Charlie (Thomas & Friends)

Charlie He tries to be a playful engine, but he is poorly written, making him unlikable. Gender: Male Type: The purple Billy Species: Steam Locomotive Portrayed by: Matt Wilkinson (UK) Glenn Wrage (US, 2009-2011) Ben Small (US, 2012-2014) Steven Kynman (US, 2016) Media of origin: Thomas & Friends

Charlie the purple tank engine (0-6-0ST) is a character who appears in the Thomas and Friends franchise. He was created by Sharon Miller and Jo Jordan and was introduced in season 13. He has received negative feedback from fans due to his unfunny jokes, annoying personality, and an overall poor attempt for humour made by HIT Entertainment.

Why He Is Really Unfunny And Caused Confusion And Delay

1. His jokes are corny and unfunny.
2. He thinks engines should only play and joke around, which is not true as they must work as well.
3. His comic-relief personality and jokes can get annoying after awhile, even then they are lacking themselves.
4. He is careless, as in "Ho Ho Snowman" he and Thomas are seen shunting trucks at the bottom of Gordon's Hill. This is dangerous, as Gordon's Hill is on the mainline, there could have been a crash!
5. He is rude to other engines at times.
   • In "Ho Ho Snowman", he tricks Henry into thinking he is a talking snowman, which terrifies him.
   • In "Charlie and Eddie", he says that Edward is too old to be any fun, and doesn't even apologise for that.
6. He is a Karma Houdini, as he never gets punished for his stupid actions.
   • In "Play Time" (his first appearance in the nitrogen era, and it started horribly), he told Thomas to race him which caused Annie and Clarabel to become uncoupled from Thomas and leave Alicia Botti and the rest of the passengers behind. Thomas ends up getting scolded by The Fat Controller, while Charlie gets off scot-free.
7. Heck, he's even related to Billy who is also another pointless annoying character.
8. He was solely created to sell toys, like with most characters in both the HiT and Sharon Miller eras.
9. His voice can be annoying (depending on the dub).
10. He sometimes makes pointless appearances in episodes where he serves no purpose in the story-line, with "Splish Splash Splosh" being a great example.

Playful Qualities

1. He has a nice design.
2. He became more tolerable in the Brenner era (seasons 17-21).
3. He was at his most decent in "Not Now Charlie".
4. He apologised to Henry in "Ho Ho Snowman".
5. He did kind of get karma in "Splish Splash Splosh" as well as in Not Now Charlie".
6. Unlike Billy, he's not as rude to the other engines.
7. Thankfully, after season 18, he was reduced to just a background character with no dialogue.

Trivia

• Charlie is based on a Manning Wardle L Class 0-6-0ST. Billy, another infamous character in the series, is another engine of this basis.

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