Legend of Zelda obsessive reclaims collection record after losing it to another fan

A Legend of Zelda superfan has reclaimed her record after losing it to another collector.

Elementary school teacher Anne Martha Harnes (Norway) first claimed the record for largest collection of The Legend of Zelda memorabilia in 2016 with 1,816 unique items dedicated to the videogame.

She went unchallenged until fellow megafan Constantine Adams (USA) came along in 2025 to take it from her with 3,918 items.

But not taking her defeat lying down, Anne recounted her now much-bigger collection and took back her record title with a total of 4,000.

“I've actually been wanting to update my record as it's been almost 10 years since I first got it, and the collection has just kept growing since then,” she confessed.

“So now that it was recently broken and Zelda's 40th anniversary was coming up, I felt like the timing to get it back couldn't have been more perfect. So it's definitely a good feeling.”

The 39-year-old mum-of-two says Zelda has always been a big part of her life.

She grew up playing the videogames with her two younger brothers, and although she tried lots of other games from all sorts of genres, she’d always come back to Zelda.

“I just love everything about this game series,” she said, “the story and the lore, the music, the beautiful art style, and of course: the quests and collections!

“There's just so much to complete and collect in these games, and as a collector in general, playing through everything and doing ‘100% playthroughs’ is just incredibly satisfying. I've completed all main Zelda games including the remakes, except for Tri Force Heroes and Four Swords Adventures as I'm hoping Nintendo will release them on the Nintendo Switch Online to make the multiplayer part easier to complete.”

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Among the 4,000 pieces of memorabilia in her collection, Anne says her fish bone guitar ‘Zoraxe’ is her favourite. From her favourite game Majora’s Mask, only seven of them were commissioned by Nintendo and Anne’s is the fifth one, hand-carved by Dan Lawrence who worked for Jackson Customs Guitars.

When asked if she can put a value on her collection, Anne explained it’s difficult, but that she thinks her items could be worth around 1 million Norwegian Krone ($102,533; £76,403).

She’s bought almost all of it herself, although she has received some items as gifts.

She has many items that are extremely rare and difficult to find.

She said: “Getting the rarest of the rarest have always been my top priority when collecting and searching for new additions. I've always had this ‘quality over quantity’ mentality when collecting, as the collection would grow inevitably anyways.

“I would always prefer spending the money I had available for my hobby on one rare and expensive item rather than the same amount of money on several ‘common’ items. I love the thrill of finding something I've personally never seen or heard of and then sharing my research and finds with other collectors.

“And I think it definitely makes my collection stand out a bit from the other ones out there. There's just something satisfying about not having the exact same items as everyone else.”

Some of the rare items Anne owns include the Toysite Deku Link Prototype Bean Bag Plush, the Twilight Princess Nubytech Prototyope Gamecube Controller, and the Toybiz Prototype Action Figures, autographed memorabilia, drawings on shikishi by the Zelda-manga artist Akira Himekawa, and rare prize items like the Ocarina of Time Scavenger Hunt Silver Platter, Link's Awakening Whistle-Stop Train Tour Pillow, and an Ocarina of Time 3D Connection Tour Scroll.

Her epic collection is still growing, and Anne admits there are “too many” holy grail items that she’s been yet to get her hands on.

“I've learned though that the rare items I really want are the ones I haven't discovered yet,” she admitted.

And the biggest challenge of them all is finding somewhere to store or display all of the items.

She said: “The biggest struggle for me over the years (and I guess for many other collectors?) has been having storage and space for all the Zelda stuff. I've only lived in small apartments ever since I moved out on my own when I was 19, so the collectibles would either be in small shelves or stored away in boxes.

“Well, no more! We managed to buy our first house a few years ago, and there's a big room in the basement I'm currently in the process of turning into a Zelda room. I was hoping I would be done by now as another little project for the Zelda Anniversary but, sometimes things just take time. I'll hopefully complete it soon though!”

We can’t wait for the tour!