On one side are several young people who only have cheap laptops, and on the other side are production companies with budgets of billions of dollars. Members of the Iranian group “Explosive Media” describe their struggle since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28th. They are the creators of those Lego-style videos that became popular around the world during the war against Iran.
Recently, a member of this group who identified himself as “Explosive Man” was interviewed by Marco Fernandes, the chief political analyst for the Brazilian media Brasil de Fato, in a café on the top floor of a 14-story building in Tehran, the capital of Iran.
As soon as the conversation began, he pointed at a flying aircraft on the horizon and said, “During wartime, such lights are actually missiles.”
They stated that since the war began, within just a few months, their videos have been viewed over 1 billion times. The war lasted for 40 days, until ceasefire was declared in April. The members of the group are kept anonymous; they consist of about 10 young people aged between 18 and 25 years old, who have received education in journalism, engineering, and theology. In June 2025, during the “12th War,” they started producing videos, initially using Persian language, and with real-life hosts on screen.
The first video in the "Lego" style animation was produced on the last day of that war. However, due to the ceasefire taking effect, it was not released. At the end of February this year, when the war resumed, they released their first video, and then went to sleep. When they woke up, they found that this work had become a topic of discussion among British media and had spread around the world.
Their creative process combines artificial intelligence, original rap music, and expressions of American pop culture. A 2-minute video takes about 24 hours to produce, and the video regarding the April ceasefire was prepared even before the official announcement of the ceasefire.
The team’s favorite work is titled “One Vengeance for All”. Every missile in the video corresponds to a victim of imperialism. “I cried when I watched this video,” said Explosive Man.
Screenshot of "For Revenge for Everyone"
Success comes at a cost. In April, YouTube banned their channel on the grounds of “spamming, deceptive behavior, and fraud,” while Instagram deleted their accounts. Ismail Bagheri, a spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed his confusion: “In a country with companies like Pixar, DreamWorks, and Disney, why is an independent animation channel being banned?”
Lego Company has never commented on this matter. Western media label such works as “slopaganda” – a term composed of “slop” (trash, meaning low-quality content) and “propaganda” (publicity), referring to low-quality artificial intelligence-generated propaganda content. The group refuses to accept this label: “We consider our work to be art. It’s a film.”
This form of creative expression has spread across the ocean. In May of this year, an art historian from Havana created a video in the same style to protest Trump’s threats against Cuba. The group welcomed her addition and referred to her as “LRF Cuba”, which stands for “Lego Resistance Front Cuba”.
Below is the recorded conversation (some content has been omitted):
Answer: We originally created videos for the Iranian public. In the first few days after the war began, we produced our first Lego video and published it on a channel on the Iranian app store. After that, we went to sleep.
After waking up, we found that an account had posted this video on Twitter. Soon after, The Times and The Daily Telegraph also started reporting on it.
So we realized that this is something different, and we also realized that this should be our next step: starting to produce videos for an English audience.
Answer: During the war, yes. Among our audience, Americans made up the majority. On Twitter, about 60% of the viewers came from the United States. The next largest groups were Canada and the United Kingdom.
Answer: We have a fellow classmate who is only 15 years old.
Answer: What unites us is passion and love for our country. Therefore, despite our different backgrounds, we come together with the hope of doing something for our country.
As for the creative process, we have a pool of ideas, and we discuss these ideas every week. You know, we generate ideas 24 hours a day. Even when we sleep, we still think about creating something. It’s quite incredible.
So, we created a creative database and organized weekly meetings. We discussed various ideas, wrote plans and scripts, and then completed the production one by one within a week.
All of our skills were learned through self-training. At first, some of us knew how to use Photoshop, others understood animation production, and still others knew how to communicate. But over time, we continued to learn, enabling each of us to complete the entire process independently—from writing scripts, creating animations, producing images, to communicating.
We read books about movies and also watch related videos.
Answer: No. We produced the first Lego video on the last day of the “12th War”. But after the ceasefire began, we didn’t release it.
However, we were prepared and knew how to proceed. Therefore, in the first few days after the next war broke out, we released our first video, although it was targeted at the Iranian public.
The first volume is called “Chronicles of Victory”. Next is “The Strait of Hormuz Is Closed”, followed by “One Vengeance for All”.
"Revenge For Everyone" Video Screenshot
Yes, that is my favorite piece. I cried when I watched it. That work is truly remarkable.
Answer: We have tried many different approaches. But Lego has a unique comedic effect; you don’t need to achieve complete realism.
If you want to create an image of Trump, just make it look a bit like Trump, and people will recognize him.
But if you create videos in a realistic style, people will start pointing out flaws. They will say, "Trump isn’t like this. His nose isn’t like this, and his hair isn’t like this either."
When creating Lego videos, people look for similarities. They would say, "Ah, this really looks like him." This is an advantage of using Lego.
Moreover, Lego can evoke nostalgic feelings in people. When people were young, it’s possible that their own children played with Lego, or they themselves have played with Lego in the past.
Video Screenshot
Response: We feel like we're also fighting. We are a media army, a media guerrilla force, and must take immediate action.
In the evening, we don’t go home, but sleep in the office. Yes, we work 24 hours a day. We want to do something. It’s our responsibility. We don’t want anything from anyone; we just want to fulfill our duties for our country.
Answer: For many years, we have lived in an environment of Western media warfare. We grew up in such an environment.
There are many Persian-language channels that receive funding from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. That’s the environment we live in. We have naturally learned to understand it.
We did not receive any training in propaganda or psychological warfare during our time at university.
We have experienced all of this firsthand. Therefore, we have seen how Western media uses lies to cover up the truth, how they distort facts, how they exaggerate some minor issues within our country, and how they make our young people lose confidence in their own country.
We understand these practices and have decided to take action to counter them.
But we will not lie, nor will we resort to cruel methods or deceptive tactics; instead, we will stick to the truth.
We know that the human soul deeply loves the truth. Therefore, when you reveal the truth, it liberates thoughts and breaks free from constraints. Some chains are thus broken.
People will understand: “Ah, so the truth does exist. All these years, they have been lying to me.”
So, we turned the situation around, but not by lying.
Answer: I don’t know exactly how many accounts there are, but I do know that in the first few months after we started creating, our works have been viewed over 1 billion times worldwide.
