Olwin is a character from the childrens TV series Chuggington, shown on the Cbeebies channel. When the show was first aired my children were still big fans of the channel, and they were delighted when santa AKA nana brought them a large collection of diecast Chuggington engines for them to play with. My mum doesn't do things by halves, so we have pretty much every engine you could get at that time in our set.

Olwin is a femal character. She is a steam locomotive, and she is seen in a maternal role being a bit over protective towards the trainee characters who are younger and just learning the ropes in Chuggington. I am not particularly fond of the character Olwin. I think she worries a bit too much, and tries to molly coddle the younger engines a bit.

Her appearance is very distinctive. All of these models are diecast metal on the outer frame of the engine, but feature a plastic base and coupling system. The plastic is pretty tough, as my children have played with these a lot over the time we have owned them, running them along floor and track, and joining them together then taking them apart again, and we have had no breakage to any of the wheels or ball and socket style coupling system that this system features.

The trains are almost all on 8 wheel bases, and very similar in height, but all look unique thanks to their paint job and shape. This one is built with a cab at the back, and would hold coal at the front. I am pleased that the makers of this series don't feel the need to characterise the engines based upon colour, so Olwin is green and orange, with accents of light blue. Not overly feminine at all. I don't think Olwin is that comfortable to hold in your hand, but she has been used a lot to pull other trains around the various tracks that we own.

Unfortunately the lighter colours have started to chip quite badly on this little engine. The orange sections have faired worse as they are raised and more likely to be bumped around in the games my children play or when the trains are being stored, and it does spoil the overall look a little.

Olwin is not the most popular with my children either, as they prefer the more exciting and recognisable characters such as the trainees, Koko, Brewster and Wilson, and Action Chugger, Frostini and Old Puffer Pete. If I were buying the collection myself, I think I would have left Olwin out. At a cost of somewhere between £3.50 and £5.00 per engine, your money might be better spent on a more exciting character.