Duplo has made a bold move by releasing a limited edition carnie range, believed to be the first of its kind in the world. While parents traditionally steer their children away from carnival folk, both for safety and career aspiration reasons, the new range of carnie-themed blocks seems to encourage children to immerse themselves in a world where grifting and questionable personal hygiene are commonplace.
The first set in the new range features a shifty looking bearded proprietor wearing an outdated jumper, while his son is essentially performing underpaid child labour. The target game being run by the carnies is complete with a fixing device for two of the three targets, meaning that no matter how hard you hit them with the cannon ball, they ain’t going anywhere.
While the designers of the set reportedly had difficulty replicating the smell of cabbage and sawdust often associated with carnies, they did manage to perfectly design an oversized teddy bear for the prize shelf, and a low-range boom box playing terrible music. Early sales figures suggest the sets are not going to be a commercial success, yet they do seem to be popular with shoplifters.
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