Tuesday, January 5, 2010

  Largest collection of Simpsons memorabilia-Glynne Williams sets world record

  BRISTOL, UK -- Glynne Williams, a 42 year-old courier, owns a collection of Simpsons memorabilia containing more than 30,000 items-which sets the new world record for the Largest collection of Simpsons memorabilia.
   Photo: A fibreglass Lisa, Marge and Maggie enjoy a look through Glynne Williams's Largest collection of Simpsons memorabilia Photo: Glynne Williams
   (enlarge photo)

   Williams, who has been ardent fan of the Simpsons, all his life, is now said to have shelled out not less than 150,000 pounds on a massive collection based on the popular cartoon family – the Simpsons.

   His life, at one time, possibly had revolved around the toon character, which is why the man, even when he is 42-years-old now, boasts of having a 200-pound arcade game based on the cartoon and splashes another 150 pounds per month on trinkets.

   There's a Simpsons eau de cologne set from Spain. There’s a Springfield nuclear power plant lava lamp from Florida. There’s a limited edition lunch box made in Japan, which Williams actually tracked down in Australia.

   The Largest collection of Simpsons memorabilia (or, as Williams and his somewhat martyred-looking wife Adreena refer to it, ‘the monster’) began more than 12 years ago with item zero, a poster, now embedded deep in the loft’s strata; some plastic figures followed, and then Simpsonania became his default Christmas-birthday gift setting (these days, he says: ‘I only have eBay numbers on my gift list.’).

   Williams dedicates about three hours a day to eBay, buying about 10 items a week and spending £150 a month on his habit.

  Williams has already been featured in local papers and women’s magazines (‘They tried to say we’d sacrificed everything for the collection, which isn’t true,’ he says. ‘We’re not loons’); Morgan ‘Super-Size Me’ Spurlock has interviewed Williams for a television special as part of Fox’s 20th-anniversary Simpsons celebrations.

  The man now hopes to turn his Largest collection of Simpsons memorabilia into a museum. He says only close friends and family have seen the collection, but he thinks there is enough interest in the bright yellow characters to open it up to the public.
    "What I'd like to do is put them on display in a unit somewhere in Patchway, and put Patchway on the map globally. Maybe I could even get a unit in Cribbs Causeway or Cabot Circus to show them off."

   Glynne said: "The Simpsons appeal to the child in all of us – I think it is the primary colours."

  The previous Guinness world record for the Largest collection of Simpsons memorabilia was set by Cameron Gibbs of Skye, Victoria, Australia, with 2,580 items.

   Related world records:
   Largest collection of miniature chairs - world record set by Barbara Hartsfield

   Largest collection of Pooh & Friends memorabilia - Deb Hoffmann sets world record

    Largest collection of cow-related items-Denise Tubangui sets world record

    Largest movie camera collection-Richard LaRiviere sets world record

  Largest collection of trolls-world record set by Sophie Marie Cross  

   Tuesday, January 5, 2010