One of the highlights of my recent trip to Denmark was getting to visit Skærbæk Fan Weekend, a massive European LEGO fan convention that’s held in Skærbæk, a small town located just 80km south of Billund.
It’s a multi-day event that hosts some of the most talented LEGO builders from across Europe, and due to its proximity to Billund, has developed into one of the premiere global AFOL Conventions.
This year, with borders open and international travel back to normalcy, Skærbæk Fan Weekend hosted over 1,100 AFOLs from 35 countries and it was such a fun experience attending my first overseas LEGO Convention, and getting to meet so many people that I’ve only known online!
I really appreciate everyone who stopped me to say hello as well! It was incredible to get to meet so many of my European readers for the first time.
There was an incredible number of MOCs and models on display, so here are some of the highlights and my favourite picks from Skærbæk Fan Weekend 2022.
Being a European LEGO fan convention, it was really interesting to see different types of styles being more prominent – there was a very healthy mix of classics with plenty of Pirates, Castles and Space themes, but I did notice a lack of contemporary action themes like Super Heroes. It definitely had a different flavour to my hometown convention Brickvention!
You can also view the full Skaerbaek Fan Weekend 2022 album on Facebook, to see all the photos and way more LEGO MOCs on show!
Bigger is always better, and this 3.6m model of the Burj Khalifa by Belgian outfit Bricks and More was seriously impressive. It really shone (heh) in the night session when the lights were turned off and it put on a literal lightshow to music which was mesmerising to watch.
Speaking of large models, this huge minifigure-scale model of Hogwarts Castle by @OliBricks was one of the standout models on display. I especially like the use of minifigures in the boat and trees on the shore to establish a sense of scale.
On show as well was this 1:1 Audi R18 built by Danish LEGO Certified Professional Caspar Bennedsen, which used over 620,000 bricks and took over 1,500 hours to build.
One of the coolest models I’ve ever seen was this Samurai Armour by Andrea Montuori. The details were sublime and it looked awesome from any angle.
There were quite a number of incredible sci-fi builds on show, but Los Portalos by Albert Finsen caught my eye with its colour-changing portal.
There weren’t as many LEGO Star Wars MOCs as I expected, but I really liked this simple, yet effective Hoth diorama, featuring 3 UCS AT-ATs.
There was SO much love for Space themes, and this Blacktron II base was filled with so many funny Easter Eggs such as the livestock (and turtle hatchery) segment on the ground level.
I really liked this small but effective diorama of Angkor Wat by Lasse Vestergard, depicting how it looked like at different points in history.
There was plenty of love for LEGO Pirates, and The Fortress by Brian Vestergaard was great, with a long ocean strip, 3 ships and a bluecoat fortress as well.
One of the more refreshingly original MOCs was this Hermit Crab Coral Reef by Daniel Bazany.
This collection of rotating themed Death Stars were a lot of fun, with a Duplo, Classic Space, Friends and more, but this Death Star Corona by Thomas Dierig was my favourite out of the lot. Too soon?
Being a European show, I was looking forward to all the Castle builds, and boy, did they not disappoint in this department. Here’s a look at Ren Castle by Emil Kall.
This minifigure-scale Phantom of the Opera MOC was built by Erzsebet Kovacs.
Plenty of Fabuland fun was on show, and this Fabuland Millennium Falcon did make me chuckle.
There was this great collection of over 300 brick-built figures from different movies, TV shows and cartoons, called Do You Remember by Hanne Lindberg – there’s certainly something for everyone here, and my favourites were Darkwing Duck and Perry the Platypus!
More cool Pirate MOCs such as this Blue Coat Outpost by Hans Gerhard Mertelsmann.
Speaking of more cool Pirates MOCs, I really liked this Port which also features a gleaming white Imperial Fort. Peep the red coat wearing just his underpants!
There was a large number of LEGO Lord of the Rings MOCs on show which is always a treat, and one of my highlights was getting to see Jonas Kramm’s collection of LOTR Vignettes in the flesh, and they looked phenomenal.
Attention LEGO: I’d buy an entire collection of these, or LOTR Dioramas.
This is Kalorius the Snake God by Morthen Falk Poulsen which was just so trippy to behold, with its incredible SNOT-technique.
On display were these mid-sized Orthodox churches by Lasse Vestergard which demonstrate fantastic use of curved building techniques but also colours and contrast.
Also by Lasse Vestergard is this fantastic slice of the historic city of Bukhara in Uzbekistan, an important trading centre on the Silk Road. It depicts the Kaiyan Minaret which was built in 1127, and Mir-i-Arab Madrasah which was built in 1536.
