When LEGO teased K-Pop demon hunters a little while ago with a blue paw and a flower pot two thoughts went through my head. What about that movie converts well to LEGO sets? And, ooh… the sidekicks, now that would be cool! Cue 72537 Derpy Tiger and Sussie Bird, a set with the two main sidekicks containing 825 pieces retailing for AU$119.99/£59.99/US$69.99/€69.99. LEGO generously gifted this set for us to review.
LEGO lends itself well to vehicles and buildings (for example, see One Piece sets) but K-Pop Demon Hunters is entirely character driven with very few memorable ‘things’. When I heard about the theme, I expected something like former Legendary Lego Designer Marcos Bessa’s ideas submission or some other large-scale character builds, which did not appeal to me at all (sorry Marcos, I do love your work).
Lucky for me, there has been a trend of LEGO to release sculptures of side-kicks from various animations (and even ‘heroes’ themselves… Shrek anyone?), so it seems natural that the stars (for me) of K-Pop Demon Hunters would get the brick-treatment: the ‘tiger’ Derpy, and the ‘bird’ Sussie.
Derpy is a supernatural tiger that is… well… a bit derpy, which is probably why I relate to this character’s personality more than to the 5 antagonists (demons with supernatural pop-star allure) and the protagonists (pop stars with a side hustle of demon-slaying and protecting the world). Derpy is friendly but has an issue with wandering focus which is expressed by his eyes wandering in individual directions, making him even more adorable to me.
Sussie, is a bit of a suspicious character (hence the name) with way more eyes than seems comfortable.
Keep reading to find out if this first step into the world of K-Pop Demon Hunters is worthwhile, and if you are new to this world, you may feel inspired to see more of this unusual duo.
The Box
The box beautifully establishes the style and atmosphere of the movie. On the side of the box we see Derpy floating up through the honmoon, the barrier between the demon world and the human world. On the back we see Derpy exercising his predilection with straightening things that have fallen over (illustrated repeatedly with a flowerpot in the movie, as shown here) and on the other side (and front) we see the trio of protagonists the K-Pop group Huntrix.
When I look at the front of the box, I feel like LEGO has chosen the most interesting of the characters to build. I would love to see how they would pull off creating the K-Pop group Huntrix, but I doubt it would attract my attention as easily as this large ball of blue cuteness.
Inside the box we find one instruction book and 7 paper bags with parts and NO stickers!
Derpy, cute, or both?
Derpy and Sussie as a pair, tiger and magpie, refers to a Korean art genre called Jakhodo, somewhat surreal illustrations of a magpie and tiger combination, much like shown in the movie K-Pop Demon Hunters. Such as it is, this set represents not just a pop-culture reference to a new movie, but also a reference to ancient Korean pop-culture (is that a thing?), so you are allowed to get and enjoy it for cultural reasons even if you dislike modern K-Pop.
As mentioned previously, Derpy has a few personality traits I can relate to. He has an issue with items that have been knocked over (are out of place) and gets a little distracted by them as he tries to straighten things out. His tendency to get distracted also has his mind and eyes wandering off occasionally, which can be represented quite nicely with the eyes on the LEGO set. I think he looks best when the eyes are off in different directions.
Let’s not forget that Derpy seems to be a reliable messenger. In the film he delivers messages from Jinu (Demon) to Rumi (Hunter) by sticking out his tongue revealing an envelope. This can be recreated in this set by replacing his lower jaw with his tongue sticking out.
I suspect that Derpy by himself may not have the focus necessary to perform these messaging tasks which is why Sussie is always nearby to provide guidance. A six-eyed magpie, eight if you count the eye painted on the wings, wearing a hat originally gifted to Derpy. How this hat came into Sussie’s possession may say something about Sussie’s character, but we’ll leave that in the middle.
There isn’t much to say about Sussie’s LEGO rendition, it is very compact and simple but captures the character and essence of the magpie really well.
Parts
As you can expect this set contains a lot of blue pieces, or Dark Azure pieces, to be precise, combined with Light Royal Blue pieces. There are about 15 pieces that are new colours in this set (or newly printed) so if you are looking at expanding your blue-ish palette, this is a good starting point. Note also the printed pieces; the eyes, nails, and nose, there are no stickers to be found.
One part I’d like to highlight is the brick 1 x 1 round quarter which is new this year and I had not encountered it before. It seems like an obvious extension of the curved tile, and makes me wonder; how long until we get the 1 x 1 round quarter plate.
Construction
The construction of Derpy and Sussie did not provide surprises; at this stage we kind of know how to build in all directions. This build is particularly satisfying for me because of the brick-built stripes across Derpy’s fur; I am a big fan of such brick alignment.
By the time we start creating the rear paws, especially the toes/nails, the cuteness of the blue ball starts to appear.
The front arms are especially satisfying because of how they can be moved around or placed in a cute, cat-like pose.
I did not fully grasp why there were still quite a few bags left at this point, I mean we have all four legs tail and body! But here comes the head! This is almost the same size as the body and has the same satisfying stripes.
Once the face is mounted, we are presented with the first surprised look of Derpy. The rest of the build deals with finishing the cheeks and back of the head, providing a panel to store all loose parts that come with Derpy. The lack of brain in this head might explain his derpy characteristics.
And there we have it
There he is, Derpy complete with Sussie. This set surprised me, not because of the process or complexity, unusual parts or exotic techniques but exactly because of its clarity of purpose. The build was relaxing and satisfying and seeing those adorable yellow eyes looking back (kind of) at the end of the build just makes it all the better.
I like this set, against my own expectations; I did not expect to have any particular fondness for the movie or it’s characters but Derpie has grown on me.
There are many of these characters available from LEGO by now so if you’ve built one before you know what to expect, and it’s the subject matter (Derpy and Sussie) that will determine if this set is for you.
I like these kind of sculptures, and an azure cross-eyes tiger just makes me smile, so my personal preference gives this set 4 out of 5 arbitrary praise units.
You can get 72537 Derpy Tiger and Sussie Bird for AU$119.99/£59.99/US$69.99/€69.99 which is not too bad for a LEGO set of this size or for a sculpture of your favourite supernatural feline.
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Until Next Time,
Play Well!