Rusty

Rusty
Characteristics
Breed	Red Kelpie
Gender	Male ♂
Eyes	Black
Fur	Mojo (main coat),      Sand (muzzle marking, eyebrows, inner ears, hands, feet, and chest marking)
Personal Status
Relative(s)	Unnamed father Unnamed mother Digger (older brother) Dusty (younger sister)
Friend(s)	Jack (best friend) Bluey Mackenzie Indy Snickers Coco Honey Chloe Pretzel Lucky Bingo
Media
First Appearance	Calypso (Production Appearance: The Doctor)

"'Ello, Doctor Ladies! D'you sell crutches?" ― Rusty

Rusty is a secondary character that has appeared in multiple episodes of Bluey. Rusty is an adventurous boy at school, and he is the best friend of Jack, Bluey, Mackenzie, and Indy amongst other kids. He has a mum, dad, older brother and younger sister.

Bluey.tv Description

• Current
• Original
• Edited

Rusty is a red kelpie and has exceptional skills with a cricket bat. He is Bluey’s friend from school and is also good friends with Indy.

Rusty loves pretending to be a handyman, fixing fences and repairing odds and ends around the place.

Or, if he’s outside, you might find Rusty holed up with Jack calling out for a “dust off” in one of their adventurous games of Army.

Rusty has picked up a thing or two from his dad, who is in the army for real life. And like any good soldier, Rusty is resourceful and well-prepared.

"Bluey’s cousin from the bush. Already rides a motorbike."

"Bluey’s friend from the bush. Already rides a motorbike."

Biography

Rusty is the son to his father and mother, and the middle sibling to Digger and Dusty. Alongside his best friend, Jack, he is close friends with Bluey and Mackenzie. In addition to Jack, Bluey and Mackenzie, some of his frequent playmates include Indy and Snickers.

His dad is in the army and is usually out on patrol; as such, Rusty himself enjoys playing army with Jack. He knows basic training regimes, gestures and nicknames used by soldiers, and is willing to pass his knowledge on to budding soldiers such as Jack. One day, he witnessed his dad returning from patrol and picking him up, even remembering to bring him condensed milk, which made him very happy.

Rusty's favourite sport is cricket, which he enjoys playing with his parents, siblings, friends, and even practicing by himself for hours on end. Various instances in Rusty's childhood have forced or allowed him to develop certain skills as part of the game. After accidentally hitting a ball through his kitchen window and angering his mum, he spent quite a bit of time perfecting his square cut. Over the course of a year during which his father was deployed, Rusty would often get a ride home from school with Jack. The pair would play cricket on Jack's lawn, which made Rusty adept at playing on rough terrain.

One thing Rusty struggled with in cricket was pace (fast bowling), particularly when he played with friends of his brother Digger. One of them, Tiny, was a particularly fast bowler, and it took some time for Rusty to work up the nerve to bat against him. The first time he did, he suffered a painful hit from the ball, and thus became even more fearful of Tiny's bowling. Despite this, Rusty remained determined to overcome the challenge, particularly after writing to his dad about his ongoing difficulties and receiving a lengthy postscript in response. Eventually, Rusty was able to face up to Tiny's bowling and successfully bat against him.

Rusty would later show off these skills at a birthday party that he, Dusty, and several of his friends attended. His skills made him more than a match for parents Bandit, Stripe, and Pat, who were overseeing the game and acting as bowlers. Rusty handily thwarted several of their attempts to get him out. Then, to their complete surprise, which turned swiftly to admiration, Rusty purposefully hit the ball so that his little sister Dusty could catch him out. As he gets older, it is revealed that he becomes a professional cricketer, going so far as to play for the Australian national Test cricket team.

Appearance

Rusty is a Red Kelpie who has red and tan fur.

Specifically, while predominantly red in colouring, Rusty has tan feet, hands, muzzle, eyebrows, inner ears, and a dark brown nose. While he has a chest spot (here shaped like a diamond), a common occurrence within his family, he is the only member of his family to not have visible hair (unless you consider his fur to be such).

Notably, he looks very similar to his friend Bluey. However, there are subtle differences: Rusty is subtly top-heavy, with his waist being slightly slimmer than his head compared to Bluey. As such, if you disregard colour and fur patterns, he does indeed appear to share the same model as Bluey; only his tail and body-shape differentiate his model from her's.

2016 Appearance

His design is identical to his 2018 design, but his fur is slightly lighter.

