Wisconsin woman nearly doubles her Smurfs collecting record

June 29 (UPI) -- A Wisconsin woman who has been collecting memorabilia based on children's cartoon characters the Smurfs for about 40 years broke her own Guinness World Record when her collection nearly doubled to 11,455.

Gerda Scheuers, 47, of Ripon, originally set the Guinness record for largest collection of Smurf memorabilia in 2014, when she was certified as having 6,320 unique items.

Scheuers broke her own record when her collection was again counted and numbered 11,455 unique items.

The woman said she started keeping her Smurfs items safe when she was 7 or 8 years old and her brother damaged one of her toys.

"They were a childhood toy my brother and I played with, and he was playing with it and one day he broke one. He was chewing on it, and I was like, 'nope, nope you can't be breaking my stuff,'" Scheuers recalled to WTMJ-TV.

She said collecting toys and other items featuring the Smurfs soon became a decades-long hobby.

"I have fun doing it. There's no reason other than I have fun doing it," she said.

Scheuers said she stopped counting her collection after obtaining the latest record, and she invites other collectors to take a shot at claiming the title.

"I don't mind sharing the spotlight when it comes to that. There's some great collections that need to be showcased," she said.

She said her collection -- which includes toys, beach towels, plates, books, candy and other items -- could prove valuable if she ever decides to sell it.

"I think easily I could probably get $100,000 or more if I sold everything off individually," she said. "I honestly never really added it fully up. I'm just going by some of the bigger ones."