The Brief

On June 20, 2016, Lily Connors of Pontypridd, UK, was verified by Guinness World Records to have the largest Doctor Who collection with a total of 6,641 items.

We wanted to beat that.

The Process

What started as a half-baked idea back in January of 2023, was accepted by Guinness later that April. This set off a year-plus planning session that resulted in first major step to verify our record, "The Big Count".

As seen in the images above, we had to count only the items that Guinness approved, in front of witnesses (two more witnesses were watching from a livestream) and record the whole thing. Once the "The Big Count" was done, we would need to fill out around 2,000 pages to submit back to Guinness. Then, and only then, would they review the evidence and give the final verdict.

We have not received the final verdict yet.

An edited public view of "The Big Count" can be found on our YouTube channel at - "The Big Count Movie"

Items

Our current inventory of items sits at 21,000 total items. But a large majority of these items are not eligible for the Guinness World Record. Items such as dupes, fanzines, unauthorized publications, or items that were store use only and don't really have any articles proving their existence, could not be used.

Total Items

Eligible/Counted

After sadly removing the large collection of fanzines, we were left with 8,084 items that were able to be counted towards the record. However, we could only count the items in four-hour shifts, two per day with a four-hour break in between. Since we all have jobs, we needed to complete this in a single weekend. Which means we did have to prioritize what we would count, thus leaving 617 items on the table. Still, 7,467 items beat the current record and was a major accomplishment given the short timeframe.

Outcome

On October 1st, 2024, Guinness World Records confirmed that we had provided enough evidence to break the record.

We now hold the record....