Review: 72537 Derpy Tiger and Sussie Bird
Posted by CapnRex101,
KPop Demon Hunters' incredible popularity was totally unexpected when the animation debuted last year, so very little merchandise was available on release. The reaction has been fast, as 72537 Derpy Tiger and Sussie Bird will be released less than a year after the movie.
The short development time has not diminished these characters' designs though, as both creatures are expressive and Derpy in particular is very detailed. Also, there are plenty of accessories provided, ready for some different display options, so this should be a fun set.
Summary
72537 Derpy Tiger and Sussie Bird, 825 pieces.
£59.99 / $69.99 / €69.99 | 7.3p, 8.5c, 8.5c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
Derpy and Sussie translate extremely well to LEGO form, with lots of personality
- Appealing display model
- Incredibly expressive faces
- Good selection of accessories
- I am not sure Derpy's proportions needed to be exaggerated
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Reference
Source - KPop Demon Hunters, Sony Pictures Animation
The Completed Model
Despite their limited role in the movie, Derpy and Sussie are extremely popular and inherently ideal for merchandise, so a set like this one was certain to be made. After all, there have been lots of buildable characters produced in recent years and many new elements created to aid in building them, which Derpy uses to his full advantage!
You start by assembling the tiger's body and the model seemed surprisingly small at that stage, but once the head is connected, it looks more substantial. This entire model measures 22cm in height, with Sussie perched on top, which is a nice size for display and roughly what I expected for its 825 pieces. Similar to other buildable animals, the tiger is densely packed with parts.
Derpy's most recognisable pose is probably his seated stance when magically descending into the demon world, looking into the middle distance all the while. I am not surprised the designer chose to recreate this pose and I think it looks quite natural, using curved slopes to capture the character's cuddly proportions and featuring printed 1x1 round tiles for claws.
However, I find the plates on the forelegs awkward because there are very few exposed studs elsewhere. Also, the 2x2 quarter domes on the thighs are each connected to 2x2 plates with a Technic pin underneath, so they rotate loosely. That hardly matters, though it still strikes me as quite unusual.
The figure is predominantly dark azure, featuring black stripes and various light royal blue and medium azure highlights. The stripes down Derpy's back are not completely accurate because there should be blue bands in the middle of each stripe, but at this size, the simpler design was probably necessary.
The tail is connected to a ball joint, so you can move it and the front legs around for alternative poses, while the head and back paws rotate. Any articulation is welcome and the option to turn the head was essential, but I would still be inclined to leave the figure in its neutral seated pose. Moving a paw is not very useful unless Derpy can really face whatever he is reaching for.
Of course, the figure's most important feature is undoubtedly the head, which is designed at a slightly bigger scale than the body, though not nearly to the extent of 10375 How to Train Your Dragon: Toothless. Even so, I am not convinced it was necessary to adjust the scale, so I wish the tiger's body was a bit larger to match the head.
I suggest adapting the body to match the head rather than the inverse because Derpy's facial expression is absolutely perfect! The shape of the eyes is accurate and I love the open mouth, really conveying the tiger's personality. The designer has even recreated Derpy's asymmetrical teeth, as one of the 1x1 pyramids protrudes a bit further than the other.
The eyes, nose and spots on the forehead are printed pieces, as are all the decorated parts in this set. The spots are printed slightly off-centre on my set, annoyingly, but the other parts look good. Most details are brick-built, however, including the stripes across the top of the head and Derpy's black eyebrows.
Perhaps similar to the character onscreen, Derpy's head is hollow, which leaves room to store the accessories behind a removable panel. Keeping everything together is always useful and I am glad the available space is being used, especially with quite a few accessories provided.
Derpy serves as a helpful messenger between Jinu and Rumi, delivering notes on his tongue. The set therefore includes a detachable tongue, like 11384 Golden Retriever Puppy, although you need to remove the teeth on the lower jaw to place the tongue in this case. Two notes are supplied, accurate to Jinu's first message to Rumi and her later invitation in return.
A flowerpot is included as well, in reference to Derpy's apparent fascination with righting items that have been knocked over. This pot is basic, but it is a fine accessory and you can pose the tiger with his paw on top, as pictured below.
Sussie, a six-eyed magpie also from the demon world, accompanies Derpy when he delivers messages, perhaps to keep him on track! It must be difficult to capture much detail on such a small animal at this scale, but the printed eyes and circular patterns look superb, with the eyes again giving a sense of Sussie's frustration at Derpy's shortcomings!
Naturally, the magpie also wears its usual hat, which Jinu made for the tiger, although the bird keeps taking it. I like the shape of the beak under the brim and Sussie's tail looks good as well, using a black spearhead piece.
Overall
While I am more interested in any future minifigure-scale KPop Demon Hunters sets than sets like this, 72537 Derpy Tiger and Sussie Bird is executed extremely well. The tiger is absolutely adorable and his facial expression matches the movie exactly, while Sussie also looks good for such a tiny figure, with lots of personality.
There are some details that could probably be refined on a bigger model, but features like the two-tone stripes really require a larger scale. I wish Derpy's proportions were closer to the film, but otherwise, this is an excellent start for LEGO KPop Demon Hunters and the price of £59.99, $69.99 or €69.99 feels alright to me, compared with other licensed buildable characters.
