Unbelievable Facts
One way to get into the Guinness Book of Records is to collect things that others don't need.
However, it is worth knowing that some parts of the book have already been taken. If you want to start collecting things, omit a few topics from the list, including umbrella covers, petrified faeces, and toy dinosaurs.
Next, you'll learn about these and other interesting collections that have surprised the world.
Chair collection
3,000 miniature chairs.
Buying doll-sized chairs on weekends has become a hobby for Barbara Hartsfield. Over the course of 10 years, until 2008, she managed to collect a collection of small chairs, which includes more than 3,000 units. Today, at her museum in Stone Mountain, Georgia, USA, you can find bottled chairs, feeder chairs, and chairs made from toothpicks and clothespins.
Toy collection (photo)
571 Dalek (extraterrestrial mutants from Doctor Who).
Surprisingly, Englishman Rob Hull is not a Doctor Who fan, he only likes collecting Daleks, half-cyborgs and Doctor Who's main opponents who wanted to conquer The universe.
Rob started collecting figures as a child when his parents refused to buy him a Dalek toy. When he was 29, he bought his first figure by himself. In 2011, he entered the Guinness Book of Records thanks to his collection of 571 Daleks. The only person who was annoyed by his hobby was his wife.
Read also: The world's largest video game collection is up for auction
Strange collection
730 umbrella covers.
Of course, Nancy Hoffman didn't own all the umbrella covers in the world, but that didn't stop her from getting into the Guinness Book of Records. In 2012, her collection included more than 730 covers. Since 1996, she has been adding to her collection at her Umbrella Cover Museum, which is open to everyone who wants to visit Peaks Island, Portland, Maine, USA. Her collection includes covers from 50 countries around the world, and she always greets her guests with a live performance of the song “Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella” on the accordion.
Home collection
3,700 items from eateries.
Like many Americans, Harry Sperl loves hamburgers. But a resident of Daytona Beach, Florida, has gone beyond simply ordering his favorite snack — he's spent the past 26 years adding to his collection of various eatery-related merchandise. Today, his collections include more than 3,700 items.
He was nicknamed Hamburger Harry for his passion. It all started when Harry decided to sell one vintage tray that was used in a drive-in diner. To do this, he decided to purchase some plastic burgers to decorate his tray and improve the chances of selling it. Then he began to buy more and more different items related to eateries, and even later they started to simply give him such items.
He calls his friends and fans “hamburger helpers”. Today it can be found in the Guinness Book of Records. His collection has everything from a hamburger-shaped waterbed to a Harley Davidson motorcycle in the shape of the same habmurger. He plans to open a museum in the shape of a double cheeseburger soon.
Dinosaur collection
5,000 toy dinosaurs.
Any 5 year old child will envy the Randy Knol collection. Randy started collecting toys after he was given a set of Flintstones (famous American cartoon characters) for Christmas, which contained a toy dinosaur. Today, even he doesn't know how many dinosaurs he has in his collection. According to him, it numbers five and six thousand, and all of them are stacked in boxes, bags and food containers placed around the house.
See also: A collection of the most unusual and useful kitchen gadgets
Guinness World Records experts have yet to verify the exact number of toys, but according to Randy, he knew a couple of people who have a richer collection, “but they're no longer alive.”
A collection of plaques
11,570 DO NOT DISTURB signs.
Some people who travel a lot tend to buy souvenirs as a souvenir. These can be T-shirts, magnets, or keychains with an image of the place they visited. But in Rainer Weichert's case, these are “Do Not Disturb” signs he brings back to his home in Germany after his next trip.
In 2014, his collection included more than 11,570 signs from various hotels, cruise ships and airplanes. All plaques were collected from 188 countries around the world. He considers two tablets to be the most valuable: one was part of the Olympic Village in 1936, during the Berlin Olympics, and the other from the General Brock Hotel, Canada, which is more than 100 years old.
Toy collection
14,500 bistro toys
Growing up in the Philippines, Percival R. Percival R. Lugue took great care of his toys. When he grew up, his frugality didn't go away. Today he owns the largest collection of toys purchased at fast food restaurants. His collection includes more than 14,500 toys, which allowed him to enter the Guinness Book of Records in 2014. He considers the Inspector of the 1999 Gadget bought at McDonald's, the 1987 Sailor Popeye and the Friends set from the Philippine bistro chain Jollibee to be the most valuable toys.
Unusual collections
1,277 fossilized excrement.
George Frandsen can be safely called Indiana Jones excrement. Today, his collection includes more than 1,277 specimens of coprolite (the scientific name for fossilized excrement). In 2016, he temporarily donated his collection to the South Florida Museum. The collection includes specimens from 8 countries. Among them is a 2-kilogram coprolite from a prehistoric crocodile.
The most unusual collections
137 traffic cones.
David Morgan from the UK began his obsession with traffic cones when he joined Oxford Plastic Systems, the country's largest road manufacturer cones.
In 1986, a competitor from Oxford Plastic Systems accused her of copying one of the traffic cone designs, so Morgan had to search for the same cone to prove that the design was not new, which means the company did not copy anything. After this incident, he wanted to collect cones.
Read also: Unusual celebrity hobbies: interesting collections
675 back combs.
If you visit the dermatology clinic where Manfred S. works Rothstein (Manfred S. Rothstein), you can view the world's largest collection of back combs for free. In 2008, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the doctor had 675 of these useful tools in his collection.
Hundreds of scrapers are hung in the corridors and in the clinic's offices. Among them, you can find an alligator's paw scratcher, or a scratcher made from buffalo ribs. It also has electric combs created in the 1900s.
Pokémon collection
16,000 Pokémon.
26-year-old Lisa Courtney boasts the largest collection of Pokémon toys. Today, the collection includes more than 16,000 units of these fabulous creatures. She started collecting Pokémon when she was 17 years old and has been in the Guinness Book of Records since 2009, when she owned just over 12,000 toys. According to the girl, every day she spends about 7 hours looking for new Pokémon models.
Vinyl record collection
6,000,000 vinyl records.
A wealthy Brazilian businessman, Zero Freitas, has been collecting vinyl records for most of his life. He enjoys traveling around the world and buying records from some of the most famous collectors.
The 62-year-old businessman has even hired international scouts who buy thousands of records for him from New York, Mexico City, South Africa, Nigeria and Cairo on his behalf, and then send them to him at Brazil.
Since the businessman was well aware that the collection is pointless if people can't see it, he decided to found a non-profit music organization called Emporium. It will act as a music library. It is also worth noting that the businessman decided to digitize part of his collection, as a huge amount of music, especially Brazilian music, has been preserved only on vinyl records.
Doll collections (photo)
300 hyperrealistic dolls.
The author of this unusual collection is Marilyn Mansfield from Staten Island, New York, USA. It took her tens of thousands of dollars and a huge amount of time to become the owner of more than 300 dolls that are highly realistic. All the rooms in her house are literally full of dolls. Moreover, she cares for each doll as if it were her own child.
In her thirties, she enjoys taking dolls out for a walk, feeding them and babysitting them. The husband supports his wife and has even decided to build a new room for her favorite dolls.
850 models of fire trucks.
Nail Ilyasov from Ufa, who is a colonel of internal affairs, boasts an amazing collection. In addition to domestic cars, Nail also has many foreign cars.
The collection may be included in the Guinness Book of Records, but several cars are still needed to reach 1,000 units. After that, you can safely apply to the Book.
Nail Ilyasov himself said that he started assembling cars by pure chance when his wife gave him a Moskvich model.