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Friday morning I was ready with all my models and packages at 9, o'clock which I had agreed with the manager, Carsten Straaberg, of the club Byggepladen.
Carsten owns a minivan which makes it much easier to transport his and my models. At 9.15 we headed towards Skærbæk, where we
arrived at around 12.30. We meet Jan, and say hello to all the other participants from Germany and the Netherlands who already had arrivecd.
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After the welcome session, we had a delicius lunch, and then we were ready to setup tables and start to built. Jan had made a plan for everyhing,
sizes of tables and locations, so it was pretty easy and quick to get started.
Members from the German club, 1000steine had already arrived, so they had started to setup theyre models, and before long,
everything started to take shape. At the picture to the right, Bruno Kurth is working in his and Frank Abels layout for the exhibition, more description of that part
later.
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To the right, we are working on the combined layout from Byggepladen, a large city with trains and houses, around 2x8 meters. On the pictures are Peter Vingborg and me, Carsten Straabarg has made the foto.
The setup of our city took almost the whole day, in between we also had a dinner in the restaurant, but we were quickly back to the setup. The city consists of parts from 6 members of the club, that means, a large puzzle for the 4 of us, who joined the event, to get everything fit together, but when the day was over, we were finished and we had a city with a lot of life and details.
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During the afternoon, the last participants from the Netherlands also arrived, and they brought a lot of exciting creations, a.o. the setup at the picture to the rigth, a racing track for trains, which we were excited to see what were going to be, on the picture you can see Klaas Meijaard from the 1000steine. The other picture shows some of the other creations brought by the members from the Netherlands. The pictures is taken by the camera of Thekla Borchert, member of the 1000steine, she is the one in the middle of the picture.
When everybody had finished the setup, and everything was ready for the grand opening next day, we went to the restaurant and had a small talk and a godnight-beer.
I were lucky to stay together in a small house with Peter Vingborg, Chris Paton and his wife Jane, so after the bar we had another small talk in the house, about some of the real important things in life - LEGO.
Finally the saturday arrived and we were meet by a huge breakfast table at 8 o'clock. After that we went to the hall to see that everything
was ready for the opening at 10.
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On the pictures, the whole exhibition can be viewed, from one end to the other, and some of the large jumpingcastles for the kids. Everything were ready, and at 10, we could invite the first visitors inside.
At 10 o'clock, we saw a lot of visitors, Jan really did a good PR-job, both adults and kids visited the event, and when the day was over, we have had almost 300 visitors! Here are some pictures, showing small situations during the day.
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On the two first pictures you can see the area around the small bar, which also had a computer to show different information. On the next two pictures, some visitors have caught some exiting details in the layout, and on the last pictures some of the Dirt Crushers are driving around, LEGO brought these to the event, highly enjoyed by the kids, (and a few adults).
The day went so fast, that we almost forgot to have our lunch, but on a little timeshift we all got our lunch, and somebody
could look after the models meanwhile. Its a little hard to avoid any to 'look' with theyre fingers, so it is best to have somebody
to look after the LEGO always, to avoid any train crashes and destroyed models.
LEGO had also made some competitions, where you could win some LEGO prices from the LEGO shop.
When the clock was 17, we closed the exhibition and the last of the visitors went home, and when Jan annonced that the dinner was served, it didnt took long before the hall was closed.
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After a delicius dinner, Jan went around and gave each of us a back of LEGO, all sorts of LEGO, from minifigs and space parts to Bionicle
and Technic parts.
After a few minutes of sorting, everybody startet to walk around and exchange parts with each other.
Thekla has caught the time on these pictures.
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After the dinner we went to house 21, the house of Jan, where everybody meet and discussed the past day.
Also today we had a little time in our own house to talk, and a little more exchange of the fine LEGO present from Jan..
Oh, it was tough to get up early on sunday, but probably that is normal when you have fun in the night, and the talk concerns LEGO.
Breakfast at 8, again a huge amount of delicius food, all from bread to bacon and eggs.