In this shot from Wild Girls, Bluey and Rusty have the same pose (excluding eyebrows). Excluding the tail, body-shape, and fur patterns, the similarities in design between the two are highlighted clearly.

Rusty's waist is slightly slimmer than his upper half, as shown here.

Personality

Rusty is an adventurous, caring and friendly boy who is understanding of others. He is approachable and easy to get along, but he can sometimes get into disagreements about games. He is also rather sporty, using his free time to get better at cricket, do some pushups, or do some karate.

Rusty is caring for his friends and family, always putting them first - easily getting along with new classmate Jack Russell, showing concern for Mackenzie when the Border Collie tried to face the black hole (with him and Jack being able to pull him back out), and hitting a ball towards his young sister Dusty to get himself out after seeing everyone else go for lunch. Rusty shows himself to be a rather determined and tenacious kid at heart - no matter how many hits he takes, he always finds a way to come back. Having taken a hard hit from a cricket ball once, causing him to shy away from playing the sport with his older brother's friends, Rusty, with the help of an encouraging letter from his dad, rises up and bowls Tiny out, successfully facing the challenge with a reignited spark in his heart.

As with his friends, Rusty is endlessly playful and willing to throw himself into any games his friends and family play - even those he actively doesn't want to play.

However, Rusty can sometimes come off as a little tough or stubborn, which he himself acknowledges; such an example of this is him having a brief falling out with Indy over who gets to go to work and who gets to stay at home and mow the lawn. However, he is quick to make amends and suggest a solution that helps everyone in the end.

Appearances

• S0E00 - Unnamed 2016 Pilot (debut)
• S0E00 - The Weekend (Pilot Cut) (opening only)
• S01E17 - Calypso (series debut)
• S01E18 - The Doctor
• S01E23 - Shops
• S01E30 - Fairies
• S01E40 - Early Baby
• S01E41 - Mums and Dads
• S02E16 - Army
• S02E25 - Helicopter
• S02E31 - Barky Boats (cameo, does not speak)
• S02E45 - Handstand
• S03E09 - Curry Quest (cameo)
• S03E15 - Explorers
• S03E28 - Stories
• S03E34 - Space
• S03E44 - Wild Girls
• S03E45 - TV Shop (cameo)
• S03E47 - Cricket
• S03E49 - The Sign

Trivia

• In the show’s very early development, Rusty was originally going to be the main protagonist, though Bluey quickly was chosen to be the main protagonist by the time the first pilot was finished. Ultimately, Rusty was relegated to a secondary character and was instead developed as one of Bluey's close friends.
  • Many fans consider him to be a male counterpart of Bluey (having the exact same design as her, except for the tail, body shape and colour scheme). Additionally, both are playful and kind to their families and peers.
  • At one point, the official website stated Rusty was one of Bluey's cousins. However, this was not acknowledged in the show itself.
    • The description was eventually changed to Rusty simply being one of Bluey's friends instead, a role he would fill for the rest of the show. However, it has since been debated on if Rusty and Bluey being cousins is true or not.
• Rusty and Mackenzie are both one of the first characters of Bluey's friend group to appear.
  • Rusty being one of the first characters created also explains why he is seen in the second pilots intro alongside Mackenzie, but most other side-characters aren't.
• Rusty is named after Joe Brumm's favourite childhood dog, who was also a red kelpie.
• Rusty is one of the few characters in the show to have a distinct accent.
• According to the official website, he rides a motorbike, though this has yet to be seen on-screen in the show.
  • This tidbit does not appear in the overhauled version of the website, but is hinted in "Wild Girls", albeit with a quad-bike.
• Rusty's family would gradually be revealed in later episodes.
  • First, his father made his debut in Army...
  • His mother made her physical debut in Explorers after being mentioned in Early Baby, and...
  • His siblings, Digger and Dusty, were revealed in Cricket.
• He enjoys playing cricket and is shown to be very skilled at it, as shown in Cricket.
• He is the only one out of his siblings whose name does not begin with “D”.
  • Additionally, his name rhymes with Dusty's.
  • Rusty used to be called Mackenzie in the Unnamed 2016 Pilot Episode, and Mackenzie himself was likely nameless.
    • Whether this is an error or intentional is currently unknown.
• Rusty is shown to be rather fit, playing numerous sports and working out.
  • He is strong enough to lift and carry Jack over his shoulder with just one arm.

Gallery

See Rusty/Gallery