How many people does it take to build Mr. Potato Head? Just two - and 8.37 seconds!

Did you have a Mr. Potato Head growing up? The iconic toy has been entertaining generations for over 70 years, but it took Lim Kai Yi (Malaysia) under 10 seconds to put one together.

At 18 years old, Lim got his hands on one in 2022, and it led him to be a Guinness World Records title holder.

Lim joined forces with Tey E Fund (Malaysia) and broke the record for fastest time to assemble Mr. Potato Head (team of two) in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The pair managed to build the toy in an impressive 8.37 seconds.

With multiple Guinness World Records titles already under his belt, we caught up with him to learn more about his Mr. Potato Head attempt.

The 22-year-old works as a professional cubing coach and has many talents – he is fluent in six languages and can understand 10!

Speed, however, is one of his greatest strengths and has helped him become a serial record breaker.

Lim told us: “As someone who had previously held this record three times, I found this specific event to be rather interesting as it combines an iconic and classic toy from decades ago with top-notch hand speed and speed solving skills; hence I will say the balance of speed and precision as a requisite for attempting this record accounts for my intuition to repeatedly break it and to take the result achieved to new heights.”

Read about more records like this in our Hobbies and Skills section.

Each time Lim has attempted this feat, he has completed it with a different teammate. He explained that he enjoys having the opportunity to work with a different partner, showcasing his ability to cooperate with others, which, in his words, “adds to the dexterity needed for becoming a serial record breaker.”

After multiple attempts, Lim has mastered a sequence that acts as the key to success. So how do you assemble Mr. Potato Head in record-breaking time with another person?

• Step one (person one): Add the eyes
• Step two (person two): Add the nose and moustache  
• Step three (person one): Attach the mouth  
• Step four (person two): Attach the shoes
• Step five (person one): Add the hat
• Step six (person two): Add the left arm
• Step seven (person one): Add the right arm  
• Step eight (person two): Add the left ear
• Step nine (person two): Add the right ear

With a list of instructions for how to break the record, all that is left to do is to practise until it becomes perfect, and with each partner, Lim spends around 10-15 minutes before each record attempt.

He told us: “I do believe that a six-second attempt is possible given the right circumstances, and I do plan on breaking the record again with an expected seven-second attempt.”

Some of Lim’s other current titles include:

• Fastest time to sort 30 coloured soft toys – 18.86 seconds
• Fastest time to arrange movie titles into alphabetical order – 43.45 seconds
• Fastest time to arrange a deck of playing cards – 31.74 seconds
• Fastest time to set up and topple five erasers – 2.40 seconds
• Fastest time to build a 15 cup pyramid – 2.40 seconds

So, it’s clear that speed is a top skill for Lim, and he has no plans to slow down! 

He said: "I have been working on breaking several records related to speed-solving puzzles and speed events in general for the past few months.”

What will he get up to next?