'Terminator' robot arm up for auction

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., June 24 (UPI) -- An item said to be the only known surviving piece from the two original, full-size "Terminator" movie robots is for sale, a California auction house said.

Heritage Auction Galleries said the 2-foot-long prop T-800 Terminator metal arm is to be offered in a Beverly Hills, Calif., sale July 17.

Two full-size Terminator robots were created for the movie. The first was built for close-up shots, while the second one was constructed specifically to be blown up at the film's climax.

The auction house said the robotic arm was pulled from the debris by a crew member immediately after the shooting of the classic 1984 sci-fi film's final scene, in which the menacing robot is blown up.

"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," Doug Norwine of Heritage Auction Galleries, said in a statement Wednesday.

"After the explosion I ran up with the special effects crew to see what was left," Austin said. "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."

Norwine estimates the arm will sell for $15,000 or more.