A Barbie super fan who has been obsessed with the toys for more than 30 years has a collection of 4,000 dolls. Giovanni Madoni's obsession began years ago when he was a youngster living in the small town of San Giuseppe Jato near Palermo in Sicily. "When I was a young boy I would go to the toy shop and look at the Barbies but I never had the opportunity to buy them because they were so expensive," he said.
"But I always wished to have a Barbie. Barbie was expensive, I always felt it was only for rich people." Giovanni, 47, who lives in Felpham, near Bognor, with his husband Glenn Smart would only get to play with the dolls when he saw his cousins from Tuscany.
Giovanni got his first Barbie doll as a teenager and has been collecting them ever since (Image: Giovanni Madoni) "I really enjoyed it. Then, when I was around 14, my other cousins in Sicily bought me a Barbie and Ken," he said. "Then I started a collection.
My father used to give me lira for my money box and then after a while I would have around £10 and I would go and buy a doll." But back in the 1980s in a small town in Italy people were not very impressed with his hobby. Giovanni's collection of thousands of dolls in Sicily (Image: Giovanni Madoni) Giovanni's mother did not want him to buy the dolls.
"I would buy them and hide them my mum," he said. "One of my best friends said I could leave them with her and when my mum went out I would go and get the dolls and bring them back home. "Sometimes I even threw them up.