No small feat: World's landmarks recreated in miniature... using 3.5million toothpicks

via CAAI News Media

By Daily Mail Reporter

06th April 2010

You'd need a steady hand and the patience of a saint to build any sort of structure out of toothpicks. So this toothpick city, created by New Yorker Stan Munro, is a pretty remarkable feat.

Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the Vatican, Angkor Wat in Cambodia and the Eiffel Tower were among over 50 iconic landmarks replicated at a 1:164 scale.

The former journalist, who now works full-time on his toothpick creations also included a number of British structures, among them Tower Bridge, the Cutty Sark and Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower.

Painstaking effort: The Eiffel Tower was among over 50 iconic landmarks built by Stan Munro using toothpicks

Munro, who has been working on Toothpick City II for the past five years, is determined to win the Guinness World Record for the Largest Toothpick Structure after a previous attempt to win the title in 2005, Toothpick City I, was beaten by a 4.5m-long alligator built by fellow American Michael Smith.

His current multinational cityscape has already used over 3.5million toothpicks - 500,000 more than Smith's winning design - but the 39-year-old is not ready to stop work on it just yet.

'I've been working on it morning to night for five years,' he said.

'I have beaten the record already but I'm going to make a few more buildings before I get the paperwork in.

'I aim to include buildings from every major religion and every country possible.'

Faithful replicas: At its highest point, the tip of the Burj Khalifa, Toothpick City II is over five metres tall

At its highest point, the tip of the Burj Khalifa, Toothpick City II is over five metres tall. Each building is faithfully copied to scale using architectural blueprints and photographs, but some have proved much harder than others to replicate.

Munro admitted that Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple was the hardest thing he had ever made.

'Oh man, there was swearing and tears over that one,' he said. 'I'd love to work out how to do the Gherkin in London but it's eluding me right now.'

He added that his favourite piece is the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas.

'That's where I married my beautiful wife,' he said.

Landmarks: Munro featured a number of British buildings, among them Tower Bridge and the Cutty Sark

Swearing and tears: Replicating Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple was the hardest thing Munro had ever done

Munro is still working on the city but plans to get official confirmation from Guinness by July 2010. He has asked U.S. comedian Stephen Colbert to place the final toothpick on his city.

He painstakingly counts the number of toothpicks used by the number of boxes he empties, and discounts every one he wastes.

He told how he had been playing with toothpicks since he was a small child, and is completely self-taught.

'I learnt the hard way,' he said. 'Trial and error. It sent me crazy a long time ago but I still think I have the best job in the world.'