It’s a Lego set, with a difference.
A Native American chief rides his horse across a barren landscape bathed in moonlight. The animated video moves quickly between those who have been victims of the United States government, from chained Black Americans to survivors of Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison complex.
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It then shows Iranian soldiers sticking large banners on missiles, as the background music speeds up. “For the stolen blacks,” says the first. “To the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” comes next.
“In memory of the victims of Iran Air Flight 655,” says another, referring to the passenger plane downed by US missiles in 1988, killing all 290 people on board. It follows, “In memory of Rachel Corrie’s Freedom Fighters”, referring to the American activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza in 2003. Victims of American wars and abuses in Afghanistan, Vietnam and Iraq – and the “children of Epstein Island” – all receive similar messages, affixed to missiles that then fire. The video ends with the collapse of giant statues of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a line in big, white and capital letters: ‘A vengeance for all.’
The March 29 video is one of several released by Explosive Media, a number of Iran-based groups that have used Lego figures and blocks familiar to families around the world to reinforce the story of Tehran amid a war against the US and Israel.
The video, depicting multiple victims of American aggression and domestic crimes, has been viewed nearly 150,000 times on YouTube. Explosive Media’s YouTube account has recently been removed by the Google-owned video-sharing platform.
But the Tehran-based group, which uses distinctive lyrics and rap beats to mock Trump – often using the US president’s own words to accuse him of hypocrisy and promoting Israel’s interests rather than America’s – is not giving up.
An Explosive Media representative, who requested anonymity, told Al Jazeera that his YouTube channel was shut down on the grounds of promoting violence – and that he is convinced that Lego-like brick animations are not violent at all.
He said, “There was disappointment, but no surprise – this story is not new.” “We know too well how the West shrouds the truth in silence and tries to mute every voice that speaks it.”
deep symbolism
The videos range from somber stories deeply reflecting Shia-Muslim history to upbeat rap-style music videos set in motion with Lego-like brick figures and environments.
An Explosive Media spokesperson said the green and red shown in the animation is symbolic, as it explains the traditions of green representing Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, and his fight for justice against oppression. Red color symbolizes the oppressor.
“This is actually one of our team’s favorite animations. Especially the moment when the war helmets are put on the missiles and drones – it was really spectacular,” he said.
Other videos used phrases such as “Epstein regime”, “losers” and showed supporters of the US president wearing brick red hats emblazoned with MAGA – Trump’s Make America Great Again movement. They reflect Trump’s promises to keep the US out of new wars and help ordinary working-class Americans, then use the president’s own words to accuse him of betraying his commitments and instead prioritizing Israel’s demands.
A spokesperson for the group said, “Loser is one of our best works.” Trump often refers to his opponents in this manner. “So we turned it around – and showed that, in the end, he’s the biggest loser of all.”
The Trumpesque figure is sometimes shown holding a small doll.
Another video aimed at addressing the Lebanese people, saying that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) will not leave them behind, was released after the brutal attack on the country, where more than 100 bombs were dropped in 10 minutes.
The team making this video consists of 10 people, all of whom are aged between 19 to 25 years.
And they clearly have access to the Internet – including US-owned social media platforms, which Iran’s government has blocked access to for most Iranians since the beginning of the war.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, a spokesperson for Explosive Media acknowledged that Iranian state media outlets are among their clients, but said that the group itself was independent.
He said, “We produce high-quality media content, so it’s natural that various local media outlets – including some state-affiliated – occasionally purchase our work for broadcast.” “In practice, we create the content first, and if the quality is strong enough, media organizations choose to buy it from us. This way, our independence is fully protected.”
breaking the noise
The explosive media is not alone. Other creators, including Persiaboi and Southern Punk, have made similar Lego-themed videos. The trend has also spread beyond Iran to Pakistan, where local creators like Nukta Media in Pakistan created their own version ahead of the first round of Iran-US talks in Islamabad on April 11.
Islamabad-based social commentator Fasi Zaka said the genius in the Lego-style videos lies in how they tackle a range of topics amid the global information narrative that has been set against Iran for decades – courtesy of Western media.
“These videos are usually ways to break down the information highway that is set up against them in times of war,” Zaka said.
Zaka said that the videos, by focusing on flaws within American domestic politics – such as those on the Epstein files – were actually “smart”.
“They’re just calling it the ‘Epstein regime,’ and it’s a domestic crackdown that they’re trying to resurface. They’re also using like election MAGA tropes and subservient to Israeli interests, so the way they’re doing it sounds funny, but it’s actually very smart,” he said.
Zaka also sees a deeper level of symbolism. He referred to the US bombing of the Minab Girls School on the opening day of the war, which killed more than 160 Iranian schoolgirls.
“The war began with the atrocities against Iranian children,” so the use of Lego – a brand and look that parents and children around the world recognize – means “it all comes together like this”.
‘Master of Smack-Talk’
Mark Owen Jones, a professor at Northwestern University in Qatar who researches media analytics, said Iran’s efforts to win the narrative war were an important part of its strategy, because it knows it cannot win militarily.
“Their best bet for success is to sway public opinion in their favor and put pressure on the United States to stop it,” he told Al Jazeera. “And the game of communication in this day and age is such that this type of troll propaganda, this type of ‘smack-talk type’ propaganda wins.”
He said the carefully chosen themes in the Lego-style videos would have resonated even more with Western audiences had they not been coming out of Iran – a country they have been told to distrust for decades.
Zaka argued that in many ways the non-diplomatic tone and brutal message in the Iranian video reflects Donald Trump’s own communication style.
“Finally, the Iranian Lego videos are great,” Jones said. “They’re really well thought out. There’s a lot of detail in them. There’s really a narrative. Whereas the American propaganda is just, you know, exploding with Hollywood movies.”
