Star Wars toy shop display sold for £15,600 at auction

The toy was expected to fetch between £5,000 and £10,000

A Star Wars display saved from a toy store that shut nearly 30 years ago has been sold at auction for £15,600.

The handcrafted Palitoy Star Wars promotion was one of only a few made in 1982 by model company, NJ Farmers Associates Ltd.

The display - featuring a range of toys launched to tie in with the Return of the Jedi film - was on show at Middlesbrough's Romer Parrish toy shop.

It was estimated to fetch between £5,000 and £10,000.

The vintage store display was owned by a collector who had purchased it from Romer Parish when the shop closed in 1995.

The collector then put it up for sale with Vectis Auction House in Stockton, which said an unnamed UK bidder paid £13,000 on the hammer - plus £2,600 in commission.

Romer Parish toy shop in 1975 - the store opened in Middlesbrough in 1933 and closed in 1995

Nick Dykes, TV and film specialist for Vectis Auctions, said: "These large toy displays are fondly remembered by so many children, bringing back so many memories.

The toy shop was sold to Beatties and is now a restaurant

"The local connection to the auction house is the cherry on the top really of a superb story."

Romer Parrish, which opened in 1933, sold newspapers, cards, sweets and eventually toys.

The two-storey shop was eventually sold to Beatties and is now a restaurant.

It is set to be recreated at Durham's Beamish Museum after Middlesbrough residents were asked to vote for which shops from the 1950s it should replicate.