While the country anxiously awaits a decision on President Donald Trump's controversial border wall, a 40-year-old Canadian ironworker has decided to build the barrier himself, one Lego brick at a time. Chris, who goes by Balderdhash on Reddit, first published his border wall Lego design in Feb. 2017 while he was home from work recovering from a medical issue.
"I decided to teach myself to Photoshop with my spare time," Chris told Forbes through Reddit. "The inspiration came from a combination of recreational cannabis and the media attention the wall was getting, I simply saw the subject trending and ran with it. It got a lot of laughs at the time and I didn't concern myself with any negative comments, I was having fun."
Chris initially posted his image on Reddit's r/TinyTrumps, home to photoshopped images of a miniature Trump, where it collected a modest 1,400 upvotes. Since then, Chris' image has been reposted countless times, including on r/pics Tuesday where it went viral with more than 13,000 upvotes.
Lego has grown in popularity among adults since Jeff Thompson coined the term "AFOL" or "adult fan of Lego" in 1995 on Usenet. The company has since capitalized on its growing adult market with products like Lego Architecture, a sub-brand launched in 2008. The series allows people to build historic landmarks like the Rockefeller Center and Fallingwater. The iconic toy company's grip on the adult market was strengthened in 2014 with the release of the Lego Movie which crammed in enough adult humor to earn more than $469 million at the box office. The Danish company recently crowdfunded a new Lego concept called FORMA aimed at helping reduce stress in adults.
Chris has since created a Lego expansion set design following Trump's speech Tuesday evening. During his nine-minute long address, Trump called the situation at the Mexican border a "humanitarian crisis" that necessitated building the wall.
“How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?” Trump said. “This is a choice between right and wrong, justice and injustice. This is about whether we fulfill our sacred duty to the American citizens we serve.”
Although the future of the border wall remains uncertain, Chris' Lego set will likely remain a fun internet joke. He submitted his design to Lego and received a standard decline letter.
"I imagine a few laughs in the Lego office that day," Chris said.