Moving on to more LEGO Lord of the Rings in this upscaled Attack on Weathertop display by Michael Werenberg.
And next to it, a charming and rustic multi-level diorama of Hobbiton.
Unfortunately, I didn’t catch who built this MOC, but I have a soft spot for microscale models, and this elevated Castle does some really impressive things with scale, including the small church at the base, the towering mountain and waterfall.
Another super fun build and one that I fondly remember from Skaerbaek 2022 is Morthen Falk Poulsen‘s Invasion of the Cuddle Bears, where bloodthirsty stuffed animals (and Unikitty) are invading these poor native Skeleton Robots.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the name of the builder, but I very much enjoyed this neo-Classic Space diorama, especially the cube living quarters, and mining trams.
This was one of my favourite Pirate displays (huge for a convention full of awesome Pirates MOCs) at Skaerbaek 2022 – The Fleet by Peter aka @captainlegobrick with 3 incredibly cool original ships, an imperial fort, and a bustling port.
This Tower of Terror display by Peter Elias was one of the most eye-catching MOCs on show, both because of its size, and bright pink facade. Some really great details are captured, and the scaling is especially effective as well.
Swedish AFOL Peter Ilmrud pulled out all the stops with his Steampunk models, including a fantastic airship.
Back to more medieval/fantasy goodness is The Druid Tower, also by Peter Ilmrud. I love how dense the forest is, and how “alive” and organic this MOC looks.
Being Denmark’s home LEGO Convention, I was expecting to see some really rare stuff on show, but nothing prepared me for this incredible collection of LEGO Minifigure Business Cards by Jesper Andersen.
More Medieval Fantasty goodness can be found in Sebastien Guyot’s Dragon Castle.
Another highlight of mine was seeing @serialbuilder’s UCS Horizon Tallneck and Thunderjaw up close and personal! The Tallneck is so impressively huge and seeing his Thunderjaw really makes me wish that LEGO follows their Horizon Tallneck with a Thunderjaw as well.
Also really enjoyed Martin Latha’s Terminator T-800 bust. I’d buy and display something like this if it were an official LEGO set!
I shared these on my Instagram account, but check out this incredibly bonkers Gingerbread Winter Village.
Also loved this chicken magician!
Here’s a look at Herod’s Castle, by Stefan Vorst.
I really loved this modernised Guarded Inn diorama, by Stuifzand, which pays homage to one of the most iconic LEGO Castle sets – 6067 Guarded Inn.
I didn’t catch the builder, but this immensely tall scifi/cyberpunk/post-apocalyptic structure was awesome to see in person. There’s just so much going on on each floor, from all angles!
As a big M-Tron fan, I was overjoyed to see this awesome M-Tron display, which was doused in blacklight to really make the trans-green glow pop.
And last but not least was this incredible Canal City. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the name of the builder for this, but I really liked the different types of building design, as well as awesome details on the water, with sludge and pollution escaping out into the sea from the sewers.
For more photos from Skærbæk Fan Weekend 2022, check out the full album on Facebook, which has over 300 photos! I couldn’t squeeze in everything here, but I did my best!
Hope you enjoyed this recap of some of my favourite MOCs from Skærbæk Fan Weekend 2022! Special thanks to the organisers for putting on such a fantastic show.
As it was my first international LEGO AFOL Networking Event (ANE), I was sufficiently blown away by the quality of models, as well as how fun it was to spend time at Skaerbaek and hang out with people there.
Were you at Skærbæk Fan Weekend 2022? What were some of your favourite MOCs on display?
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The Neo Classic space diorama AND the tall sci-fi tower where both build by Jonas Martin Schilling (finalist on LEGO Masters Denmark, season 1 (2021).
Herods castle is not a completely acuurate name. Its actually the Jewish holy temple, or beit hamikdash in heberew.
Does stefan vorst have any social media accounts?
Do you have any more photos of this build?
I would love to see more photos of this.
I’m not too sure, but I can check with him!
In the meantime, he’s part of Edulug, so you can catch some of his other builds here http://www.edulug.de/
It was great to meet you there, Jay.
I see no pictures of the the GBC! Did you miss it? 🙂
Actually I find it interesting that many AFOLs do not take much of an interest in it, yet it’s usually the display that the public spend most time watching.
Likewise Huw! Definitely motivated me to plan another trip back, an hopefully make it back next year if possible!
I didn’t take any photos, but I did pop up a video of part of the GBC on social media!
GBCs are great, it’s mesmerising and the sounds are fun as well.