A YOUNG family struck gold when they opened a new pack of Lego to find a rare figurine that could be worth £1,000 or more.

Gerry Tompson took wife Lisa and the two youngest of their four children shopping on his day off on Friday. They scoured the shelves of Toys ‘R’ Us in Stratton to find the remaining £1.99 Lego Minifigures needed to complete the family’s collection.

As they felt the packets to make sure they only picked out the figures they needed, Lisa, 29, came across one wearing a top hat – which she knew meant she had likely just come across an extremely rare character called Mr Gold.

The firm has only issued 5,000 of the little gold Lego men, complete with a cane and a gold top hat, out of 10 million figures produced worldwide in the latest series.

So far around 35 have been found in the UK and only 220 across the globe since the series launched a couple of months ago. Already some have attracted bids of between £500 to £1,700 on internet auction site eBay.

Gerry, 29, a Sky TV engineer from Lyneham, said: “We couldn’t believe it – the kids were delighted.

“We were feeling the packets to see which ones were in there and Lisa said she could feel a top hat. We didn’t want to open it right there and then, so we took it home.

“When we opened the pack it was Mr Gold and we knew when the kids came home from school they would be really excited. Me and my wife are both young at heart too.

“We started collecting over a year ago when our oldest, Amelia, was getting to that age where we would could buy her little bits of Lego. We said to the kids that it wasn’t likely we would find Mr Gold because he was so rare.

“When the kids came out of school we said we had a surprise for them and they asked if we were going to Legoland.

“I said ‘no but almost’, and then showed them Mr Gold. Amelia, who is seven, said ‘yay, we are rich’ – she doesn’t quite understand money just yet.

“Apparently they are going for hundreds on the internet and so we might sell it to pay for a trip to Legoland for a couple of days.”

A Lego spokesman said: “They are certainly very lucky as Mr Gold is very rare indeed. Approximately 10 million Series 10 figures were produced globally and only 5,000 Mr Golds were made.”