Report: Bricktopia Munstergeleen, 11 & 12 April 2026

On 11 & 12 April, the day finally arrived. Our first exhibition in the sports halls at Munstergeleen. For many of us, this is a familiar venue where club days, meetings, community builds and other events are held. Thanks in part to Nico’s hospitality, we always feel welcome (at least that’s how I see it). The sports hall behind the Trefpunt proved to be very suitable and spacious enough for large exhibitions. Visitors did have to walk a few extra metres to get into the hall. However, the route to the hall was cleverly signposted by Maurice. This made the children very enthusiastic, whilst I heard countless parents complaining that it was quite a long way (well, if you want to see beautiful LEGO, you have to make a bit of an effort).

As we were guests at a sports hall, a few precautions had to be taken first. For instance, the hall had to be fitted with large, thick mats to prevent damage to the floor. This proved to be quite a task for the members present on Friday, as the mats were large, heavy and bulky. As if that weren’t enough, it turned out there was also a shortage of mats. In a rush, a few shorter pieces were fetched to fill in the last gaps. As an added challenge, these had, of course, been rolled up whilst wet. It was just as well it hadn’t rained. Otherwise, the mood on Friday afternoon might have been very different. Once the mats were in place, the tables with tablecloths could be set up. Just after 3 pm, right on schedule, we were finally able to slowly get started on the most important part: building with LEGO!

On Saturday morning, the final touches were put in place and, following a short speech by the organisers, the event opened promptly at 10:00 am. Right from the start, there were already several families with enthusiastic children waiting. The day passed in a relaxed atmosphere and it was pleasantly busy. There was plenty of space to chat with members and explain our MOCs (My Own Creation) to curious visitors. Lunch and dinner were well catered for. If you were still hungry afterwards, it was your own fault. There were even enough frikandellen left over for a doggie bag.

Despite some members feeling tired, the fair kicked off again at 10:00 on Sunday. The trend from Saturday continued. It was pleasantly busy all day long once more. Frank, however, still had plenty of energy left after running his workshops. He’d come up with an idea: on Sunday afternoon, a dinosaur suddenly popped up at various exhibitors’ MOCs. The dinosaur went wild at almost every exhibitor’s stand, whilst its owner (read: Frank) had a great laugh at the panic his dinosaur caused amongst the Lego inhabitants of our exhibitors’ displays. The dinosaur first made an appearance at the jousting event in Barends and Thijs’ Medieval Realm. After that, the dinosaur visited various exhibitors’ stands. The dinosaur was spotted at Frank’s own stand, as well as those of Wilchry, Nard, Sybrin, Hans, Joos, Joeke, Patrick, Kevin, Jean-Paul and Ted. Towards the end of the afternoon, Frank’s dinosaur finally paid an unannounced visit to my own build. Here too, there was panic amongst my LEGO inhabitants.

Frank’s dinosaur wasn’t the only visitor on Sunday afternoon. Those of you in the WhatsApp group may already have heard some updates about this. Our club member Roel has been busy for some time designing, collecting and building a real-life optician’s shop in Reuver: the specialist optician’s Heiming Aben.

The end result was a great success, with all the trimmings. From the shop entrance right through to the fitting rooms at the back, including a fully fitted toilet. What made this project special was that the owner of the optician’s had absolutely no idea about it. He was quite surprised and impressed by the structure. Naturally, he was delighted that he was allowed to take the entire structure home with him (something you don’t often see at a Lego fair).

After another enjoyable afternoon, just as at other fairs, time flew by. Before we knew it, it was time to tidy everything up and pack away. As usual, everyone went about it differently. Whilst some had a clear system, others figured out on the spot how best to fit the LEGO back into the box. I fell into the latter category… Yes, I couldn’t remember how it had been arranged in the first place. But anyway, that was sorted out in the end. One thing was certain: all the members had plenty of experience, because just over an hour later, almost all the LEGO had been put away and most of the tables had already been folded up. 

Then the next phase began. Fortunately, we had plenty of help from everyone involved. The exhibitors, volunteers and stallholders all pitched in. As a result, the tables and tarpaulins were stacked up and put away fairly quickly. The thick mats that had caused some stress on Friday still needed to be cleared away. For this, we were able to use a manual rolling frame, which required four people. After figuring out how the frame worked and which side of the mat to start with, it eventually ran like a well-oiled machine. At times, it felt like a military operation – something that was sometimes taken quite literally…

It paid off in the end, because at 7.31 pm (instead of 8.00 pm) Barend took the last roll outside, having already placed all the others there. The last ones left were: Patrick, Roel, Jeen, Dirk, Frank, Maurice, Twan & Sandra, Barend, Thijs, Joos, Marco, Kyan and myself (apologies if I’ve forgotten anyone!). We looked back with satisfaction on a lovely weekend, which we wanted to round off with a drink. But the bar was already closed. So everyone went home, tired but satisfied.

I look back on the weekend with satisfaction and am already looking forward to more. It was great to see everyone again and to chat to as many people as possible. Fortunately, Bricktopia Horst is just around the corner, so we won’t have to go too long without seeing each other. In my opinion, and with a total of 754 visitors, this was a very successful first edition of Bricktopia in Munstergeleen.

On to Horst – on 11 and 12 July, we’ll be back at the Mèrthal for the second time!

Maarten