A 21-year old English woman named Lisa Courtney has recently been entered into the Guiness Book Of World Records for the “World’s Largest Pokemon Collection”.
「ポケモン」 (Pokemon) is a Japanese abbreviation for 「ポケットモンスター」 (Pocket Monster).
It’s a Japanese franchise of characters used in cartoons, movies, comics, games and toys.
Lisa Courtney said that she was severally bullied in school due to a physical handicap and she began collecting Pokemon toys since she was about eight years old to cope with the bullying.
In the thirteen years that she has been collecting, she has acquired over 13,000 Pokemon items…which qualified her for the world record.
Lisa Courtney and her huge Pokemon collection
She has even been to Japan a few times and bought some “only-in-Japan” Pokemon items. She said that she plans to come to Japan for another visit sometime this year.
I think 13,000 toys is too much personally…but it’s her hobby and it helped her feel better from being bullied (which, by the way, is unbelievable that a child would get bullied because of a handicap!).
When she visits Japan this year, she should order the “Kids Pokemon pizza” from Dominos Pizza in Japan.
Tokyo Five 
Thank you for sharing!
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I wrote this post a while ago…but I’m glad you like it. Thanks.
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>(By the way, “kindergarten” is originally a German word, isn’t it?)
yeah it is 🙂
>I guess your generation doesn’t collect “records” like older generations did.
Only downloading music is popular now.
Well, I know some people around my age who collect vinyl records… I cant really afford to buy many records so I have a (legal) music flatrate called napster… They have most of the songs i wanna listen to so it’s okay 😉 And of course I have the records of my favourite bands 🙂
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By “records” I meant any “hard” format…such as 8-track, LPs, cassettes, or CDs.
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>By “records” I meant any “hard” format…such as 8-track, LPs, cassettes, or CDs.
Yeah I know… like I said, some of my friends collect vinyl records. I only have the cd records of my favourite bands (not too many), the rest is downloaded music. It’s cheaper for me that way, but of course I would like to have more “solid” records 🙂
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I don’t listen to so much music as I used to.
When I was a teenager, I bought many vinyl LPs and cassettes…and then I began collecting CDs.
I have quite a few albums…but, as I said, I don’t play them as often as I did years ago.
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haha, I remember collecting those pokemon cards when I was in kindergarten or something like that… It’s been a long time, I didn’t even know that pokemons are still “actual” or however you would call it.
About the bullying thing… well, I never really bullied anyone. Sometimes I was a bit of a victim because I was a ‘bit’ overweight… Then I did weight training for some time and nobody ever stood up to me again 😉 (I never punched anybody in my entire life, so no violence, just appearance :P)
I don’t collect anything but I spend a lot of money for my computer… the old things are either broken or I give them away to my friends for free… So I really don’t need a lot of room for my hobby 🙂 Oh well, but there is a rather small cd collection on one side of my room…
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>I remember collecting those pokemon cards when I was in kindergarten
You’re 20 years old now, right? So you’re about the same age as the woman in this story.
You were young when Pokemon was popular overseas (it’s still popular in Japan).
My kids are 14, 15 and 16…they also liked Pokemon when they were in kindergarten.
(By the way, “kindergarten” is originally a German word, isn’t it?)
>Sometimes I was a bit of a victim because I was a ‘bit’ overweight…
That’s too bad. Bullying should never happen.
>nobody ever stood up to me again
Well, that’s good.
>there is a rather small cd collection on one side of my room…
I guess your generation doesn’t collect “records” like older generations did.
Only downloading music is popular now.
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When I was very sick a few years ago, my parents moved in for about a month. They bought a futon couch/bed to have something to sleep on. It’s nice but it’s in the basement, rarely used and rarely seen…like my KISS collection!!
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>a futon couch/bed
I’ve heard of those. That’s something that isn’t used in Japan.
I guess they sell “futons like that in America because a “real” one would be too different for people in the West.
>rarely seen…like my KISS collection!!
I have KISS stuff like comic books, flyers, books and guitar picks from concerts in boxes.
But my CDs, (and LPs) and T-shirts are in my bedroom.
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I have an office where I keep all of my KISS junk, but it’s not an entire room of KISS junk. I also have my drums, drawing table, and futon.
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You have a フトン (futon)?
It’s a Japanese bed.
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Bravo on her for keeping a collection as humongous as that. Good for her too for making a trip all the way to Japan, I bet her bullies never even make a trip over this part of the world.
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Yeah, I have a number of KISS CDs and merchandise…but nowhere near enough for a world record!
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Out of curiosity what does your wife think of your KISS collections? Do you have a room specifically meant for them ?
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My wife and kids don’t understand why I like KISS.
And my collection is not even close to being large enough to need it’s own room.
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Man, you’ve been living in a dream world. Kids are jerks!
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I know there are kids who can be cruel.
But that seems exceptionally so.
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I can’t say anything without being a hypocrite. I was pretty mean with mocking and teasing other kids. In my defense I did it to everyone, differently-abled and extremely gifted alike. I just never saw a reason to pull punches with the differently-abled.
As to the Pokemon collection…no comment.
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>I was pretty mean with mocking and teasing other kids.
I never bullied anyone when I was a kid. Nor was I ever a victim.
But, although I never bullied any other kids, I also never said or did anything to try to and stop it if I saw it. I was happy to just stay uninvolved. In hindsight, I should have done something…but I was just a kid.
>As to the Pokemon collection…no comment.
Even though it seems excessive, I don’t see anything wrong with it. It’s her hobby.
And I think she must be happy to have the world record.
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