A French man spent eight years building a replica of the Eiffel Tower, standing 23 feet tall, using matchsticks, only to see his dreams of entering the Guinness Book of Records dashed because he used a brand that could not be purchased in stores, according to the Daily Mail. Richard Bloud claims he found out his dreams had vanished when the Guinness World Records organization ruled without even inspecting the replica he built.
The governing body stated that the 706,900 matchsticks used by the 47-year-old man were not commercially available and had been altered beyond recognition from their original form, meaning they could not accept his attempt. Mr. Bloud, who is married, was furious at the decision, considering his national project had met a match against the bureaucracy that shatters records. He told The Times, "It’s disappointing, frustrating, incomprehensible, and extremely unfair." He had hoped Guinness would be sympathetic, but was shocked when they refused.
In a furious social media post, he added, "Tell me how 706,900 sticks glued one after the other are not identical. My matchstick tower still stands and will reach 7.19 meters for a long time." Mr. Bloud, who works in the art and bridge department of the Charente Maritime Board in southwestern France, finally completed his project on December 27, the centenary of the death of the original tower's engineer.
He created 402 panels from matchsticks and then integrated them into the massive structure. The astonishing tower would have beaten the current record for the tallest matchstick statue ever, held by Lebanese craftsman Tawfik Dahir, who created a 6.53-meter model of the Eiffel Tower in 2009. Bloud, who has loved model-making since he was eight years old, originally bought matchsticks from supermarkets to build the structure.
However, his arduous plans to win a Guinness World Record collapsed when he decided the process was "too difficult"—instead, he convinced French matchstick manufacturer Flam'Up to provide him with huge boxes filled with 190,000 headless matchsticks. The model maker, who was also used to cutting off matchstick heads before being supplied in bulk, was told he needed to scrape the heads to have his attempt accepted.
He faced technical difficulties along the way, and told Le Parisien that he had to carry out some "fairly complex calculations" to ensure the tower's legs would support its weight. He estimated he spent 4,200 hours on the project since starting in December 2015. Speaking to a local television station before his record-breaking attempt, Bloud's wife, Sandra, expressed hope that he would finally succeed after dreaming of it for over 20 years. She laughed, saying, "This way, I can get my living room back."
