The World's Largest Star Wars Collection Is Stunning
In 1999, Fredrick Oliver was recovering from bilateral carpal tunnel surgery in Edmonton, Canada, and his doctor gave him a simple assignment: rebuild your fine motor skills by playing with something small. He chose LEGO, not because he had been a fan as a child but because the sets reminded him of creativity and imagination, and the Star Wars prequels had just come out. Brick by brick, he put a set together. His hand got stronger. He bought another set. And another. Twenty-seven years later, Fredrick Oliver holds the official Guinness World Records title for the largest collection of LEGO Star Wars sets in the world, with a confirmed total of 993 sets and a pending application that would bring him to 1,051. His basement is covered wall to wall, and what's on display represents only 30 to 40% of what he actually owns. The Death Star. The podracer. Pretty much every set the brand has ever produced for the franchise. The one thing he hasn't found yet is the solid gold Boba Fett set, which he is still watching for, at the right price.
What makes Fredrick's story more than a collecting achievement is how it started and what it has kept alive in him. He grew up watching the original Star Wars trilogy and says the franchise remains his escape from the world. "I think a lot of people lose their imagination as they get older," he said, "and this certainly helps keep your imagination young." His hand, he reports, is doing 95% better. The LEGO collection is doing considerably better than that.
