Dentist’s collection of toothpaste tubes breaks world record with wacky whiskey, wasabi flavors
A man has maintained his world record title for the largest collection of toothpaste tubes.
Val Kolpakov, a dentist from Alpharetta, Georgia, has a collection of thousands of toothpaste tubes, according to a new press release from Guinness World Records.
Kolpakov was first recognized as the world record holder on June 15, 2012, and it appears he still has the largest known toothpaste tube collection.
Guinness World Records reported this week that Kolpakov’s collection includes 2,037 toothpaste tubes from all over the globe.
“I started my collection in 2001 to learn more as a dentist about all available toothpastes on the market,” Kolpakov told Guinness World Records.
“Soon I realized that this is a very interesting hobby and tried to collect some old toothpastes and tubes from other countries,” he continued.
A few countries he’s collected toothpaste from include Japan, South Korea, China, India, Russia and Germany, according to Guinness World Records.
Kolpakov reportedly estimates that his collection’s value is over $30,000.
The rest he reportedly keeps at home.
Of the thousands of toothpaste tubes Kolpakov owns, some are unusual flavors such as whisky, chocolate, rose, wasabi, bamboo and bacon.
Other toothpaste tubes are packaged in unique shapes or branded artworks.
For example, Kolpakov owns a rocket-shaped toothpaste tube, a pack of crayon-shaped toothpaste tubes, which are licensed by Crayola, and a fictional toothpaste tube called Brenner’s, which appeared in the TV series “Prison Break.”
Kolpakov also has a StarKist toothpaste tube that features the tuna company’s logo — but it doesn’t taste like fish.
There are a few toothpaste tubes in Kolpakov’s collection that have historic significance, including those that were dug out of World War II trenches or were used by astronauts on space missions.
In an interview video that Guinness World Records uploaded to YouTube, Kolpakov said he hasn’t gone out of his way to expand his toothpaste tube collection, but other collectors have sent him specimens as gifts.
On occasion, he makes toothpaste purchases on eBay or Amazon when he comes across unique toothpaste varieties.
Two recent additions he reportedly purchased from Target include kid-formulated toothpastes in the flavors “alien blood” and “eyeball juice.”
“I didn’t taste them yet,” Kolpakov said in his video interview.
Including his collection of flosses, Kolpakov estimates that his total tooth-cleaning collection has about 3,000 items.