3 Reasons You Should Add These Bluey Playsets To Your Holiday Shopping List, STAT

Despite the never-ending debates over kids and screens that will likely be waged right up until the end of time, it’s hard to argue that children’s television hasn’t improved significantly since we were young. Sure, they’re not all gems — one of my son’s early favorites involved zero dialogue and copious farting — but every once in a while a legitimately brilliant show comes along that parents truly enjoy watching alongside their kiddos, and right now we are hashtag-blessed to be living in the Age of Bluey.

If somehow you have never seen “Bluey,” an Australian animated series about a family of Heeler dogs that is available on Disney+, Disney Junior, and Disney Channel, then you have surely heard about it from your most discerning mom or dad friend or your favorite parenting influencers. “Bluey” manages to pack smart, creative, educational, funny, poignant, and endlessly relatable content into just seven-minute episodes: a multitasking parent’s dream.

This holiday season, you can bring even more Bluey into your — I mean, um, your child’s — life with two playsets from Moose Toys that are so fun and interactive, you’ll want to get down on the floor and play pretend, just like Bluey and Bingo’s extremely cool parents, Bandit and Chilli (more on them below).

Here are three reasons my kids (and I) can’t get enough of “Bluey” or the playsets that bring this whimsical world to life:

“Bluey” Is All About The Magic Of Imaginative Play

Bluey and her little sister Bingo love to play elaborate games using only their creativity and whatever objects they can find nearby. They admit each other to imaginary hospitals, shop at imaginary stores, run imaginary cafés, or recreate the evolution of life using cardboard boxes, often inviting friends or family members to join the world-building fun.

“Bluey” comes as close as any show I’ve ever seen, for any age group, at capturing the kooky and creative spark of a child’s imagination, and it is impossible not to be inspired by it. While the show encourages kids to make magic out of everyday objects, the Moose Toys playsets bring Bluey’s world to life and are a must-have for any Bluey stan.

Bluey’s Beach Cabin Playset is full of clever features, like hidden fold-out bunk beds, a swimming pool that you can fill with real water, and goggles and a pool float for Bluey to use when she swims. So the next time your kids ask to go to the beach, you can ask yourself — like Matt Harvey does in this relatable TikTok — ”what would Bandit do?” and make some pretend play memories.

Bluey’s Parents Chilli And Bandit Are The G.O.A.T.

Parents are just as obsessed with “Bluey” as their kids are, and with good reason: Bluey’s mom, Chilli, and dad, Bandit, are cool and relatable, unlike a lot of cookie cutter, platitude-spewing cartoon adults. Chilli and Bandit are extremely loving and nurturing, yes, but they also playfully rib each other, roll their eyes occasionally at their offspring, and, in one particularly art-imitating-life episode, avoid playing with their pups because they are clearly (though it’s never said outright, in a clever script designed to play to parents and fly over kids’ heads) ahem, recovering from a New Year’s party. Is it weird that I want to be friends with an animated dog couple who live in Brisbane? Because I kind of do.

Bluey Playsets Are As Original And Unique As The Show

As a kid who grew up in the fashion doll era, I find it incredibly refreshing that Bluey’s family’s favorite shopping expedition is not to a trendy clothing store or even a generic mall, but to the Hammerbarn, a fictional home and hardware emporium that also serves sausages. The fact that this quirky pretend store also exists as a playset is just icing on the duck cake (IYKYK).

Bluey’s Hammerbarn Playset features four levels of shopping for the Bluey and Bingo figurines, as well as a “trolley” (shopping cart), working “lift” (elevator), and absolute essential basic needs such as a garden gnome “husband” to fight over. Sausages are of course included, as are lights, 45+ sounds and sayings from the show, and a sticker sheet so that your child can create their own custom Hammerbarn ambiance. This sweet TikTok from Home of the Harveys shows how irresistible this toy is for parents as well as kids:

Bottom line? Everyone could use more Bluey in their life. So this holiday season, give your kids the gift of imaginative play with their favorite four-legged friend.