Shopkins superfan amasses world's largest collection after becoming obsessed as a kid

An Australian woman who fell in love with colourful collectible toys Shopkins when she was a child has amassed the world’s largest collection of them as an adult.

Alexa Szerstuk, from Mareeba, Queensland, gave us a tour after it became official that she has the largest collection of Shopkins memorabilia with a total of 2,656 different items.

She was just seven when a classmate brought one of them into school and she quickly became obsessed.

Alexa would buy packets of them whenever she had the chance, desperate to get her hands on some of the limited edition items.

She has over 4,000 items now, and although the duplicates don’t count towards her final record total, she still had plenty to break the previous record of 2,271 set by Rhianna Connors (UK) in 2019.

Shopkins are a range of tiny collectible toys in the shape of food, clothing items and more released by Aussie brand Moose Toys in 2014.

They were released in seasons until they were discontinued in 2023.

Alexa’s collection has grown so large that it takes up an entire room of her house, and she’s such a big fan that she even appeared in the brand’s official magazine when she was a youngster.

Of course, a copy of that magazine is part of her collection.

She said: “I love Shopkins because when they were first released there was nothing quite like them on the market, for girls especially.

“I started collecting in 2014 when I was seven and they were first released. It became such an obsession because it was just so exciting to have a pack and find ones you didn’t have and to see if you’d get a special edition one or even a limited addition.”

While showing us her collection, Alexa even unboxed some new items her mum had bought her after finding out she’d broken the record.

Read about more record-breaking collections in our dedicated section.

Among her latest additions was a copy of an ultimate collector’s guide that lists every single Shopkin, meaning Alexa will have some extra help with finding items she hasn’t got hold of yet.

She said: “My family and friends both think it’s very cool, and my mum and dad have definitely helped me so much with building it.

“My friends think it’s pretty cool that they know a Guinness World Records title holder, but the ones who have seen the room definitely think I’m pretty insane to have so many but once they know it means so much to me they think it’s pretty awesome.”