Rusty is a red kelpie and has exceptional skills with a cricket bat. He is Bluey’s friend from school and a secondary character that has appeared in multiple episodes of Bluey. He is also one of the more adventurous kids at school, and has a mum, dad, older brother and younger sister.
Appearance[]
Rusty is a Red Kelpie who has red and tan fur. While predominantly red in colouring, Rusty has tan feet, hands, muzzle, eyebrows, inner ears, and a dark brown nose. While he has a diamond shaped chest spot, a common occurrence within his family, he is the only member of his family to not have visible hair.
Personality[]
Rusty is an adventurous, caring and friendly boy who is understanding of others. He is approachable and easy to get along, but sometimes he can get into disagreements about games. He is also quite 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. Rusty is endlessly playful and willing to throw himself into any games his friends and family play, even the ones he doesn't want to play. However, Rusty can sometimes come off as a little tough or stubborn, which he himself acknowledges. However, he is quick to make amends and suggest a solution that helps everyone in the end.
Story[]
In the pilot episode, Rusty and Mackenzie briefly appeared to cheer for Bluey.
In "Calypso", Rusty was playing as housebuilder, making a house with two rooms. He gets to share the house to Indy but he wants her to pay the rent, so she goes for a job while he watches over Indy's baby doll.
In "The Doctor", Rusty plays as a patient who has eaten a hippopotamus and burps baby hippos who are actually just toys.
In "Shops", Rusty gets chosen to be an assistant in Bluey's shop game.
In "Fairies", Rusty appeared as he was playing cricket and noticed Bandit's dance along with Bingo's "unfreezing".
In "Early Baby", Rusty explained to Calypso that when he said "'Ello, Doctor Ladies! D'you sell crutches?" and Bluey, Chloe, Honey and Indy shouted at him. Later it was revealed that Rusty and Coco were playing a medieval game with Snickers being a dragon who takes the princess. Rusty goes to save the princess as a knight but during the fight, Rusty replaces the piece with Polly, Indy's baby doll because he believed it looks more like a daughter. Rusty defeated the dragon and saved the day but got "injured", so he went to the hospital as he was still holding Polly which explains the screams. As Rusty realized his mistake and apologizes to the girls. In the end, Indy asks Rusty to play Mums and Dads with her.
In "Mums and Dads", Rusty plays Mums and Dads with Indy and their baby doll, Polly but they get into an argument over who should work and who should stay home. Rusty choses Bluey to play Mums and Dads with, but she makes Rusty the baby which annoys him. Rusty tells Bluey that he doesn't want to be the baby but she ignores him. After getting annoyed enough by Bluey treating him like a baby, Rusty runs away with Bluey chasing him. Rusty runs into Indy and she helps him hide. In the end they make up but they still can't decided who should go to work and who should stay home, so they pretend it's the weekend as a simple solution.
In "Army", Rusty meets Jack Russell and requests that he plays Army with him, however Jack explains that he's not good at following instructions but after Rusty barks a few orders, Jack obeys immediately making him qualified for the game. However Rusty explains that Jack can't just start in the army; he has to go through basic training first, and Rusty will be his drill sergeant. He issues Jack his spare hat and advises him not to lose it. After a successful training, Jack is ready to play. After sentry duty, Rusty shares some rations with Jack, and explains that he knows so much about the army because his dad's in the army - he's out on patrol right now, but he'll be home soon, and promised to bring Rusty some condensed milk.
Rusty and Jack encounter a brush turkey, and Rusty announces that they're outnumbered and surrounded. They need to call for a dust-off, and Rusty asks Jack for the code name for their location. Jack is able to remember it - Tango seven. However, the chopper can't make it to them, they'll have to run to an alternate landing zone. Jack is really good at running, because he's a Jack Russell.
They make it to the chopper (a treehouse). As they look out over the meadow, Rusty asks Jack why he came to this school. Jack says there's something (wrong/up) with him - he can't sit still, he can't follow directions, he can't remember things. Rusty remarks that he's good at playing army. The episode leaves it to the audience to note that playing Army involved all those things. They return to the school for pick-up time. In the end, Rusty gets picked up from his father who is back from patrol.
In "Helicopter", Rusty and Jack get in Bluey's "helicopter" doing their military game. Rusty begs Bluey to pretend that the helicopter is hit by a rocket despite her not wanting to. After that Rusty and Jack continue their game elsewhere.
In "Barky Boats", Rusty makes a cameo.
In "Handstand", Rusty is one of the many guests for Bingo's birthday party who played with their friends and didn't noticed Bingo's handstand.
In "Curry Quest", Rusty makes a cameo.
In "Explorers", Rusty along with Coco, Bluey and Jack play a game where they have a journey with a boat however Rusty gets picked up first by his mom, leaving Jack as a captain with the girls.
In "Stories", Rusty appears in Indy's story as well as the rest of her class and points out how her model horse doesn't look like a horse.
In "Space", Rusty is playing with Jack and Mackenzie and they were having fun until Mackenzie starts acting weird. While he doesn't know why, he tries to handle it. Later as Mackenzie goes into the "black hole", Rusty doesn't feel like playing without Mackenzie so he pulls him out from the tunnel and the aliens (who are Bluey, Indy and Chloe in butterfly/fairy costumes) and the trio continues playing together.
In "Wild Girls", Rusty is playing as farmer in Bluey's farmers game.
In "TV Shop", Rusty makes a cameo.
In "Cricket", during a cricket game, it shown that Rusty enjoys playing cricket 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 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 cricket team.
In "The Sign", Rusty and the rest of Bluey's class listen to Calypso's story about problem and they get sad when they find out that Bluey is moving away.
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).
- 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 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 pilot's 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.
- 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 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.