A long-lost X-wing model used in the original "Star Wars" movie is up for auction, starting at $400,000

• A model of an X-wing Starfighter used in the first Star Wars movie is up for sale at auction.
• Thought to be lost for decades, it was used in one of the movie's most iconic scenes.

A fabled Star Wars prop that featured in the Death Star explosion scene in the first of the original movies is being auctioned off, with a starting bid price of $400,000.

The model is an X-wing Starfighter, one of four used in the 1977 movie "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope."

Long considered the holy grail for collectors of Star Wars memorabilia, the model was assumed for decades to be lost. However, it was recently found among the belongings of late modelmaker Greg Jein, whose collection is being auctioned off in mid-October.

Visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic made several X-wings — less detailed "pyro" ones to be blown up, as well as four intricate "hero" models that were used for close-ups, including in the trench run scene.

As such, the model has articulated motorized wings, wired lights, scorch marks around its exhausts, and even the dome of a miniature R2 unit behind its canopy.

According to the auctioneer, which has matched the model to specific scenes, it stood in for Red Leader or Red One — the callsign given to the leader of the movie's Red Squadron — as well as Red Two, and Luke Skywalker's Red Five.

It can be seen in several scenes during the trench run sequence — including when Red Leader says he's going to try to draw the enemy's fire, as well as when Skywalker pulls out of his strafing run, the auctioneer said.

"Without question, this Hero X-wing miniature represents the pinnacle of "Star Wars" artifacts to ever reach the market," the auctioneer wrote.

It's among the items that won Industrial Light & Magic the Oscar for visual effects for the movie in 1978.

Visual effects historian Gene Kozicki was among the group of friends and fellow professionals who unearthed the model while going through Jein's things in order to catalog them, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"It became something of a mythical 'white whale' — the missing "Star Wars" X-wing," Kozicki told the outlet.

When they spotted a cardboard box, "I knew something was probably in the box, so I started to carefully scoop out the packaging peanuts when the nose of the X-wing showed itself," he said.

It's unclear how Jein ended up with the model since he did not work on the movie itself.

But according to The Hollywood Reporter, he was an avid collector and would have been in a position to easily trade items from his own work, which included props for Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounter of the Third Kind," as well as several Star Trek movies.