Within just 10 years, Batman fanatic Somchai Nitimongkolchai has amassed the largest private collection of Dark Knight memorabilia in Thailand, and (he thinks) quite possibly the world.

Nitimongkolchai fell in love with the superhero after watching Christian Bale's performance in 2005's Batman Begins. "His acting was so good that it made me feel like Batman was real," he told Coconut Bangkok.

And so he started collecting, and collecting, and collecting -- not just merchandise related to the Christopher Nolan movies, but all things Batman. Today there are more than 50,000 pieces of memorabilia, housed at Bangkok's Batcat Museum & Toys Thailand (we can presumably chalk up the name to an effort to avoid the gaze of Warner Bros. attorneys).

As you can see in the video below, Nitimongkolchai's collection spans the decades, and features items ranging from a rare 1966 utility belt playset to a ceramic Batman bank (the first piece of memorabilia he purchased) to 1970s Mego dolls.

"I plan to keep collecting for many more years," Nitimongkolchai says in the video. "Then maybe when I'm about 60 years old, I will ship it to the USA. I'm thinking that in about 20 years, I can make it the biggest Batman collection ever sold at auction."

(via Kotaku)