Palitoy Death Star designer has died

Growing up, Christmas was a time for Star Wars toys such as the AT-AT and Millennium Falcon if you were lucky. I always wanted the Palitoy Death Star and was saddened to hear the news of designer Brian Turner's passing.

Bob Brechin, chief designer at Palitoy, shared the sad news online.

"It is with great sadness I announce the passing of Brian Turner who died on the morning of Friday 6th December 2024.

For collectors and fans of Star Wars toys Brian did most of the design work on the Star Wars card Death Star by Palitoy.

I first got to know Brian when he came to Palitoy around 1970 to be Display Manager and we became good friends and colleagues. The previous display manager had left and prior to Brian joining us I was deputising with the Packaging Manager on setting up the Palitoy stand at the British Toy Fair. So when Brian joined I would go out with him to show him the ropes whilst he settled in. He was soon into his stride and reorganised the whole way the toy fair stand was designed using modular octonorm system. It was a big financial outlay at the start but enabled him to use the system to design smaller regional shows throughout the year. Before that every British Toy Fair stand and regional shows by Palitoy were one-off designs that were broken down and destroyed.

Brian also put in some very exciting dioramas into large department stores, particularly one at Blackpool and produced smaller dioramas that sales reps could transport around in the back of their estate cars.

When he was in the office, which was rarely, he would talk with Design Director Bill Pugh’s secretary June and the conversations grew into something bigger. Brian and June got married in December 1973 and last year we were there with the family and friends at the care home where they both lived to celebrate their golden wedding.

When June married Brian Bill decided she had to move so she took on the position of manager of the Palitoy canteen and later part of the sales team, and Brian decided that his job as Display Manager, which involved many days away from home, was not for him and June, so he came to work with me as a toy designer. That was a good move for Palitoy and the public. As well as helping to create one of the most iconic toys in the Star Wars universe Brian also worked on other great toys including Action Force. The Sealion, which is highly regarded by Action Force collectors was one of Brian’s creations.

Condolences to his family and friends."

This weekend's Farthest From event, featuring pipeline reveals from Hasbro's Steve Evans for the Star Wars Retro Collection, was dedicated to the memory of Brian.