Pro-Trump Company Selling Knockoff LEGO Kit "Build the Wall"
by Rudy Sanchez on 11/30/2018 | 2 Minute Read
LEGO is one of the largest toy makers in the world, and last year they raked in over $5.3 billion even though their patent for the ubiquitous interlocking plastic bricks expired long ago. Despite their popularity, there are other plastic brick toy-makers, the biggest being Mega Bloks, which is owned by Mattel. Others like Lepin, out of China, are more ripoff artists, blatantly copying sets and infringing on licensed intellectual property like Star Wars. Now, a new challenger has appeared, but rather than competing on price (as many parents will attest, LEGO sets aren't exactly cheap), they’re focusing on the more politically-inclined consumer.
Company “Keep and Bear,” an overwhelmingly pro-Trump website selling a variety of pro-second amendment and anti-liberal tchotchkes, has branched out from stickers and t-shirts to kids toys with “MAGA” building blocks.
Most of their sets are comprised of mini-figures resembling Trump, Lady Liberty, Hillary Clinton (in an orange prison jumpsuit, naturally), Chuck Norris, and a Crusader knight. “Build the Wall,” however, is a kit that includes 101 pieces and is simple enough that any Trump fan can put it together, unlike the actual border wall which the President is still struggling to get built.
The play set is rather uninspired: it’s a bunch of grey bricks, a flat piece, and Trump figurine in his signature red hat, but with a necktie of appropriate length. The box features a picture of the set completed and a racist portrayal of a Mexican, drawn in mini-figure form, wearing a serape and sombrero while carrying maracas. He appears to be in the desert (the landscape seems to be arid) with Chichén Itzá in the background, a Mayan pre-Colombian city located about 1,800 miles from Tijuana in the Mexican state of Yucatán. In other words, it's nowhere near the US-Mexico border, and it's surrounded by lush jungles, aka, not the desert.
The description of the product also comes complete with alternative facts. According to their website, “A mob of 10,000 Central American migrants is marching through Mexico and heading toward El Paso, Texas. Mexican border agents attempted to stop them at the Mexican border, but to no avail."
The size of the caravan is closer to5,000, and the asylum seekers have been arriving at Tijuana, not El Paso and Juárez.
The MAGA “Build the Wall” kit sells for $29.95, tear gas not included, and is considerably more affordable than the actual wall. At that price, the president wouldn’t have to threaten a government shutdown, and Mexico could pay for it.