Cranky

Cranky

* Current
* Debut

Background information

**First episode**
"The Trouble With Trucks" (*cameo*)

Character information

**Full name**
Cranky the Crane

**Other names**
* Creaky Cranky (*by Thomas and Porter*)

**Age**
Unknown (*Crane*)

**Home**
Island of Sodor

**Friends**
* Thomas
* Percy
* Bill and Ben
* Porter
* Salty
* Carly
* Big Mickey

**Quote**
"You're/You are useless little bugs! If you put these trucks/freight cars on the inside lines, then I wouldn't have so far to travel!"

**Cranky** is an olive green tower crane situated at Brendam Docks.

Personality
As his own name would imply, Cranky is extremely grumpy because he is initially kept working day and night without rest. Although nowadays he is able to sleep properly, he still maintains his cranky attitude. Cranky loves teasing the engines and has an intense dislike for Salty's stories. He rarely pays attention due to his perpetual bad temper. According to Big Mickey, throughout all the years he has been at the docks, Cranky has never said a single word to him.
However, Cranky has at times shown a bit of kindness, such as when he sympathised for Percy after Thomas went missing on Misty Island and also when he used a large reflective mirror to show Henry his glowing paint. He has started to become friends with the engines working at the docks. Although Cranky is now easier to befriend, he still does not take criticism well, and grew insulted when Professor Friedrich opted to check the Blastbooster-7 after he unloaded it, despite taking all the care in the world to unload it safely.
Although he has a serious and typically unflinching demeanour, Cranky has shown that despite his cynicism, he is able to have fun. However, he often attempts to hide signs that he is enjoying something to try and keep his grumpy image. These usually go fairly poorly, but on numerous occasions he actively chooses to join in the fun and not hide anything.

Technical Details
Basis
According to an interview with Robert Gauld-Galliers, Cranky is based on photographic references of various cranes from the 1920s to the 1950s.
According to his 2015 trading card, Cranky is a hybrid design, based on various Tower Cranes that were mainly manufactured by the Stothert & Pitt Company of Bath, England.

Livery
Cranky is painted olive green with black and brown pulleys amongst his mechanism. He also has two nameplates on his sides that display his name in yellow lettering.

Appearances
Television Series* **Season 1** - The Trouble With Trucks (cameo)
* **Season 11** - Fergus' Day Off
* **Season 12** - The Mavis Matrix (not seen) and The Mystery Train
* **Season 13** - It's Good To Be Belle, Rust or Bust (cameo) and How Gator Stole Christmas
* **Season 14** - Henry Gets Stumped (cameo) and Hiro and the Heat Wave
* **Season 15** - Harvey's Happy Accident and Nightmare on Sodor (fantasy; does not speak)
* **Season 16** - Bulstrode Barges In, Marion Had a Little Lamb, Bad News Bear (cameo) and Ace in the Hole (cameo)
* **Season 17** - Unidentified Flying Scotsman (cameo), Dustin the Really Useless Engine (does not speak), Sidney Transplant (cameo), Toby, Or Not Toby (cameo) and Rocked by a Hurricane (cameo)

Specials* Sodor's Last Stand
* Saving Pirate Ryan

Trivia* Cranky can be dismantled and shifted to different locations, despite it never being mentioned or shown in the show; however, there are some cases where Cranky has not been seen at Brendam or seen elsewhere.
* Before the script was cut, Cranky was to have a much larger role in Thomas and the Magic Railroad, where he would be seen in an early sequence loading Henry's trucks, and another scene where he accidentally drops a crate of fruits and vegetables on Splatter and Dodge.
	+ In the aforementioned film, although he is not a major character, his model can still be seen in the background as Diesel 10 sneaks away from the sheds. In this case, he was located in the yards at Knapford Station rather than Brendam Docks.
* In the Serbian dub, Cranky's name is Mrgud, which is also Bulgy's name in the same language.
* In the French dub, Cranky's name is Felix. It is intended to be an ironic name as Felix is Latin for "happy".
* One of Cranky's models used to be on display in Canada at Nitrogen Studios and wore his content face. It is now on display at Drayton Manor Theme Park and is still wearing his content face.
* Cranky's crew can access him by a floor hatch underneath his body. This is also annotated in his concept art.
* Cranky's hook moving sound was heard in various pieces of other media such as the Madagascar penguin game and Treasure Planet.
* Originally, Cranky was to have a grey livery; this would explain why Cranky's original Plarail and Wooden Railway toys were painted light grey instead of olive. The vast majority of his merchandise is also forest green instead of olive. Promotional renders made by Nitrogen Studios also depict him in a very deep shade of forest green. Also, the My First Thomas toy of Cranky is incorrectly painted blue.
* Cranky was the first non-Awdry character introduced in the television series who was not Railway Series-related with a freelance basis.
* According to an interview with Sodor Island Forums, Cranky is one of Mark Moraghan's favourite characters alongside Percy.
* Cranky has two seagull friends named Seagull and Stuart.
* In the Learning with Thomas short, Thomas & Percy Learn About Recycling, Cranky is shown with a grabber attachment as opposed to his hook attachment.
* Cranky had a total of nine facial expressions during the model series era, all of which were used on-screen.
* Since his introduction, Cranky has spoken in every series, excluding the twelfth series.