Friday, May 14, 2010
  Largest Rubber Duck Collection - world record set by Charlotte Lee
 FREMONT, Seattle, WA, USA -- Charlotte Lee, 40 - an assistant professor in UW’s Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering - has 5,239 unique rubber ducks and sets the new world record for the Largest Rubber Duck Collection.

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   Charlotte Lee has been collecting rubber ducks since 1996. She reports that her collection is growing more slowly these days and cites her selectiveness as a major factor.

   She has dedicated the entire small basement of the Fremont condo she’s lived in since December 2008 to her “rubber duckies.”

   It took her husband - once a reluctant supporter, now an avid duck hunter - months to put up the shelves and cabinet that line the walls down there. “I like the ducks, he likes the hunt,” Lee said. “It’s a good partnership.”

   The collection started in 1996 and began as gifts from friends to augment the rubber ducks they noticed she had in her bathroom.

   In her travels all over the world, she picks up the ducks as souvenirs. Friends still give them to her as gifts.

    She’s got a cabinet of the classic rubber ducks, but also thousands of every shape, style and size. Some glow in the dark, some smell like strawberries or lemons, some are big enough for children to ride on, some have eyes that bug out with a squeeze, some even play off popular culture: the i-Duck and i-Duck Nano; or Pond, James Pond.

   She’s starting to run out of space, so she’s researching museums that might be able to house part of her collection.

    Charlotte Lee has earned her place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the World’s Largest Rubber Duck Collection in 2003, when her collection weighed in with 1,439 unique rubber ducks.

   The 2007 Guinness World Record for World's Largest Rubber Duck Collection stood at 2,583 unique rubber ducks, and was awarded to Charlotte Lee.

   A rubber duck is a toy shaped like a duck, and is generally yellow. It may be made of rubber or rubber-like material such as vinyl plastic (which is more often used). The yellow rubber duck has achieved an iconic status in American pop culture and is often symbolically linked to bathing.

    Rubber ducks are collected by a small number of enthusiasts in countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, United States, and the Netherlands.

   In 2001, The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper reported that Queen Elizabeth II has a rubber duck in her bathroom that wears an inflatable crown. The duck was spotted by a workman who was repainting her bathroom.

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   Related world records:
   Largest Plastic Duck Race-world record set by The Great British Duck Race
 
   Most ducklings hatched - world record set by a mallard duck

    Largest Easter Egg Collection - Easter Egg Museum in Poland set world record
  
   Largest collection of bunny memorabilia - The Bunny Museum sets world record

   Largest collection of crab memorabilia - Dr Darren Martin sets world record

  Largest toothpaste collection - world record set by Dr. Val Kolpakov

   Thursday, May 13, 2010