Jedi News has been created for the purpose of bringing the latest Star Wars news and views to the multitudes of fans in the UK and is a site for the fans, by the fans. Just so you know who we are, we've decided to give a little background to explain what got us started and how we got here. We're certain that many of you will identify with our experiences along the way and will relate to the lengths we've gone to at times to satisfy our obsession!

James was first taken to see Star Wars by his aunt when he was 6. His father supplied double-glazing to one of the workers on The Empire Strikes Back and James was rewarded with a signed Christmas card from George Lucas. His passion for Star Wars increased and by the time Return of the Jedi was released James was lucky enough to go to the premiere at the Dominion in London. As James grew up his fascination for all things Star Wars, including his favourite figures, dwindled as his attraction for girls grew and then unfortunately his collection of original loose figures was destroyed in 1986.

James got married in 1996 and has his wife to thank for his rekindled passion in Star Wars. Sarah was an avid reader and was reading all of the new Star Wars literature being produced. James took an interest too and read the 'Heir to the Empire' trilogy and consequently Sarah bought James a loose vintage Ewok in December of their first year of marriage; something she has come to regret, a little!

Ever since 1996 James has eagerly collected the Hasbro line of 3 3/4" figures, which are kept mint on card. Over the last few years his collecting habits have branched out to include items from Gentle Giant, Lego, Master Replicas, Sideshow and others. This has lead to the building of an extension, aptly called the ‘X’ wing, which is in the process of being furnished.

Up until January 2007, James worked as news editor on another Star Wars site for four years. During this time James was lucky enough to meet and get to know people from various UK licensees including representatives from Hasbro, Lego and Cards Inc. He has also attended and reported from the UK Toy Fair over the last three years as well as attending numerous conventions on a regular basis and is widely known within the UK Star Wars community.

You can contact James at james@jedinews.co.uk

Adam's fascination with the galaxy, far, far, away, began in 1978 when his Dad took him to see the original Star Wars movie. Soon after, his collecting began, when he bought his first action figure; whilst Princess Leia Organa was not his preferred choice, it was the only one left in Harry Packs and he was desperate to spend his hard-earned pocket money. Such was his eagerness to start re-creating scenes from the film however, that he ripped her off of the card and promptly lost her pistol between the toy shop and home!

Adam continued to collect the action figures throughout the earlier 80s, stopping like most people with the last 17, by which time he had reached an awkward age where toys were for kids and his reputation with the girls was not going to benefit from such behaviour.

His interest was rekindled with the launch of 'Heir to the Empire' and fuelled by regular releases of the Lucasfilm magazine and soon after, 'Dark Empire', once Hasbro released the new range of action figures, there was no turning back. With the impending Celebration Europe, Star Wars has come a long way since the 'Empire Day' conventions held at Elstree and in Watford, when collecting vintage figures was still the order of the day, Q&A sessions were filled with frequent bouts of uncomfortable silences and autographs were free. Looking back on it now, it almost has echoes of the Rebellion in its infancy, getting bigger over time as word got out, and fans re-discovered their love of the original saga and rallied to the cause.

During this time, Adam has focused on collecting the Hasbro line of 3 3/4" figures, which he keeps carded, although he has recently branched out into several other lines, such as the Master Replicas 0.45 scaled lightsabers and Kotobukiya figures.

You can contact Adam by emailing him at adam@jedinews.co.uk

Mark Newbold is a co-owner, alongside James Burns and Adam Lamping, of Jedi News, the UK's premier Star Wars fan site. In 1999, after four years online with various sci-fi sites, Mark launched Lightsabre.co.uk, interviewing well over 140 guests in the process and co-hosting 17 episodes of the Setnin Radio podcast.

Newbold is also a freelance contributor to the Star Wars Insider, having had articles in issues #90 (The 2006 Artoos Awards Ceremony), #119 (Alan Harris interview and assorted TESB interviews), #128 (interview with Jenny Cresswell), #130 (My Star Wars with Cat Taber) and #131 (My Star Wars with Stephen Stanton and Red Five with Nick Gillard). He has also had articles published in Model and Collectors Mart, TV Film Memorabilia magazine and is the UK correspondent for the Belgian Star Wars magazine TeeKay-421.

Mark is a regular guest in the Star Wars podcast world, having appeared on The ForceCast, The Sarlacc Pit, Cantina Cast, We Talk Clones, Star Wars Book Report, Coruscant Cast, Dark Empire Radio (as their UK Correspondent), Fanboys Guide to the Galaxy, The Star Wars Report and Galactic Holofeed.

