Richard Plaud, 47, said he spent eight years and 4,200 hours assembling 706,900 matches to build the world’s tallest structure made of matches, measured at 7.19m (23.6ft).
It would have been enough to beat the record that’s been held by Lebanese model maker Toufic Daher since 2009, who used six million matches to create an Eiffel Tower replica measuring at 6.53m (21.4ft).
But after completing his creation on 27 December, Mr Plaud said he submitted an application to Guinness World Records only for it to be rejected without even being looked at.
In a scathing social media post, Mr Plaud said the decision was a “great disappointment” and relayed the record company’s reasons for rejecting his work.
He said it was because the structure must be built from matches that are available to the public for purchase and don’t have flammable red tips - and they must “not be cut, disassembled or deformed to the point where they are no longer recognised” as matches.
Mr Plaud told French media outlet TFI he started off the tower with matches bought commercially, but became tired of having to cut off their red tips one by one, so ended up contacting the main French manufacturer to have the wooden rods delivered in 15kg boxes.
He says he did not know this would disqualify him from breaking the record.
…
Mr Plaud isn’t sure what he’ll do with the model now, he told TFI. He said his hope was to present it at the Olympics in Paris this summer, but that organisers told him “there was no room high enough to accommodate it”.
Others have covered this better (I think John Oliver did a segment on it?) but Guinness world records are kind of bogus. I had a client who wanted help documenting their record attempt, and I had to make sure I was understanding them, because they were describing something which technically no one had done before, but which in my opinion wasn’t noteworthy or even hard to replicate and beat the record. The main limiting factor was being able and willing to pay Guinness to certify it was a record. And they were doing it more for publicity purposes than an interest in excellence or achievement.
Unironically the HBomberguy video about the Roblox “oof” sound is a damning look at how Guinness works. The man’s last few projects have tangents worthy of a James Burke series.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A Frenchman who built a model of the Eiffel Tower using over 700,000 matchsticks says he has had his efforts rejected by Guinness World Records.
It would have been enough to beat the record that’s been held by Lebanese model maker Toufic Daher since 2009, who used six million matches to create an Eiffel Tower replica measuring at 6.53m (21.4ft).
But after completing his creation on 27 December, Mr Plaud said he submitted an application to Guinness World Records only for it to be rejected without even being looked at.
In a scathing social media post, Mr Plaud said the decision was a “great disappointment” and relayed the record company’s reasons for rejecting his work.
Read more:Cosmonaut breaks record for most time spent in space’Oldest ever dog’ loses title after investigation
Mr Plaud told French media outlet TFI he started off the tower with matches bought commercially, but became tired of having to cut off their red tips one by one, so ended up contacting the main French manufacturer to have the wooden rods delivered in 15kg boxes.
The original article contains 376 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 53%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Myself and many other Redditors earned GWR for largest online Secret Santa, twice. If I remember, it was '12-'13, and '13-'14. Kinda neat.
Honestly, having such an audience for my matchstick tower would be a lot cooler than any certificate from guiness
Yep, that’s lame but at the same time - If you’re going to start a project like this… Maybe you should be aware of the rules first? It’s hard to feel bad when the guy didn’t bother doing the most basic research before starting or even at some point near the beginning of the build.
It doesn’t matter if the rules are stupid or difficult. You do what they want and you get what you want. It’s the same conversation I have with a 12 year old regarding his chores and play time.
I’m sure he read them but didn’t think too much about that one because he was planning on buying them commercially. It’s an easy mistake to make.
I still think it’s bullshit in this case.
Honestly, Guinness is a shitty outfit when it comes to the records, and they shouldn’t be considered the final word on things, but they have the name recognition.
Considering it started out as a bar bet, no one should take Guinness world records without a huge grain of salt.
I hold the record for the largest grain of salt.
You can also just buy world records from them. You don’t necessarily have to do anything. I could get the record for being the world’s most special boy right now so long as I whip out the checkbook
Little known fact. ☝🏼
I was part of a world record charity event that technically succeeded (not doxxing myself, heh), but simply because we wouldn’t pay them “$15k +$2k per sponsor/corp donation” (well over $70k from a tiny 501c3‽), they ignored the achievement. It was covered by a number of media sources and was a resounding success for the communities it benefited, so we’re suitably proud of our accomplishment.
Guinness can choke on a bag of rotted dicks.
Yeah they’re not a great company, shame they tried to extort a charity like that. At least y’all got what you wanted/needed from the ordeal!
Considering the McWhirters were politically… suspect (my Dad always called him Norris the Naxi), I’d suggest you need a huge pinch of huge grains.
I’m confused on the rules. So they have to be commercially available and can’t be cut or altered, but can’t have the red tip on them. Who sells non-flammable matches commercially? Seems like a contradiction to me.
They have to be publicly available and not altered so much that they no longer resemble a match. So you basically get matches that are sold in shops and you can snip the tip off them but don’t mess around with them too much. He thought he could skip the tip cutting and get blank matches before they are given the top but such matches aren’t solid in shops because what would be the point?
Sounds more like a world record in patience for cutting the most match heads off should be a separate category.
