Zoinks! One West Vancouver Scooby-Doo devotee was dubbed officially amazing this Wednesday - as confirmed by the folks at Guinness World Records.
Rebecca Findlay spent 17 years gathering a recordsetting 1,136 pieces of Scooby stuff.
"I wanted to be in the Guinness book one day," Findlay muses. "Let's set it all up, let's count it and get it over with and then I'm done collecting."
Guinness verified her miscellany of Mystery Machine memorabilia after she had her collection counted and verified in August. However, gathering each likeness of Scooby, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne and Fred - and to a lesser extent Scrappy-Doo and Scooby-Dum - was a bit of a chore.
"It was a little bit hectic," Findlay says, laughing. "I thought I had everything in order."
The count needed to be witnessed by two experts and recorded on video for Guinness to make their evaluation.
There were a couple of glitches in the process - first when one of her witnesses bowed out and had to be replaced, then when her camera gave up the sea captain-shaped ghost.
The backup camera worked, but only for two minutes at a time, dragging the count out for nearly five hours. Findlay eventually had to stitch together 18 videos onto one disc for Guinness' consideration.
Unearthing each item in her collection offered a feeling of discovery. She found out she had 15 Scooby backpacks and a Count Chocula cereal box featuring the cowardly canine.
Findlay's resolve to stop collecting after the count also evaporated like a spooky fog. "It looks like I've probably bought a good 30 more items," she says. "I love Scooby-Doo."
Her collection started over a Scooby snack. Findlay spotted a Scooby-Doo candy machine that dispensed bone-shaped sweets. After handing $8 to the clerk at the Granville Street shop, her collection was born.
Her store of stuff includes a vinyl record, vintage comics, a porcelain doll, a pinball machine and a tattoo on her back.
She wasn't a Doo disciple in her youth but there was something about that dog, named for Frank Sinatra's improv at the end of "Strangers in the Night," that stayed with her.
Hanna-Barbera's Saturday morning stalwart inspired similar crime fighting youngsters like Josie and the Pussycats and Goober and the Ghost Chasers, but for some reason, Scooby endured while those other shows haven't.
"Everyone always loved Scooby-Doo. You never hear of anyone not liking Scooby-Doo," Findlay says.
These days, Findlay finds herself watching the show with her six-year-old daughter.
Asked what her daughter thinks of all this, Findlay laughs.
"She wants to start collecting something," she says.