61 likes
24 comments on this article
Can Derpy wear the hat? That seems like an essential feature.
Very fun parts pack for azures. Im interested to grab this on a very steep discount used on eBay.
Or a very steep discount anywhere (Target/ Walmart, etc.) I'm rarely a naysayer but my guess is this line gets looked over...
the face is faithfully recreated
@Mister_Jonny said:
"Can Derpy wear the hat? That seems like an essential feature."
Yes he can: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZuNS2zs2bs/
@CapnRex101 said:
" @Mister_Jonny said:
"Can Derpy wear the hat? That seems like an essential feature."
Yes he can: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZuNS2zs2bs/ "
Hurrah!
Can’t get past the demented evil look the character design has.
@legoDad42 said:
"Can’t get past the demented evil look the character design has."
Really? I think he's adorable.
I can’t see this getting into steep discount territory as others have suggested. This is a pretty popular franchise.
@EtudeTheBadger said:
" @legoDad42 said:
"Can’t get past the demented evil look the character design has."
Really? I think he's adorable."
I agree, adorable.
And on my wishlist.
Great review! I'm really impressed with the quality of this set considering how quickly it's made it to shelves. I don't love the disproportionate body but I'm glad it's not as out of wack as Toothless. The printed parts are really nice and I think the characters' personalities have been captured perfectly!
@KingShark9500 said:
"Very funny calling this a short development time when the Project Hail Mary set released BEFORE the movie. I honestly thought it was a joke when you said the same thing in the set's announcement.
On the other hand, great review and I'm pretty excited for this set. I'm not in love with the proportions either, but it's very solid for the first KPDH set and it'll look nice on display."
It's a short turnaround only for something that went into development after the movie's release. Most media tie-in sets are either planned beforehand or years after the fact, when timeliness isn't a concern.
@KingShark9500 said:
"Very funny calling this a short development time when the Project Hail Mary set released BEFORE the movie. I honestly thought it was a joke when you said the same thing in the set's announcement."
Sets releasing before a movie comes out doesn't necessarily indicate a short development time, since the amount of time spent developing a set depends on how far ahead of time development started. With most licensed themes based on movies, it's common for development to start quite early based on concept art (a common source of inaccuracies in themes like Marvel, which have a tendency to make VFX changes quite late in post-production). KPop Demon Hunters is kind of out of the ordinary in that respect—its phenomenal success on Netflix was quite unexpected (even for Sony, which sold the distribution rights to Netflix for fairly cheap), and so most merchandise based on the movie didn't come about until well after it had become a viral success.
'Perhaps similar to the character onscreen, Derpy's head is hollow' had me hollering.
@legoDad42 said:
"Can’t get past the demented evil look the character design has.
"
I mean he is the spirit companion of a demon...
Though he is still very cute IMO.
I'm building a moc that has eyes that are 3x3 or 4x4, and I keep changing them as cool new pieces in those sizes come out. Time to add these eyes to the rotation
"A flowerpot is included as well, in reference to Derpy's apparent fascination with righting items that have been knocked over." So he's the opposite of a house cat in that way. Also, am I the only one who thinks that those eyes would be perfect for a Hypnotoad MOC?
I cannot understand how anybody can find this mish-mash abdomination adorable or cute.
It looks like a frightened mashup of tiger, leopard and whatever, created for being a merchandise article, nothing more.
And I do watch and love anime.
It looks like a demonic Garfield. All I know about K-Pop Demon Hunters is that it is a very popular amine, no idea on the characters but did think they where teenagers and that it was a TV series not a movie lol. Is this their pet??
Too busy living under my Lego collection to know anything about popular culture :P
Derpy and Sussie are inspired by a particular type of Korean folk art that depicts tigers and magpies. They’re an interpretation of traditional culture, not just merchbait.
@Hiratha said:
"Derpy and Sussie are inspired by a particular type of Korean folk art that depicts tigers and magpies. They’re an interpretation of traditional culture, not just merchbait."
Something can be two things at the same time.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @Hiratha said:
"Derpy and Sussie are inspired by a particular type of Korean folk art that depicts tigers and magpies. They’re an interpretation of traditional culture, not just merchbait."
Something can be two things at the same time."
They sure can. You will note that “not just” is different from “not”, and thus that that was kind of my point. :)
"Perhaps similar to the character onscreen, Derpy's head is hollow, [...]"
This is the best sentence I've read in a Lego set review. Ever.
@PurpleDave
I was wrong! Everything is printed!
Interesting, SW fans got upscaled Darth Vader with stickers even though others upscaled were printed and cheaper! Here (for potential new customers) premium product. It feels a bit like with D&D minifigs where they were more premium than usual and with additional heads.
@Briczk said:
" @PurpleDave
I was wrong! Everything is printed!
Interesting, SW fans got upscaled Darth Vader with stickers even though others upscaled were printed and cheaper! Here (for potential new customers) premium product. It feels a bit like with D&D minifigs where they were more premium than usual and with additional heads."
Yeah, that got confirmed in the reveal comments. Every theme’s design team gets a limited number of “frames”, which they can spend on prints, recolors, or I imagine you have to burn one to call a new mold into production (on top of getting your lead designer to sign off on it). Besides having to spread them out over a metric crapton of new sets each year, the SW design team prioritizes minifigs and recolors more than avoiding stickers.