun” was first issued to infantry units in 1913 and would later be the first aircraft machine gun.
One of the many alien characters in the film were the small hooded Jawas. The Jawas carried “Compact Ion Blasters.” These blasters were made from the long-serving British Lee-Enfield No.1 MK III* bolt-action rifles. The designers cut down both the wooden butt stock and the barrel, shortening the rifle dramatically. A cup discharger grenade launcher from a No.1 MK III model was attached to the muzzle for visual affect.