After the breakfast we were ready again to check our exhibition for opening at 10 again.
And also today the people startet to walk in, rigth after 10:
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The first pictures shows a lot of visitors hanging out in the Café-arae, and both adults and kids enjoy the LEGO-creations.
On the second picture, 3 kids enjoy the compagny of one of Menno Gorters fantastic robots.
On the fourth picture, you can see a busy moment in the small LEGO shop, behind the desk, the wife of Jan, Rikke, and Nadine
from the LEGO Shop Oberhausen.
On the fifth picture Jan and Nadine are busy with keeping all the Dirt Crushers running all the time.
On the last picture, Carsten has caught me as an entrepreneur with my excavator, which also gave a lot of pleasure and
admiration from kids and adults.
Also today we had a lot of visitors, the whole amount of visitors almost reached 600! But again, all too soon, the clock had turned 15 and we had to close, and pack everything down, for transportation home.
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First picture: My models were quickly to pack, and ready for beeing loaded in the minivan of Carsten. Second picture: The two town-layouts took some time to pack, to hopefully keep them alive after the transport. Third picture: Vingborg Taxi, almost ready to the trip north, with parts for Christian, Knud and Vingborg. Fourth picture: Almost finished, fifth picture: Im having a game of Tetris with the buildings from Christian and Per, to make them fit in the boxes for transport.
Then we had a quick soda and a small talk in the restaurant. Good bye to everyone, and 4 hours of driving home.
The group of participants for the event was both from Denmark, (Byggepladen), Germany (1000steine) and the Netherlands (De Bouwsteen and Lowlug), more than 20 all in all. Below I have tried to describe everybodys creations, I hope that I have remembered all, and havent switched any creations, please write me, if I have missed something.
To start with somebody, I chose my self, what did I bring to the event.
I brought all my present models, i.e.
Volvo FH16 6x2/4 520 with 3 axle Goldhofer stepframe trailer
Volvo FH12 6x2/4 500 Globetrotter XL, Sweet Candy
Mercedes Benz 1840 Strawtransport
Besides from that, I also brought my almost finished Volvo Excavator, I will only make a short description of it here,
it is fully functional, and I saw that it many people liked it and I got a lot of positive comments both from other AFOLs
and visitors, so Im very pleased about that.
The result after the event, was two very tired hands, from working with the excavator all the time. During the show I had
a little crash, a gear broke in one of the crawler tracks, but luckely, Menno Gorter from the Netherlands had brougth
some spare parts, so I could repair the track, and after a little while it was working again. The situation is showed
in one of the pictures below, it is nice that excavator can bring theyre own jacks for lifting.
Here are some pictures of my creations, and some situations with my excavator.
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I have also made some showcases for my models. It was the first time I tried them. I was very pleased with them, both as boxes for transportation, but also as a security against curius kids, so I didnt have to watch the models all the time.
The danish club, Byggepladen had, as mentioned earlier, brought at combined layout. Which consisted of a large amount of houses and trains. The planning had taked place almost from the day we were advised about the event.
On the picture to the right, the whole track-layout is displayed: 
The layout consists of to circles, thereby it is possible to have two running trains all the time, without
colliding, that gives a good effect on shows, when something is moving.
Inside the trackcircles a roadsystem with houses are placed, a combination of buildings from 6 members from the
club. On the pictures below, you can see the final result:
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Below I have described the individual parts from the 6 builders for the layout, some also brought extra parts for the show.
Carsten StraabergCarsten, the manager of the club, hade made the whole end of the layout, the one that can bee seen in the front on the pictures below.
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It is worth to notice the statue that gets frightened, the boy with the remote controlled boat in the lake, the
playing area with the slide, the raised terrain also makes it possible to built a small bridge.
Carsten also took care of bringing the parts from Per Langkilde to the event, Per could not participate in the event.
Carsten also brought a number of Vignettes (small scenes on a plate of max 8x8 studs), those can be seen on the last picture above.
