World’s Largest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Collection Fills an Entire Home

Photo credit: Guinness World Records
Dave Fawcett lives in Hamilton, Ontario, but his home is more of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shrine. The sheer volume of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael-related items is mind-boggling; every single wall is covered in memorabilia, the shelves are overflowing, and even the dark corners are stuffed with Turtle items. Guess what? This is officially the world’s largest, according to Guinness World Records, with a whopping 2,195 individual pieces.

Dave’s affinity for the Turtles began with a soft-headed Donatello figure given to him by his mother on Christmas Day 1988. That was actually the first item he ever added to his collection. A few years later, his grandfather dropped off a 1991 Movie Star Michelangelo, which sat in storage until more arrived. Talking about getting older, the original TMNT content was already out of date by the early 2000s, when a new series began to take over. That’s when Dave took all of his old toys out of storage and started thinking about how he could expand it. By that point, the old toys had become largely obsolete, and the new series was only getting started.

The majority of the collection consists of action figurines, with well over a hundred of them filling the shelves of his living room, dubbed the Turtle Lair. There are small ones, like the LEGO minis, that are hardly bigger than a thumb, and then there are the life-sized sculptures that are boldly displayed in the room’s darkest recesses and are sometimes missed. Then there are the Funko Pops, which are beautifully organized in their own section for easy viewing.

The walls receive just as much attention as the shelves; posters from all of the TMNT movies and cartoons adorn the walls, hand-drawn artwork adds a personal touch, and yes, official prints are available. The comics are carefully stored in secure cases, preserving decades’ worth of issues.

Then there’s all the other commonplace items that are turned into collections. Your branded lunchboxes sit next to turtle-shell backpacks, and your sleeping bags and blankets are shown simply because they are green, like the heroes themselves. There are even clothing hanging around, some of which he modeled for a retail brochure when he was eight years old.

Food discoveries amaze you since you never know what you’re in for. The unopened can of turtle-shaped Chef Boyardee pasta that has been resting on a shelf since February 1992 is simply odd. To emphasize the weirdness, a massive Krang figure stands in the center of the room – the only supervillain on display, as it happens.

Hunting for the most rarest artifacts is part of the excitement for Fawcett, and Hot Spot, the series’ firefighter Dalmatian, was one of the most difficult to locate. He also has autographed scripts from the live-action flicks to give the collection that extra something – a touch of Hollywood class.