French matchstick Eiffel Tower record bid ruled out over wrong matches

[muriel_volestrangler]

A French model-enthusiast who wanted to beat the world record for a matchstick Eiffel Tower has had his hopes dashed.

Richard Plaud, 47, from Montpellier-de-Médillan in western France, was told by the Guinness Book of Records that his 7.19m (23ft) tower did not qualify because he had used the wrong kind of matches.
...
Realising that the most annoying part of the job was going to be shaving off hundreds of thousands of bits of sulphur from individual matchsticks, he contacted the match manufacturer.

They supplied him with kilos of sulphur-less matches - in other words sticks without the red part at the end. Perfect for building, but technically not real matches.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68226509

Tant pis. Still, he has the satisfaction of it looking good:

[Wonder Why]

1. Matchsticks without match heads. Doesn't that remind you of a

political party's members?

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Eiffel Tower crowned as world's tallest matchstick building after record U-turn

A man has been awarded the Guinness world record for creating the tallest structure using matchsticks, after his Eiffel Tower replica was initially rejected.

Richard Plaud, from France, said he had been on an “emotional rollercoaster” this week, after spending 4,200 hours building his model from more than 706,000 matches and 23kg of glue. “For eight years, I’ve always thought that I was building the tallest matchstick structure,” he said.
...
Mark Mckinley, a director at Guinness World Records, said: “We’re really excited to be able to approve it ... We’re happy to be able to admit that we were a little bit too harsh on the type of matches needed in this attempt, and Richard’s attempt truly is officially amazing.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/09/matchstick-eiffel-tower-guinness-world-records-matches