Chuggington

Did You Know?

• The first series of 52 episodes was sold to broadcasters including the BBC, ABC (Australia), TF1 (France), Super RTL (Germany), and Fuji TV (Japan) in a deal announced in February 2008.
• Chuggington made its UK debut as a soft launch on BBC Two on 29 September 2008.
• In Japan, Okayama Electric Tramway operated a train decorated to resemble Wilson and Brewster, starting on 16 March 2019, described as the world's first railroad motif with this character.

Setting

The series is set in the fictional city of Chuggington, where young novice locomotives called Trainees—Koko, Wilson, and Brewster—learn values such as loyalty, honesty, persistence, and non-violent conflict resolution. The locomotives, known as Chuggers, are intelligent and self-directed, with mobile facial features; most have eyebrows resembling windscreen wipers. They interact with humans like passengers and maintenance staff, and some are modelled after real-world locomotives. The city features a central area of large modern buildings and four coloured railway tunnels leading to different locations: a quarry, countryside, a harbour, and the neighbouring town of Tootington.

Production

The creative team included Sarah Ball, a producer and director who worked on Bob the Builder, and Don Toht, who designed characters and sets. Animation was created using Autodesk Maya software. In addition to ten-minute episodes, four-minute Chuggington: Badge Quest shows focused on trainees earning reward badges. Three specials were commissioned for DVD release from 2013. Fuji Television took over Japanese rights on 29 November 2017, and Herschend Entertainment Studios acquired the series rights on 10 December 2018.

Merchandise

In January 2009, RC2 announced Chuggington toys under its Learning Curve brand, released in 2010; RC2 contributed half the production budget for global toy licensing. Anchor Bay Entertainment released DVDs including Chuggington: Let's Ride the Rails in March 2009, Action Stations in October 2009, and Wheels to the Rails in November 2010; the first US nationwide DVD release was on 8 February 2011. Children's books such as Koko on Call: A Nightlight Adventure were published in the UK, with US editions from Publications International and Scholastic in late 2010 and early 2011. The Chuggington Diecast Series launched in the UK in early 2010 and in the US later that year, rebranded as StackTrack in 2012 and discontinued by 2017. An interactive range with Smart Talk technology and over 300 phrases debuted in the UK in 2010 and in the US in February 2011, discontinued by 2017. The Chuggington Wooden Railway, compatible with other wooden systems, was released in Canada in September 2010 and in the US on 1 March 2011, discontinued by 2017. Mega Brands released the Chuggington Construction range in late 2011, discontinued by 2013. Other US products included games from I Can Do That! Games, puzzles from Cardinal, and activity sets from Crayola. The Plarail Chuggington range was released in 2012 and discontinued around 2017.