Guinness World Records™ is in the process of verifying if Duracell® South Africa has broken the world record for the largest bunny made entirely of chocolate. The solid three ton chocolate bunny was unveiled on 19 March 2010 at the centre court in Sandton City, and is an exact replica of the well-known and loved Duracell® Bunny, stretching 3.82 meters in height. This massive sculpture took over one month of planning to create, and was sculptured out of chocolate blocks in a matter of three days by the fastest sculptor in the world - South Africa’s own Harry Johnson.

Well-known around the world for being able to sculpt portraits of people within a matter of three hours compared to the average time of one to two months, Johnson was excited by the challenge of working with chocolate. “This was the first time I have ever worked with chocolate,” he remarked. “I would do it again in a heartbeat. Having worked with so many different materials, I was truly amazed as to what you can actually do with chocolate. In-fact the creation of the Duracell® chocolate bunny has inspired me to create an exciting new range of chocolate sculptures of famous people and icons.”

Johnson started carving the bunny directly out of chocolate on 15 March in the centre court at Sandton City and finished it three days later - a truly remarkable feat, as previous record attempts including one in Germany in 2006 took over 253 hours to create. The process of creating the sculpture was very unique and required Johnson to skilfully sculpt and melt three tons of chocolate into a manageable block form, consisting of chocolate blocks approximately 28cm x 22.5cm x 9cm deep in size. These blocks had a slight tapering edge halfway down the depth in order to add strength and were blocked one on-top of the other with the use of melted chocolate in-between in order to allow the sculpture to extend to a phenomenal height of 3.82 meters once it was complete. “In order to carve a sculpture entirely out of three tons of chocolate and to ensure that the sculpture was secure and stable from both a strength and technical perspective due to its height, I created a steel structure to place inside the chocolate bunny using a powder coat, which we blasted clean in order to meet health regulations,” Johnson stated.

The Duracell® chocolate bunny was sculptured and stored within a Perspex ‘housing’ structure which had a cooling system to keep the temperature of the bunny at 18°Celcius. “By creating and storing the bunny in this structure we ensured that the three tons of chocolate were kept from melting for a long period of time, but it also met with the stringent health regulations which we have adhered to throughout the entire process of developing the bunny,” commented Jason Frichol, Fore Good’s Group Brand Strategist, brand custodians of Duracell® South Africa. “Watching Harry Johnson, and his support team consisting of four people, melt and carve into the chocolate blocks was truly a remarkable process to watch!”

The chocolate Duracell® Bunny will be on display in the Sandton City Centre Court from 19 to 27 March. Confirmation of the success of this attempt will be confirmed by Guinness World Records™ over a matter of a few days.

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