"Matchstick Eiffel Tower Builder Denied World Record, Then Crowned Tallest by Guinness"

A French council worker spent eight years building a 24ft matchstick model of the Eiffel Tower, only to be denied a world record by Guinness World Records because he used the wrong type of matches. Richard Plaud used 706,900 matchsticks, but most were deemed ineligible as they were not commercially available and had been significantly altered. Despite completing the project on the 100th anniversary of Gustave Eiffel's death, the record was denied.