ABOUT
Rodrigo Martín Santos turned his passion for Lara Croft and Tomb Raider franchise into a second career, with the "Largest Collection of Tomb Raider Memorabilia" (Guinness World Records 2015) based on the saga starring by Lara Croft. His passion has led him to meet hundreds of friends and fans of the franchise around the world.
Born in Spain in 1987 graduated in Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations in 2010, he works as an advertising creative for various international brands and as an editor in a spanish TV channel.
Rodrigo discovered his love for Tomb Raider with the release of the first game in 1996 when he discovered several concept arts made by Toby Gard (Creator of Lara Croft) in the famous video game magazine "Hobby Consolas". Since then his passion for the game has not only grown which led him to participate in the first game created by the graphics engine based on Tomb Raider III with Carlos Contreras. The game created out between 1998-2001, under the title "Lara Croft Regresa" ("Lara Croft Returns" in english) proved to be a worldwide success, and appearing in different media and creating at that time the largest community of Spanish fans. Thanks to "Lara Croft Returns" Rodrigo had the opportunity to meet people that even today retains a great friendship and the web proved the perfect trampoline for creating the two major platforms than later revolutionize the net. On one side CroftGeneration (designed and chaired by the webmaster Sergio Montero Gargallo) and Tomb Raider Fans (chaired by Marc Garcia) both with over a decade of experience.
Rodrigo was proud to be invited by the company behind the game, EIDOS INTERACTIVE and SQUARE ENIX to a exclusive product press presentations for Lara Croft Tomb Raider Legend, Lara Croft Tomb Raider Anniversary, Tomb Raider Underworld and Tomb Raider Reboot which led him to visit the headquarters of SQUARE ENIX EUROPE in Wimbledon, London and appearing in the credits of the game Lara Croft Tomb Raider Anniversary in 2007.
His experiences have led him to meet wonderful people like the model of Lara Croft Karima Adebibe, Keir Edmonds, the Crystal Dynamics community manager and professional cosplayer Meagan Marie, the artist of Tomb Raider comics Adam Hughes and of course the guys behind Koch Media, the distributor company of the game in Spain.
During 2014, Rodrigo was contacted by Guinness World Records who after a previous study recognized his collection of memorabilia of the franchise as the biggest in the world and its intention to publish it in the book "Guinness World Records 2015 Gamer's Edition ". More than 3 million copies sold in its 2014 edition and appearing in its advertising campaign and media around the all the world.
Rodrigo is a proud member of the community of Tomb Raider that led him to live wonderful experiences in these almost 20 years of the saga and more than 40 million copies sold.
THE COLLECTION
"Tomb Raider Collection" is the largest private exhibition in the world based on the character of Lara Croft. It began to take place in 1996 by the collector Rodrigo Martín Santos with the release of the first game developed by CORE DESIGN on Sega Saturn, PlayStation and PC.
The exhibition is located in Spain, between two places, Tenerife and Madrid due to the need for a large space to be exposed. Among the items collected over nearly 20 years are life-size statues of the heroine Lara Croft, figures, books, comics, original art used in the production of video games and comic books ... almost anything you can imagine that the company has decided to put the "Tomb Raider" brand.
"Tomb Raider Collection" is a non-profit organization that shows the public through its website and social networks, the passion for the game, collection, preservation, exhibition and interpretation of the merchandising of the Tomb Raider franchise, using the collection to provide meaningful educational, aesthetic, intellectual and cultural experiences to a wide array of audiences and to carry out other charitable and educational activities associated with this goal.