Peter also brought a large number of houses and track parts. A large part of the tracks on the layout are decorated with trees and fences, Peter has made all of that. Besides from that he had made a lot of the houses in the middle of the town, showed on the pictures below:
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The great houses in the middle are Peters, notice the fine gardens with details like hedges. Besides, Peter has also
made lights and busstops for the city.
Peter also brought parts from Knud and Christian, since they could not participate in the show.
Peter has also brought his huge collection of old LEGO sets, showed in the last picture.
Chris also brought a lot of houses and equipment for the city, great models, just a small mistake of 'left-driving', but that was changed quickly, Chris is from England, so the small mistake is understandable.
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Chris also brougth a little competition, where you were encourraged to find a hidden Viking in the city.
Knud ThomsenUnfortunately Knud could not participate either, since there were a building competition in Billund at the same time, of Japan v. Denmark. But Peter brought the buildings from Knud, so we could use them in the layout. Knud had made a large station and a gardenpark.
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Knud had also built three trains, a Rheingold Express, consisting of a steem-locomotive with tender, four passengercars, and a mail-car. We had also made a model of the new IC4 trains, which will soon be introduced in Denmark, and last, but not least, two streetcars.
Christian RasmussenChristian was also prevented from participation in the event, but he had put a lot of work in a huge number of great houses and accessories for the city. His part is concentrated around a closed backyard and a large open square with lots of houses around.
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Christian had decorated his models with a lot of things to make them 'alive'. Notice the hot-dog stand, and the backyard where the kids are playing.
Per LangkildePer could not participate either, but he was also nice to lend us his parts to the exhibition. A large number of great houses with lots of details.
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Notice the Netto shop, the large Firestation. The red station on the opposite side of Netto, is a 'Ferrari' house, mostly built by parts from a couple of Enzo's.
The wife of Carsten, Ulla, and their children.The wife of Carsten, and their 3 children also brought a lot of great creations for the event, those can be seen on the pictures below.
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The German club, 1000steine, was also represented with a lot of participants at the exhibitions. Including bot individual creations,
and a combined townlayout.
The german models were extreamly detailed and well made, it was a pleasure to view the models, but also to say hello to some
collegues from our neighbour country.
After a little while, I also was avare that I 'knew' some of the german participants, since I have bought parts from their
Bricklink shops.
Here is a little presentation of the models brought by the germans.
Bruno and Frank, had created a marvellous city together. Bruno has made a collection of scalemodel houses, in a typical german style, including a bakeri, workshop, houses, etc. Frank had made a layout with streets, houses and streetcars. Both parts are decorated with lots of mini-figs and accessories to make them alive.
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Bruno had also made a great copy of the legendary german train, the Rheingold Express, in purple and tan, a great model.
One of the two trains that were running around the layout, started to make some noises, the sound of wear, but Bruno told me that they
had calculated that it had been running for about 300 km! so we agreed that it was ok, it started to sound old.
Bruno also have a large LEGO shop, you can visit it here
Jojo had also brought a very detailed model of a chapel and a farm. The chapel was surrounded by green areas, including knights and horse carriages. In one of the windows you could find a beautiful princess.
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The farm which Jojo brought was also extreamly detailed, everything from the chickens to a stork on top of the roof.
He had also brought a few vignettes, kind of minimal creations, with only a very few bricks, but you are not in doupt of the motif.
Andreas had brought some very nice ships, 3 barges, and a large number of trucks. Great models, where he had succeded in creating a lot of fine details, on very small models. He used a lot of SNOT technique (Studs Not on Top, which means, the bricks are not placed in the normel way, studs up, they are sidewas, buttoms up, etc.)
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Please also notice the very detailed railroad-service waggons.
Thekla and Ronald BorchertThekla and Ronald had also brought two fantastic models, a large house and a huge radar. The house is in the style 'La Garde' and the radar was equipped with motors to make it turn and tilt.
