By Ian McConnell

The founder of Fife-based vintage company Scaramanga has declared he was “overjoyed” to find out an order for two brass padlocks was for the new James Bond movie, No Time to Die.

In September 2006, marketer Carl Morenikeji quit his corporate job and started his own business designing and selling his own range of vintage-style leather bags, and had to think of a name for it.

A James Bond fan since the age of 10, Mr Morenikeji opted for the surname of the villain from 1974 movie The Man With The Golden Gun – Francisco Scaramanga (played by Sir Christopher Lee). He decided on the name because he believed it would “fit well with the vintage and retro products he was planning to sell”, was memorable and was “personal to him from watching the film as a child”.

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Scaramanga, based in Cupar, sold two of its large brass vintage padlocks to one of the latest Bond film’s props buyers in May 2019 but did not know then their planned use.

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Mr Morenikeji said: “When I worked out which film the order was for, I was overjoyed. As a lifelong James Bond fan, having the movie use two of my company’s products really is a dream come true and the perfect 15th birthday gift for everyone in the team. We’ve seen our products used in many film and TV productions over the years, but this is very special.”