He has reported from Celebration Europe, Fan Days IV, Star Wars: A Musical Journey, StarFest, SFB Ball, SFB Reunion, London Film and Comic Con, Memorabilia, Collectormania, Autographica, the Fordingbridge Film and TV Festival, StarMania 2010, the Bath Childrens Literary Festival, GammaCon 2012 as well as the Clone Wars, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Phantom Menace 3D premieres.

You can contact Mark by emailing him at mark@jedinews.co.uk

Richard first saw Star Wars at the Priory Cinema in Royston which has now sadly been pulled down to make way for housing. This film inspired his imagination that all things were possible in in the galaxy far far away and as a result this has led to a love of all things in the expanded universe and the people who are inspired by but refuse to be restricted to the films.

A collector of the books, comics and comics he has even been known to dabble in a bit of fiction himself but this needs a lot of work.

His first Star Wars figure was Chewbacca which he had to share with his little brother and between them they managed to gather a large collection of the original figures and vehicles. A few years after Return of the Jedi came out they gave the whole collection to a neighbour's nephew. If only they had known!

His Star Wars highlights include going to the UK premiere of A New Hope Special edition and being 10 feet away from George Lucas and also getting hold of a cinema display stand for the Special Edition trilogy.

Not a figure collector or autograph hunter Richard prefers to look for the more unusual collectables although his Star Wars toothpaste from the USA may now be a bit dodgy!

You can contact Richard at richard@jedinews.co.uk

Graham's introduction to the Star Wars trilogy came only through video tapes, but this interest turned into a full obsession with the release of the Special Editions in 1997 and the chance to experience the films on a cinema screen. This sparked him to begin collecting the modern 3 3/4 inch Hasbro figures, of which he buys one of each to open plus too many extra army builders.

Between then and the release of The Phantom Menace, Graham began to read and collect the novels and comics. During 1999, his wallet took a bigger long-term hit when he began to collect the new Lego line, never expecting that he would ever be tracking down packaging variations and promotional items nearly ten years later.

Graham spent time selling Star Wars merchandise from 2004 to early 2006, both online and at events, learning a lot about the 'other side' of Star Wars collecting and the frustrations of case mixes. On May 16th 2005 he had his finest Star Wars experience when he was fortunate enough to win tickets to the UK premiere of Revenge of the Sith, realising it really was worth going to see Return of the Jedi at about ten o'clock in the morning.

Since the onslaught of merchandise during the prequels, Graham's collection has grown much beyond the initial figures and Lego to include many of Hasbro's new lines, as well as items from almost all of the different licencees and many promotional display stands. He regularly attends events across the UK, this year attending his first Celebration, Celebration Europe, where he saw for himself that Star Wars is forever.

Graham can be contacted at graham@jedinews.co.uk

Watto has never seen the original trilogy in the cinema, he first saw Star Wars on VHS and grew up watching the Ewok cartoons and playing with the 'vintage' toys. His favourite being the Millennium Falcon which he received as a Christmas present, unfortunately he rather foolishly sold off his toys - forever to be regretted.

During his secondary school and college years Star Wars became forgotten. His interest in Star Wars was rekindled when he was lent the 1997 Star Wars special edition VHS tapes to watch while he was ill.

Then came The Phantom Menace in 1999.

TPM has become one of Watto's favourite films and launched his Star Wars collecting passion. His collection started with Hasbro's TPM 3.75" figures and now he concentrates on collecting Gentle Giant Statues, maquettes and mini busts. Watto also enjoys collecting Star Wars autographs and reading the books of the Expanded Universe.

Yamaro is part of the Original Trilogy ilk and collected some of the figures and toys when he was a lot younger. This collection dissipated as he grew older until his passion was rekindled in the early Noughties and he discovered Ebay. Yamaro started off amassing a collection of Star Wars Lego kits and since then has digressed into anything Star Wars. The main character that he likes to collect is Yoda and so he will tend to look for anything to do with him first, after this if it has the Star Wars (and/or Lucasfilm) logo then he is interested.

He has a passion for the Star Wars computer games and has spent many an hour playing the X-wing and TIE Fighter games, along with the first person shooters (namely Dark Forces) on the PC format and more recently the games released on the Playstation format.

In June 2007 Yamaro set up his own business and in September 2007 'Master Collectables' exhibited at it's first event. He now attends large and small events up and down the country and looks forward to meeting you in person at one near you soon.

Yamaro's other interests in life (that he squeezes in around Star Wars) are raising his family, sport in general but mainly motorsport and martial arts (limited to watching).