People

Samuel Johnson and his partner Rebecca Copson, from Houghton-on-the-Hill in Leicestershire, have turned their life-long passion for collecting toys into an international business venture.

They are about to begin shipping Star Wars 'dioramas' across the world after winning the rights from creator George Lucas. The couple, who own one of the largest toy collections in the UK, have designed sets which house Star Wars figures.

Their company Pride Displays already has 3,000 pre-orders for the first diorama which houses figures from the first Star Wars film. Samuel and Rebecca came up with the idea whilst thinking how to display their own extensive toy collection.

They approached Lucasfilm Ltd with their new idea for mounting figures, expecting to get short shrift. To their surprise, they now own the rights to distribute the dioramas across the UK, Europe and the USA.

"We started to design what we are now producing which are dioramas. In doing that we thought 'if we don't do it and someone sees it in our museum, someone else will jump on it and take our idea'.

"Now we are one of the leading companies in the world that make display dioramas for collectors," says Samuel who wants to follow in the steps of Palitoy of Coalville who produced the original Star Wars figures in the 1970s.

"We are all big fans of Palitoy and they did a sterling job in the 70s and 80s. We are very proud to be following in their footsteps. Kids of yesterday who have Star Wars figures from Palitoy can now display them in an adult mature way," adds Samuel

Shipping of the first diorama begins in June 2005 and Samuel and Rebecca hope to produce similar models for the remaining five Star Wars films and move into other toy markets by supplying enthusiasts with products for their favourite collectibles.

What do you remember about Palitoy?