Geek of the Week: Man spends 3 Years building Minas Tirith out of 420,000 Matches
Here's the latest person to be bestowed Geek of The Week:
Patrick Acton takes the honor, having completed his model bigature of Minas Tirith, the Great White City from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
So what makes this guy special in the way of the Geek??? Especially considering Peter Jackson and his Weta team made a bigature like this and full sets for Return of the King? Well, by himself, Acton spent the better part of THREE YEARS building his Minas Tirith, and he made it entirely out of MATCHSTICKS!!!! 420,000 in all.
Though Acton didn't use the most matchsticks -- Brian Croucher used 480,000 for his model of Doctor Who's Dalek -- Acton's version of the Capital of Gondor is one of the biggest and most detailed matchstick models.
Acton's Minas Tirith will be on display at the Matchstick Marvels Tourist Center for one year.
- Acton's matchstick version of the seven-level city was started in 2007 and took nearly three years to complete in February 2010.
- The Minas Tirith model contains hundreds of city buildings and is topped with the Citadel, the Tree of Gondor, and the White Tower of Ecthelion.
- An additional 24,000 small wooden blocks that have been used to construct Mount Mindolluin, which supports the huge matchstick structure.
- The gates, ramps, tunnels, and passageways ascend the seven levels comprising the city fortress.
