The Oscar-winning effects pioneer is emptying his Berkeley studio in a three-day liquidation ending Sunday. A signed AT-AT, a wampa head, and holochess models from A New Hope are all on the floor.
The man who animated the AT-ATs is selling one.
Phil Tippett is closing his Berkeley studio after 35 years at the location, and the entire 6,200-square-foot warehouse is being emptied in a liquidation sale running August 28 through 30.
Today is day two. Tomorrow is the last day.
What is for sale at the Tippett Studio liquidation
The inventory reads like a museum nobody built.
Cartoon Brew, which reported the sale Saturday, lists an artist-proof AT-AT model from The Empire Strikes Back, Starship Troopers miniatures, and models and sketches from Tippett’s own stop-motion feature Mad God.
Berkeleyside reported the head of a wampa, the creature that dragged Luke Skywalker into a cave on Hoth.
Star Wars News Net notes three models from the original holographic chess scene in A New Hope are among the items.
Beyond the props: signed posters, storyboards, blueprints, production documents, stop-motion and motion-capture equipment, cameras, lenses, 3D printers, and machine shop tools.
How to attend the Tippett Studio sale
The sale runs at 914 Grayson St, Berkeley, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, hosted by Clarity Estate Liquidation.
There is no online sign-up. An in-person sign-up sheet goes out at 8 a.m., and the first 50 people on it are admitted when doors open at 10.
Cash, credit, and debit are accepted. All sales are final, and everything sells as-is with no warranty. Buyers bring their own boxes, packing supplies, labor, and tools for dismantling.
CBS San Francisco reported fans lined up outside the studio Friday morning.
Why Tippett Studio is closing
The sale is part of bankruptcy proceedings, and the story goes back two years.
Tippett Studio entered an agreement in 2024 to sell a majority stake to Indian visual effects company PhantomFX, then filed for Chapter 11 protection that May.
A reorganization plan was confirmed in April 2025. PhantomFX announced it had completed the acquisition that July.
Tippett and his wife, producer Jules Roman, founded the studio in 1984.
What Phil Tippett said about selling it all
He has been characteristically direct about it.
“I’d get a little twinge of regrets sometimes,” Tippett told CBS San Francisco. “But I don’t have any place to put anything. And I really don’t like to have my work stuff in the house.”
Speaking to Film Stories, he put it more bluntly: “I’m retired from the racket.”
Who is Phil Tippett?
For anyone who knows the films but not the name, his fingerprints are on a remarkable amount of what you remember.
He got his start doing stop-motion on the original Star Wars, animating the dejarik holochess creatures in A New Hope.
He went on to The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, RoboCop, Jurassic Park, and Starship Troopers, working in the pre-CGI era when creatures were built by hand and moved one frame at a time.
He won an Academy Award. He also spent roughly three decades making Mad God, a stop-motion feature he finally completed and released in 2021.
The Mandalorian and Grogu connection
Tippett’s dejarik holochess creatures from A New Hope were recreated for The Force Awakens. Per Star Wars News Net, they were also the inspiration behind the dejarik sequence in Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, which brought the stop-motion creatures up to full scale.
That film reaches Disney+ on September 2, four days from now, alongside an animated LEGO Star Wars special.
So the week Tippett’s studio empties out is the same week his earliest Star Wars work reaches streaming.
What happens to the work now
That question does not have a satisfying answer.
Writing for Film Stories, Ryan Lambie argued that in a more just world the collection would go to a museum for future animators rather than to private bidders.
It is going to whoever shows up with cash and a truck. The sale ends Sunday at 3 p.m.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Cartoon Brew (August 29, 2026), Jamie Lang’s reporting on the three-day sale, the AT-AT and Mad God items, and the PhantomFX bankruptcy timeline
CBS San Francisco (August 28, 2026), Da Lin’s reporting including Tippett’s quotes and the Friday lines
Berkeleyside (August 27, 2026), Andrew Gilbert’s reporting on the wampa head and the signed AT-AT
Star Wars News Net (August 29, 2026), the dejarik models and The Mandalorian and Grogu connection
Film Stories (August 28, 2026), Ryan Lambie’s reporting and the “retired from the racket” quote
Clarity Estate Liquidation via EstateSales.org, the address, hours, sign-up procedure, and sale terms