knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ perl -Mstrict -MData::Dumper -we '
> my @arr;
> push @{ $arr[ do { my $v = $1 - 1 if m{(\d+)$}  } ] }, $_
>    for glob q{{red,blue}-{small,medium,large}-{1,2,3,4}};
> print Data::Dumper->Dumpxs( [ \ @arr ], [ qw{ *arr } ] );'
@arr = (
         [
           'red-small-1',
           'red-medium-1',
           'red-large-1',
           'blue-small-1',
           'blue-medium-1',
           'blue-large-1'
         ],
         [
           'red-small-2',
           'red-medium-2',
           'red-large-2',
           'blue-small-2',
           'blue-medium-2',
           'blue-large-2'
         ],
         [
           'red-small-3',
           'red-medium-3',
           'red-large-3',
           'blue-small-3',
           'blue-medium-3',
           'blue-large-3'
         ],
         [
           'red-small-4',
           'red-medium-4',
           'red-large-4',
           'blue-small-4',
           'blue-medium-4',
           'blue-large-4'
         ]
       );
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ 

##</code><code>##

knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ perl -Mstrict -MData::Dumper -we '
> my $idx;
> my %idxHash =
>    map { $_ => $idx ++ }
>    glob q{{red,blue}-{small,medium,large}};
> my @arr;
> push @{ $arr[ do { $idxHash{ $1 } if m{^(\w+-\w+)} } ] }, $_
>    for glob q{{red,blue}-{small,medium,large}-{1,2,3,4}};
> print Data::Dumper->Dumpxs( [ \ @arr ], [ qw{ *arr } ] );'
@arr = (
         [
           'red-small-1',
           'red-small-2',
           'red-small-3',
           'red-small-4'
         ],
         [
           'red-medium-1',
           'red-medium-2',
           'red-medium-3',
           'red-medium-4'
         ],
         [
           'red-large-1',
           'red-large-2',
           'red-large-3',
           'red-large-4'
         ],
         [
           'blue-small-1',
           'blue-small-2',
           'blue-small-3',
           'blue-small-4'
         ],
         [
           'blue-medium-1',
           'blue-medium-2',
           'blue-medium-3',
           'blue-medium-4'
         ],
         [
           'blue-large-1',
           'blue-large-2',
           'blue-large-3',
           'blue-large-4'
         ]
       );
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ 

##</code><code>##

knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ perl -Mstrict -MData::Dumper -we '
> my @arr;
> my $idx = -1;
> push @{ $arr [ $_->[ 0 ] ] }, $_->[ 1 ] for
>    map { $idx ++; map { [ $idx, $_ ] } glob qq{$_-{1,2,3,4}} }
>       glob q{{red,blue}-{small,medium,large}};
> print Data::Dumper->Dumpxs( [ \ @arr ], [ qw{ *arr } ] );'
...