An ultra-rare Star Wars toy bought for £1.25 in 1978 could soon fetch up to £30,000 at a Kent auction.

Expected to attract serious collectors, the vinyl cape Jawa figurine is one of only a handful in existence, made by a now-defunct British toy manufacturer.

The distinct Palitoy Cardback model enjoyed an especially short-lived production run before the cape was soon replaced with a cloth one.

The figure is among 364 lots at C&T Auctioneers Star Wars and TV/Film Toys and Collectables sale in Ashford on May 8, mostly owned by the same single collector.

Fully sealed with a punch card, experts have valued it at between £20,000 and £30,000 and expect bids from across the world.

Making appearances in five Star Wars films, Jawas are meter-tall humanoids completely hidden behind rough, hand-woven robes.

Their faces are concealed within the dark folds of a cowl, from which peer their sickly glowing yellow eyes.

They comb the deserts of Tatooine in search of discarded scrap and wayward mechanicals.

Using their cobbled-together weaponry, they can incapacitate droids and drag them to their treaded fortress-homes - immense sand-scarred vehicles known as sandcrawlers.

Other collectables likely to attract bidders are Thunderbird figures and toys, Action Man and WWF figures, a boxed Corgi Batmobile and James Bond Aston Martin DB5, Transformers, vintage board games and film posters.

And among the more intriguing lots is an ‘Alien’ special effects head from Aliens 3, a fibreglass Batman (Michael Keaton) torso armour, both estimated between £1,000 and £1,500 and an ape foam latex mask from Greystoke The Legend of Tarzan Lord of the Apes, worth £100- £200.

Pre-bids are now being accepted and the auction goes live at 2pm on May 8.

For more information visit C&T Auctioneers.