If you thought this looked like a display with a cast of thousands, you'd be right - 26,000 to be precise.

The amazing feat is the work of Jean-Michel Leuillier, a man who has put plastic figures in many interesting positions over the years.

This Playmobil diorama is of the Battle of Zama, fought in 202 BC - and the model is about to beat the world record of the biggest diorama.

Set up in the sports hall of Heyrieux, southeastern France, it has been a labour of love for the 48-year-old, who is thought to be the world's largest collector of Playmobil.

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The Battle of Zama set 40,000 Carthaginians against 35,100 Romans, and brought the end of the 17-year Second Punic War with the Carthaginians' defeat.

The diorama consists of more than 26,000 figures during a world record attempt (
Image:
REX/Shutterstock)
The Battle of Zama set 40,000 Carthaginians against 35,100 Romans (
Image:
REX/Shutterstock)

Jean-Michel told Paris Match: "The Battle of Zama allows you to combine a number of different collections Playmobil and this brings a diversity on the board. For the spectators come to enjoy the spectacle he had to have a multitude of different series,

The enthusiast was first drawn to the figures when he was given five cowboys to comfort him following an appendix operation when he was just six.

There were 10,000 visitors to see the attempt in France (
Image:
REX/Shutterstock)
This exhibition was build by Jean-Michel Leuillier to beat the world record of the biggest Playmobil diorama (
Image:
REX/Shutterstock)

The agricultural engineer now has more than 330 cubic metres of small plastic figures.

Whether it was a successful word record attempt or not - viewed by 10,000 visitors - will be confirmed by Guinness World Records this week.