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Klass who is also a Lowlug and De Bouwsteen member, had also brought some funny creations.
Among other, a racing-railroad, where you could built your own train, and race against each other.
A popular creations for the kids, was a crane which could be moved around, catching candy, in small containers.
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Klaas and his collegue Rick Hardeman, also brought a small shop Greenman's ABS, where they sold some special sets, and single parts, for very good prices.
René HoffmeisterRené who own the 1000steine, had brought an incredible creation, a huge mosaic.
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Its a little hard to see from the picture, how large the mosaic are, but it is 7meters x 2.3meters, and he have used 248.832 1x1 plates
for the mosaic, and yes, you read it right, nearly a quarter of a million!
The coordination of the project was carried out by René, which afterwards send out baseplates and 1x1 plates to other members of 1000steine, which
wanted to join and participate in the project. The mosaic was first assemblied at the TSL 2005, (Tausend-Steine Land) the 24-26th og june.
You can see more pictures and videos from the event here.
The large dutch club, De Bouwsteen, was also represented at the exhibition with a lot of fantastic creations. Here are some of them.
Menno GorterMenno is a technical man, and it is easy to see when you see the models he have brought, everything is crawling, driving and walking around. There were always a lot of life around his stand, because everything was crawling and driving around, under the table, on the table, on boxes and on the floor.
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The robots were all capable of moving around, equipped with a lot of electronic and pneumatic, some of the cars had electric powerstearing, all-wheel-drive, AWD, and a lot of other functions which you didnt thought were possible with LEGO.
The other dutch club, Lowlug, was also represented at the event, a.o. by Jan-Albert van Ree, who brought some highly detailed models.
Jan-Albert van ReeJan-Albert had brought a small layout with a brewery and a busy railroad. The level of details was absolutely amazing, and the style was very accurate on buildings, cars and trains, so everything was fitting together.
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Notice the ballast, around the tracks, 1x1 plates, gives a very natural look.
LEGO had also brought a lot of stuff for the event, since they are the main organizers of the event, with Jan Beyer in the leading position.
The new LEGO shop in Germany, LEGO Store Oberhausen, had also brougth a lot of sets for a small LEGO shop, with a number
of new and old sets. The shop were in charge of the wife of Jan Beyer, Rikke, and a daily employee in the Oberhausen store, Nadine.
LEGO had also arranged a number of small tables with LEGO for the kids.
Next to the shop, you could find som large boxes of unsorted LEGO, where you could buy a bag and fill it with the special parts you needed.
LEGO had also brought a large number of Dirt Crushers for the kids, for those who dont know the DC, it is a remote controlled car, published
by LEGO in 2004. A highly recommended product, its a great construction, and very strong.
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On picture number 2, you see the man behind this phantastic event, Jan Beyer.
Here I have made a collection to galleries, with pictures from the event:
Chris Patons, Brickshelf gallery
Peter Vingborg, Brickshelf gallery
Carsten Straaberg, Brickshelf gallery
Byggepladen, Brickshelf gallery
Menno Gorter, Brickshelf gallery
Thekla Borchert, Gallery
Here I should remember to thanks all the above photographers for all the fine pictures, which I have also used some of, on this site.
Here I have made a collection of links to homepages, galleries, shops, etc. made by the participants of the event
Carsten Straaberg, homepage.
Peter Vingborg, Bricklink shop.
Chris Paton, Brickshelf gallery.
Knud Thomsen, homepage.
Christian Rasmussen, homepage.
Per Langkilde, homepage.
Bruno Kurt, Bricklink shop.
Klaas H. Meijaard Bricklink shop.
Thekla og Ronald Borchert, homepage.
Menno Gorter, Brickshelf gallery
Lizzy and Lasse visited the event and saw our models, a couple of days after the event, Lizze emailed those scraps which she have made of pictures from the event.
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Besides from the articles I mentioned in the beginning of this description, you could also find som articles in local newspapers before and after the event. It is clear to see that Jan has put a lot of PR-work into the event.
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