Plopsa Station Antwerp (Belgium) has announced to open its doors on oktober 23rd, 2021. The park that originally opened in April 2017 as ‘Comics Station’, was bought by the Plopsa Group in december 2019. Initially Plopsa wanted to make some adjustments and reopen in the spring of 2020, but the group decided to give the complete park an extended make-over that took almost two years.
When Comics Station opened (located in the Central Station of Antwerp), it was themed to various Belgian comic book characters, such as Lucky Luke, the Smurfs and Urbanus. The indoor theme park contained several rides, such as a tower ride (Op Bezoek bij de Kiekeboes), an interactive dark ride (Magische Bos) and a 4D theatre. The park went into financial troubles and was bought by the Plopsa Group on 23rd December 2019.
The Plopsa Group wanted to reopen the park somewhere in 2020, but decided to invest more money for a bigger overhaul. “We eventually started a construction program of €6 million, which required new permits. We wanted to restructure the complete park. That takes more time”, says Plopsa Parks CEO Steve Van den Kerkhof to HNL.be.
They made an agreement with comic book publisher Standaard Uitgeverij to keep the licence for the comic books, but also added their own IP to the park. Several attractions have been removed and replaced with new ones. This seems to be the case for tower ride ‘Op Bezoek bij de Kiekeboes‘ and the 4D theatre.
The dark ride ‘Magische Bos’ is listed on the park’s website, though it has been renamed to ‘Smurfenavontuur’ (Smurfs Adventure). The park also contains an interactive theatre (Lucky Luke Express) that originates at Comics Station, but the theatre does not contain motion seats and therefor does not qualify for an entry in the database.
