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A Singaporean became the envy of many Star Wars fans after he miraculously found an original Graflex flash gun in a thrift store at Chinatown.

The Skywalker lightsaber

The flash gun is a component of a vintage camera by Graflex, a 19th century American manufacturer.

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Basically it used to be this old-timey camera.

Specifically, this part:

However, it is now most famous for its role in the original Star Wars trilogy.

The flash gun was modified by set decorator Roger Christian to become the famous Skywalker lightsaber that was first seen in Episode IV: A New Hope in 1977, a.k.a the very first Star Wars film.

Found in Chinatown, Singapore

In a Facebook post on March 21, Aaron Wong, a Singaporean commercial photographer and self-proclaimed "hardcore Star Wars geek", shared how he lucked out with his unexpected find in Singapore.

Wong found the "mother of all lightsabers" in Chinatown, on a "hot march afternoon".

He said in his Facebook post:

"For some reason unbeknownst to me, I decided to park in an old, god forsaken building call 'Fook Hai'. It’s not the place I’d usually park and no, I’m not making this sh*t up, that’s the name of the building, so you can imagine what a run down sad excuse of a building we are talking about."

There, he decided to explore the basement where there was a "little thrift store".

Wong felt compelled to take a look around.

And that was when he saw it.

No longer far, far away

At the far end of the store, on a random shelf of photography items, the unmistakable outline of a flash gun caught his eye.

Wong said:

"I picked it up, dusted it off a little and when the original engraving of 'Graflex. Made in Rochester.NY' stared back at me, I swear to God my heart skipped a beat.

At that moment I heard the lines from 'The Force Awakens' saying: 'the force... it calls to you, let... let it in'."

Paid only S$30

Wong wrote that he was fully prepared to pay around S$250 for the flash gun.

As he explained in his post, a patented original of the Graflex costs at least USD$412 (~S$552) on eBay.

In fact, The Verge reported that for completed, high-end sabers, there can seemingly be no limit at all, with one saber selling on eBay for over USD$15,000 (S$20,115).

However, the Force was strong with Wong because the store owner only requested S$30 for the flash gun.

A massive Star Wars fan

Speaking to Mothership, Wong said that he has been a Star Wars fan for as long as he can remember.

His favourite movie is Return Of The Jedi (great film btw).

While not a serious collector, he owns some vintage figurines from the 1970s to 1980s, one of which is a 1977 Stormtrooper that was handed down to him when he was a boy.

With precious few of the original Graflex "left in the wild", Wong explained that he has no plans to convert the original flash gun into a working lightsaber.

He told Mothership:

"I have a full on movie-accurate replica Graflex that I was planning to make into a saber. So I will most probably keep this rare piece in its original state and maybe display it with a print out of the story how I found it."

You can find his full Facebook post here:

Top images via Aaron Wong's Facebook.