YMMV / Chuggington

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Frostini a Jerk with a Heart of Gold with unfortunate case of short temper, or is really a narcissistic Bitch in Sheep's Clothing?
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Many fans think Wilson shows symptoms of ADHD due to his hyperactive nature, and his tendency to get sidetracked.
• Fandom Rivalry: Rather notoriously, the show has been dogged by one of these with fellow show Thomas & Friends for...basically all of its life, with fans of the latter loathing Chuggington and deriding it as being a "ripoff" and "too unrealistic and bouncy". That being said, this has since died down.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Like Thomas, it's very popular in Japan due to it having mostly revolved around trains and railways (trains being a bigger part of daily life in Japan than in America).
  • It is also one of the few Western Animation series to make it to the Top 10 ratings of the week, though not as frequently as Curious George or Shaun the Sheep, given that the show airs Sunday mornings at 6:15 AM. Which arguably makes it more impressive that it makes it.
  • Ludorum was well aware of this, as (what would ultimately be one of their final big licensing deals before the December 2018 sale of the series to Herschend), they sold the Japanese rights of the series from TOMY (their former toy licensee) to Fuji TV (their broadcaster) in Fall 2017; they have since commissioned a double-ended tram replica of Wilson and Brewster for regular service on the Okayama Electric Tramway as of March 2019.
• Seasonal Rot:
  • Season 4 was notably poor compared to other seasons. Due to Season 3 not being that well received (to the point where they stopped production at 14 episodes and had the budget lowered), alongside troubled toy sales, the whole show went through a revamp to try and get more appeal for the crowd again. While the updates to the animation, the cast, and the trainees moving to advanced training were well received, the season was mostly Strictly Formula (trainee has difficulty learning something new, and another trainee has a usually useless subplot) and overly Merchandise-Driven, lacking the balance of toyetic elements and story the other seasons had.
  • The season (and its accompanying attempts at specials, which were really two episodes slotted with three minutes of new animation in-between) ended up being both a marketing and financial failure; the season that followed only ran for ten episodes (six if you don't count the four episodes used for the seasons' specials), and was fully funded by TOMY (the show's initial toy master licensee and co-producer for the series). Ludorum, following the disastrous results of the two seasons, dropped TOMY's license, brought aboard Jazwares (which produces Animal Jam and Peppa Pig toys) as their replacement, and (with a significant lack of budget and an aged-down target audience) chose to produce a 52-episode Abridged Series entitled "Little Trainees", as an attempt to ride off SVOD revenue and its new target demographic.
• So Okay, It's Average: Now that the Fandom Rivalry with Thomas has died down, the general opinion on the show these days is that while it's not a great show, it's also still not a "bad" or "horrible" one, and has some occasional good moments and episodes and characters to it.
• Vindicated by History: Given the aforementioned Fandom Rivalry with Thomas, Chuggington's reception has always been...tepid, to say the least. However, in recent years, the show's reception has turned around somewhat, especially after Thomas had its attempted "Big World! Big Adventures!" relaunch (which was both a failure and poorly received), and then the subsequent "All Engines Go!" spinoff, causing many fans of that show, even the ones who once derided it, to give this one a second look. These days, while it's still not regarded as being a masterpiece by any means, it's also not regarded as being a bad show either, and it's managed to gain at least some respect for doing its own thing and being what it is without ruining a pre-existing IP, unlike the aforementioned "All Engines Go!" (which has gained an even poorer reception than this show ever has).
• Win Back the Crowd: Seasons 5 and 6 rectify the series back from it's previously formulaic structure introduced in Season 4, with more time for side characters and unique stories.