An avid Playmobil collector has set up a diorama depicting the Battle of Zama in what may turn out to be a world record.
The battle was epic … and so was the set-up.
Playmobil collector Jean-Michel Leuillier has been collecting the figures for years and decided to go for a world record on March 19 in the sports hall of Heyrieux in southeastern France. He chose to depict the Battle of Zama from 202 BC, which had more than 40,000 Carthaginians facing off against more than 35,100 Romans in a battle that would end the Second Punic War.
Leuillier, 48, used more than 26,000 figures and it took him more than three days to set up. He even had to enlist the aid of his parents to get the diorama properly prepared. Representatives from the Guinness Book of World Records were on hand to document the event, which should set the Playmobil diorama record once properly verified later this week.
While the diorama is not historically accurate in terms of depictions, it does combine several different Playmobil sets and gave the more than 10,000 spectators a chance to take in the epic nature of the battle and the collection.
Leuillier is thought to be the largest collector of the figurines in the world, having started when he was 6 years old. The collection is said to take up more than 11,500 square feet.
Source: The Mirror; Images from Paris Match
