At the end of 2019, the Plopsa Group took over the loss-making Comics Station theme park to reform it into a new Plopsa park, now the ninth member of the Plopsa family. Fifteen new attractions were added, including ‘The Flying Bicycles’ by Mega Mindy, ‘Maya’s Playground’, ‘De Bumbamolen’, ‘K3 Discocars’ and ‘Storm op Zee’ by Piet Piraat.
CEO Steve Van den Kerkhof. — © Walter Saenen
–
The showpiece of Comics Station, the largest indoor slide in the world, was sold. “That slide was the biggest weakness of Comics Station right away,” says Plopsa CEO Steve Van den Kerkhof. “We have opened up the entire space of the slide, divided over three levels.” It is now replaced by several new attractions and a meet and greet stage.
Famous cartoon characters such as Lucky Luke, Jommeke, Suske & Wiske, Urbanus and the Smurfs live hand in hand with the most famous Studio-100 characters in the new amusement park. “We think that’s a great added value,” says Van den Kerkhof.
–To the Wild West with Lucky Luke. — © Walter Saenen
–
“The biggest intervention we have done, besides replacing the slide, was adding a number of mechanical elements. The play aspect was largely missing and that is what children like so much. Comics Station was more of an interactive museum. We have turned it into an amusement park.”
An asset to Antwerp
And so the first visitors could discover the fun of that park on Saturday morning. The party included amusement park fanatics Leon Bruyninckx (11) and father Benjamin from Schoten. They were still in last summer Gazette of Antwerp when they undertook a road trip through 32 amusement parks in Germany and were pushed a corona test stick in their nose no less than nine times.
–© Walter Saenen
–
So they have knowledge. This is also apparent when they let themselves be taken to the Wild West of Lucky Luke and immediately set top scores in laser shooting. Mission to capture the Daltons: accomplished.
“We’ve been coming here since it was still Comics Station. So we are especially curious about the new attractions”, Benjamin laughs. “Although I miss the long slide a bit. And hopefully the smurfs are still there,” Leon says. “But I am very happy that it is open again here.” “It’s also handy that it’s so close. Maybe we’ll go to the Zoo later.” So a busy day program. “And tomorrow we are going to Walibi”, they shout enthusiastically.
–Leon and father Benjamin are real amusement park fanatics. — © Walter Saenen
–
Brothers Jason (18) and Brandon (12) came especially from Vilvoorde to Antwerp by train to discover the new indoor park. “We have a Plopsa subscription and are especially fans of Samson and the smurfs. We’ve only just got here so we still have everything to discover. We set aside all day for that. But it looks better now than before.”
Samson and Marie and K3 are the favorites of little Florence (4) who, together with her parents and sister, is visiting Plopsa Station and has just finished a ride on the merry-go-round. Did she like it? She nods shyly.
–Florence with her parents and little sister. — © Walter Saenen
–
In the background, meanwhile, the entire Studio 100 repertoire is played in symphonic performance. Impossible not to go home with an old school Samson and Gert song or the latest K3 hit in your head. (In our case the classic ‘Pirates of the Sea’).
Maaike and her son Rik (5) take place in Mega Mindy’s flying helicopters, while Robbert-Jan watches from the sidelines with Hanna (1) on his arm. “We come from Zeeland in the Netherlands and ended up here by accident. We wanted to go to the Plopsapark in de Panne, but then we heard about it and this is of course a lot closer for us.” What do they think? “It looks really neat. The oldest is having a great time, but Hanna thought that big Bumba was a bit scary,” he laughs.
Do they often come to Antwerp? “About once a year. Maybe we’ll go into town for a while. This place is a nice asset for Antwerp. It is an attraction that guides visitors further into the city afterwards.”
–Mike and Rick. The family from the Netherlands is among the first to visit the new Plopsa Park. — © Walter Saenen
–
Too small in the long run
The opening of Plopsa Station this weekend is a soft opening. Next Monday the indoor park will close again and the finishing touches will be put on the furnishing to really start next weekend. Although the theme park will not be fully ready until mid-December. “A few dozen more statues of characters have to be added in the coming week,” says Steve Van den Kerkhof. “We also have a few containers in the port and five more are floating around at sea. Due to corona it is very difficult today to get everything delivered on time.”
–Brandon and Jayson from Vilvoorde. — © Walter Saenen
–
But the CEO of the Plopsa group estimates the future as rosy for the Antwerp park, more rosy than the future that Comics Station had. “In itself, an indoor park in Antwerp is a gap in the market. Although we initially had doubts: can we rectify this? But we believe in it. In fact, I am convinced that this place will be too small after a while.”
Plopsa Station can receive about 1750 people at the same time. “That is less than in our other indoor parks. On an annual basis we expect 200,000 to 250,000 visitors. And we are already noticing that there are a lot of requests from companies for family and customer events.” However, there are no expansion possibilities in Central Station. What is possible then? “We’re going to hear each other again,” he assures.
–
