Heads up, squirts: Lego Bluey is here – but not everyone is happy

The Age

3 days ago

'We knew this launch should be for preschoolers. That's why we took these decisions,' she said. 'We know there are a lot of adult fans out there, but that was a choice made from the beginning.'
Unusually for the brand, the Lego Bluey sets, which went on sale on Sunday, June 1, come in two streams: for ages 4 and older, and in the Duplo range for toddlers. And looking at both, you do recognise the 'trifficult' design challenges.
Bluey' s main characters – Mum, Dad, Bingo and Bluey – as sketched by creator Joe Brumm and his collaborators at Brisbane's Ludo Studio, mostly consist of a rectangle.
Perfect for Lego bricks, you might think, but not at all in proportion to standard Lego 'minifigs', first designed by Jens Nygaard Knudsen and released in 1978.
Cardazzo said her team worked hard to arrive at a 'sweet spot'.
'We started to sketch what could be the Bluey DNA direction, and then what would be the opposite extreme, with the Lego DNA.
'But then we tested with the preschoolers and tried to understand what were their expectations. And, definitely, playability is the number-one like for preschoolers. These characters need to be able to move, and to fit into the Lego system.'
Hence: no tails (which are instead painted on the back of the figures).
Cardazzo said her team of about 15 designers approached the task by watching as many episodes as they could.
Key scenes from The Beach, Ice Cream, Keepy Uppy and more were identified, then pitched to BBC Studios.
'What really helps is when the partner that we work with really loves and knows the brand,' the BBC's Tai said.
'Even without us saying, they'd already put tiny little gnomes in there, or Chattermax, those things that fans really pick up on.'
Justin Rouillon, co-host of the Bluey's Brisbane podcast, which identifies the real-life locations found in the series, said the Lego collaboration was no surprise, given the show's massive audience.
' Bluey is a huge global brand, it's worth billions,' he said. 'Also, Bluey ties in well with Lego from that imaginative play standpoint.'
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While generally positive about the sets, he said he was disappointed the house was 'just a facade'.
'It'd be great if you could build the entire Queenslander house that Bluey lives in,' he said.
Rouillon's co-host, Lou Bromley, liked the figurines, but agreed Brisbane viewers might be disappointed in the house.
'I think it'd be great if we could have had the verandah or the deck. They've gone for that old-school townhouse style.
'I love that they've got a dunny in there. They nailed the soft yellow of the faded paint. But the steps, the railings, the tin roof?'
There is one aspect that Bromley said the brand definitely 'hasn't pulled off'.
'It's a woeful backyard tree, because here in Brisbane, we know that's not what a poinciana [looks like].'
Jacen Carpenter, a Longreach-based Lego collector and builder who has created his own interpretations of Bluey 's characters, is concerned that the figurines look too tall.
'The figures might have looked better if the sculpted head fit over the torso slightly, like Ewoks in Lego Star Wars, to give Bluey and her family the squat, cylindrical look of the cartoon,' he said.
While Cardazzo said no one from her team had visited Brisbane for the project, Tai said the team at Ludo were closely consulted and supplied drawings to assist the designers.
Cardazzo had to keep her work top secret for many months. Her own five-year-old daughter was able to test prototypes, but had to play the 'Quiet Game' about it afterwards.
The designer would not be drawn on whether Bluey would be a brand perennial (like, say, Lego Marvel) or a limited-run collector's item.
One suspects that it's in the hands of kids – and the wallets of their parents.
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At the Cannon Hill Kmart at 11am on Sunday, the Lego Bluey pickings were already looking slim.
Manly mum Brittany and her two sons, 7 and 3, quickly grabbed the last box of Lego Duplo Bluey's Family House.
'It's such a historic brand, and then collaborating with Bluey, I thought, 'if you don't get in early, you won't get one',' she said.