Simone and Christo at Omroep Brabant
“When I'm working on LEGO, I'm just not there for a while.”
You can hardly take a step in Christo's attic. Dozens of buildings stand out there. “Not everything fits here in the attic. The Titanic is downstairs in the living room, but my wife won't let me add anything to it.” Christo's wife has nothing to do with the blocks at all.
Yet Christo is allowed to build and collect to his heart's content. “We have an agreement together: we both get 150 euros every month. What we do with that money is up to us, the other person is not allowed to interfere. For me it always goes to LEGO.”
It once started with model trains, but they had to make way for the colored blocks. “Yes, it's a toy. I see it as a toy hobby. I relax when I'm working with LEGO, then I'm just not there for a while. And I can express my creativity,” says Christo as he shows the buildings in his attic. “If I want to muse for a while, I go to the attic: look, clean and change things.”
“It's not expensive, it's sustainable.”
A woman comes to Simone's LEGO store to buy a set. “It's for myself, not for my daughter,” she laughs. “The shame is gone,” Simone notes. “We have been here for twenty years now. In the beginning, people gave the excuse that they were coming to get it for their nephew, but now they dare to say that it is for themselves.”
Christo is also critical: “It is far too expensive. It can be done much cheaper, but yes that is a marketing strategy of LEGO.” For example, a set for adults easily costs between two hundred and five hundred euros. Because it is on the expensive side, Christo occasionally buys 'fake LEGO'. “There are brands where the quality and colors are exactly the same.”
Simone disagrees with Christo. “It's not expensive, it's sustainable,” she defends. “Thirty years later, children still play with the same LEGO bricks. They just pass from father to son.”
“It's full, but I won't stop."
How many more LEGO sets can Christo have? “Minus two,” he says with a smile. “It's full, but I don't stop. Sometimes I sell a set. It is also an investment. I sell sets for double or sometimes more.”
The store in Den Bosch contains a 'mega investment'. “There is a blue house here. It cost a hundred euros about fifteen years ago, now you can sell it for 3,500 euros.”
