Big Mickey

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* I

*“So now you speak? You've been standing there silent all these years, Big Mickey, and you've never said a single word!"*

*"Well, you've never said a single word to me either.”*

―Cranky & Big Mickey's first interaction
**Big Mickey** is a large hammerhead crane who works at Brendam Docks, alongside Cranky and Carly. He is the only character to appear in both *TUGS* and *Thomas & Friends*.

## History

### Thomas & Friends

Big Mickey works at Brendam Docks. During the early days, he used to unload mail from the mail boat into Thomas and Percy's mail vans, for them to deliver all over the island. Once, Big Mickey was transported to work at Knapford Harbour and had a job which involved using a grapple bucket to lift stone.

Sometime later, he worked alongside Cranky, where he was used to unload cargo from ships. Big Mickey once had to unload a boiler from a ship, but he accidentally swung it and knocked Edward off the tracks onto his side.

Later, when Gator was leaving Sodor, Big Mickey loaded him onto a ship while Cranky was being repaired after his crane arm broke.

In the twenty-first series, he took everyone by surprise after not making communication with anyone for many years and became part of the dockside crew with Cranky and Carly.

## Personality

As Big Mickey was silent for a long time, mainly because Cranky has "never said a single word to him", very little is known about him (casting aside his known personality from *TUGS*), although it can be assumed that he is not the best at communicating, as Salty put it. Lately, he has been shown to be cautious in his work and does care for his friends, as seen when Salty fell into the ocean. He has also been shown as a good worker throughout the series.

## Livery

During the third, fourth and fifth series, Big Mickey was painted cool grey. Since the sixth series, however, he has been repainted warm grey.

## Appearances

* Season 1 - Ask Cranky Day and Molly and Rebecca *(cameo)*
* Season 2 - Saving Bulstrode and New Glasses for Whiff (*cameo*)
* Specials - Attack of the Philips

## Trivia

* Big Mickey had many modifications throughout the television series. These include:
	+ Series 3 (from *TUGS*):
		- He had cool grey paintwork.
		- His megaphone was taken away.
		- His top railing became thinner.
		- His walkway received more detailing.
		- He gains windows on his front.
	+ Series 6:
		- He gained riveted steel sides.
		- He gained a new hook.
		- His hoist end became covered.
		- His crane arm became longer.
		- His wheelhouse walkway became square.
		- He gained a new base.
		- He became taller.
	+ Series 13:
		- His overall size increased exponentially.
		- His wheelhouse became wider.
		- His crane arm became taller.
		- His paintwork became more cream coloured.
	+ Series 21 (*New Crane on the Dock*):
		- He gained a face.
* Big Mickey is the only *TUGS* character to have his name carried over to *Thomas & Friends*.
* In episodes of the twenty-first series prior to *New Crane on the Dock*, Big Mickey was always positioned facing away from the camera. This was done to hide his face.
* Big Mickey is the third character to have been given a face after debuting without one, the first two being Butch and Henrietta.
* Although he never had a face until the twenty-first series of *Thomas & Friends*, a prototype face was originally produced for use on *TUGS*. This face was from a different design to the one used in *Thomas & Friends* and covered his full front end. This face was never used but was displayed at the aforementioned exhibition.
* A faceless version of Big Mickey's model with a pink version of Kobe's body can be seen in Brazil.
* A recolour of him appears in the background at Dar es Salaam Docks.
* In 2020, the *Thomas & Friends* website updated its Engines page to include Big Mickey and many other characters. For his image, a fan 3D render made to work as a custom model for a Trainz game by User:Ilovetrains323 was erroneously used instead of an official render. Big Mickey's page was removed soon after, for unknown reasons.