Gun-toting Bluey sparks outrage as beloved Aussie children’s cartoon characters are hijacked by rogue American website depicting them with a bazookas and machine guns
- Distributors appalled characters from kids show Bluey depicted with weapons
- Characters have been displayed on ‘morale patches’ to be worn by US soldiers
- Bandit, the dad in the Aussie show, is portrayed with body armour and bazooka
- The other characters also wear body armour and carry military style weapons
Characters from the beloved children’s TV show Bluey have been depicted toting high-caliber weapons, including a bazooka, in merchandise sold by an American military accessories website.
BBC Studios, the global distributor of the Australian smash-hit cartoon, said it’s ‘horrified’ by the unauthorised ‘morale patches’ listed on the PatchOps website and will now take legal action.
The company which boasts it sells ‘the baddest patches on the planet’ portrays Bluey’s family all wearing military style US combat body armour and boots brandishing different weapons.
An unshaven Bandit, the fun-loving father in the series, is show with a bazooka, while mother Chili holds a semi-automatic Kalashnikov rifle, Bluey has a machine gun and her younger sister Bingo wields a Glock automatic pistol.
The set of four patches sells for $US40 and have been so popular the first batch has already sold out.
Bluey, the female pup the series centres around, shows off a machine gun on the PatchOps surrounded by other ordinance and military gear
Bluey, which was launched on the ABC in 2018, has taken the world by storm and won international awards
‘We are horrified that images of Bluey are being distorted in this way,’ BBC Studios Australia and New Zealand told the Courier Mail.
‘We’re aware of these inappropriate images used on unauthorised merchandise and we’re continuing to use all efforts to have them removed from the website.’
PatchOps is run by former US infantry solider Timothy Hickey, who says ideas for the patches ‘come from our twisted minds’ and are created to improve morale for the ‘camouflage-painted, lean, mean, sons of b*tches’ still serving in the military.
Launched in 2018 on the ABC in Australia, Bluey was swiftly hailed for its riffs on modern parenting and refreshing characters – particularly Bandit as a capable and astute father, as opposed to a bumbling background character common in kids’ programming.
The show’s plot centres on a young family of blue heeler dogs living a ‘typical’ suburban Australian lifestyle and premiered on the Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney+ in September 2019.
Bandit, who in the show is depicted as a loving and imaginative father, is shown brandishing a bazooka
US website PatchOps is selling unauthorised depictions of the characters from hit children’s show Bluey wearing body armour and brandishing military style weapons
You can also buy a t-shirt with the Bluey characters depicted looking more like Rambo than the suburban family in the show
It become wildly popular in the US, winning the the Kids: Preschool Award at the 2019 International Emmys.
Last year The New York Times described the show as ‘the biggest Australian export since The Wiggles’ – which also took the US by storm.
It remains the most-downloaded show in the ABC’s history and has pawned a multi-million dollar merchandise industry via licensing deals with Target, Big W, Target, Kmart, Catch, Peter Alexander and Bonds.
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