Regular readers of this blog will know how much I bang on about the endless geek-fuelled passion to collecting, often bordering on obsessive! This guy's close to my heart:

Thousands of books, keyrings, bottles, cartoon characters, comic strips, cake decorations . . . Is Tony Butcher Britain's most obsessive collector?
By Roya Nikkhah

Tony Butcher insists that he is not crazy. "Some people might consider me a bit of an oddball, but I'm really not nuts," he says. For the 44-year-old IT consultant, the accolade of the world's most extraordinary collector is nothing to be ashamed of.

Mr. Butcher has been collecting since he was a child, but recently attracted worldwide attention after setting up a website to sell some of the tens of thousands of items that he has amassed over the past 40 years. E-mails have flooded in from as far as Australia, Japan and Brazil.

Striking though the website is, however, it is nothing compared with Mr. Butcher's house – which has become a shrine to his hobby. The sitting room houses more than 9,000 cartoon figures on shelves that cover every inch of the walls.

Instead of pictures, his collection of 600 keyrings adorns the walls of the entrance hall and limited edition cuddly toys jostle for space on either side of the staircase.

"When I was a child, I was never bored because I was always adding to my collections and doing little displays," he says. "It started with shells and marbles and grew as my interests widened."

His interests are certainly wide and have produced collections of 307 sweet cigarette and candy stick boxes, to lanterns and complete sets of the McDonald's Mr Men range.

"Not a lot of people know this, but you can actually buy a McDonald's toy without having the meal," he says proudly.

Although he lives alone, Mr. Butcher bought a four-bedroom house to display his collections. "I moved in three years ago and am still unpacking," he says. Boxes with his picture card collections and sweet jars full of cake decorations have still to find a home.

"The colour scheme was just awful when I arrived – all dreary beige walls, but I think the way I've done it shows off my collections,'' he says, sweeping a hand around red and lime green walls.

Most of the ground floor is taken up with his library, home to 20,000 books arranged into comic strip books, television novels and television science fiction annuals.

"I have always loved Dr. Who memorabilia and I have every Dr. Who book issued," says Mr. Butcher. A custom-made wooden Tardis in the upstairs library, which houses the complete Dr. Who video set, confirms his passion.

Mr Butcher's collections of glass animals, 200 porcelain whimsies, 600 cereal toys and Yogi Bear annuals finally got the better of him recently, leading to his website that he uses to sell only duplicate items with other collectors. Last week, Mr. Butcher's website crashed when too many people tried to access it. He hopes to have it running in the next few days. The site is visited by 600 people a week from all over the world, desperate to see if Tony's Trading can find a rare Thunderbirds figure. Americans, says Mr Butcher, are particularly keen buyers. "I recently sold a Fred Bassett annual which I bought for 5p at a car boot sale for £48," he says triumphantly.

The response to his obscure collections is positive, but to some web-surfers, it is just too bizarre.

Mr. Butcher says that he was mortified when he recently received e-mails attacking him. One read: "I want to burn your house down and watch you cry," another - "You deserve to be murdered for wasting your life." "That really hurt," he says.

Mr. Butcher insists that there is room in his life for other hobbies. He is a keen gardener and visits his friends and family as often as he can.

His mother, Sheila, says that although her son may seem odd to some people, she is used to his peculiar interests.

"Ever since he was three years old, Tony was collecting ice cream spoons and bottle tops," says Mrs. Butcher, 66.

"His house is like an Aladdin's cave and there's always something new to see. If he won the Lottery, I'm sure he'd buy a castle and fill it with more things."
Mary Strila, an IT consultant and friend of Mr Butcher's, is in awe of his collections. "Tony's collections are amazing," she says. "The scale and variety of his things are what makes them unique." He has 900 glass bottles, 5,000 match boxes and 100 teapot lids.

Mr. Butcher dismisses any implication that his obsession with cartoon characters, particularly Disney, is a little childish. "I love them because they are so cleverly drawn and humorous," he says. Bugs Bunny is his favourite.

Neither, he insists, is his obsession for collecting an addiction. "I have gone for three or four weeks without buying anything, but there really is nothing quite like the feeling of completing a set when you have been looking for something for ages."

"It took me a few years but I now have every hand-painted Kinder Egg toy issued. That made me very happy." Mr. Butcher says that he has no idea how much he has spent on his collections, but is sure that it adds up to many thousands of pounds. Every penny he earns is spent on a sought-after item or new display cabinet for his collections.

"Spend it while you've got it, that's my motto," says Mr. Butcher. "After I buy my cigarettes and food, everything else goes on my collections. It's what gives me the greatest pleasure in life."

Although he says that he is not extravagant, Mr. Butcher recently spent £132 on a Magic Roundabout plastic train. His collections are as precious to him as children, and he couldn't possibly choose a favourite.

"I love them all equally, although annuals are my current focus," he says. Animals are banned from the house and his nieces and nephews are "under strict control" when they visit. Neither can he bear to be away for too long – holidays are out of the question and Mr. Butcher will rarely travel further than a two-hour drive for fear of a break-in.

Although there are a few spare shelves left in Mr. Butcher's house, it will not be long before he needs more space. What, then, will he do when his cartoon characters need to branch out? "I'll find a way to buy next door."

© 2005 Green Bandana Productions Ltd. Website design by Steve Mannion.