An Aussie legend has done her country proud by bagging the most despicable (in a good way) Guinness World Record imaginable.
It was recently revealed that Liesl Benecke from Jindalee, Western Australia now holds the title for the largest collection of Minions memorabilia in the world, and it’s enough to make me go “bee do bee do bee do!”
Benecke’s Minions collection includes 1,035 pieces of paraphernalia related to the lil’ yellow guys, who first burst onto the scene to the collective annoyance of parents in 2010’s Despicable Me.
It was immediately after that film — which has since spawned (too many) sequels and a standalone Minions spinoff — that Benecke began amassing her collection, which has come to include clothes, movie posters, stuffed dolls, keychains, figurines and, in an instance that screams NO RAGRETS, a tattoo of Stuart the minion on her arm.
Benecke’s collection is gathered from all over the world, with pieces purchased from Singapore, Japan, Italy, Portugal, Taiwan and China.
Unlike the objects of her obsession, Benecke has not yet been to the moon.
“I remember laughing so much at the cute, little pill-shaped henchmen,” Benecke told Guinness World Records of the moment her fixation began.
“They certainly made a huge impression on me.”
Benecke’s obsession is so intense that she’s been given the nickname “the Minion lady” by her colleagues (no points for creativity), and has traveled to both Universal Studios in Singapore and Minion Land in Japan to see henchmen of Gru in the flesh.
As for where she stores the collection (minion haters might say the bin), Benecke said “they are in every room and on every spare wall”, as well as in her car.
Someone get her a ‘minion on board’ sticker, stat.
“I’m just a big kid at heart,” Benecke said.
“The Minions are my source of happiness and their weird and wacky ways never fail to make me laugh.”
While arguably the most yellow, Benecke’s world record isn’t the only one to have been bestowed upon an Aussie in recent times.
Melbourne restaurant 400 Gradi copped the record for greatest variety of cheese on a pizza back in 2019 and before that, Hugh Jackman took home the title for longest career as a live action Marvel superhero for his role as Wolverine.
Turns out we’ve got more to be proud of than Bunning sausage sizzles and clothesline goon sacks.
Lead images: Guinness World Records
