PAUL Speed believes he has scored a winner with his newest series of figurines of football stars such as Beckham, Owen and Bergkamp.

His company, Corinthian, has joined forces with specialist chocolate-maker Magna Confectionery to produce PowerPodz MicroStars, hollow chocolate balls each of which contain a hand-painted 5cm figure of one of Britain's top football players.

The novelties are now available at £1.49 from Woolworths, corner shops and some supermarkets, including Sainsbury and Safeway.

The MicroStars are an extension of the 8cm ProStars football figure collectables which Corinthian has produced since 1995.

The idea for the collectables grew out of what Paul described as an 'interesting discussion' with Customs and Excise in 1994 when the EU placed restrictions on the import of non-humanlike toys from the Far East. Corinthian in Lane End Road, Sands, manufactures its products in China.

Customs & Excise decided that Star Trek officer Spock, one of the plastic toys being made by Corinthian at the time, was a Vulcan and therefore not human.

"That was the reason we had to come up with an alternative," said Paul, 40, who set up Corinthian in 1985 as a promotions company, making plastic toys such as Sonic the Hedgehog for insertion into cereal boxes.

"Good things come out of adversity and the idea for ProStars came from myself and the then production director Len Cox in the pub after work. We developed some models with a big head format and launched ProStars in 1995."

In 1996 it was voted Best New Toy of the Year by the British Toy and Hobby Association and Corinthian now manufactures more than 130 million for a worldwide market.

"One of the problems of having a thriving collectable market is that prices go up and this forces children out of the hobby. So we decided to produce a smaller, lower cost version," said Paul.

Market research in 1999 showed that among seven to 12-year-olds, football is the primary interest for 73 per cent of boys and 32 per cent of girls.

"The average ten-year-old receives £2.76 pocket money a week. Our child-friendly price point of £1.49 puts Powerpodz MicroStars well within reach of the most avid football-crazy collector," said Paul.

Each chocolate pod also contains instructions for One-on-One, a challenge game for two players which involves each player selecting his team of five or more football figures to take on his opponents' selected team.

Corinthian has produced a Game On PowerPodz magazine with instructions on how to play.

More details are available by visiting Corinthian's website at www.microstars.co.uk