The final word on Colin the Caterpillar

Our friend Colin is back in the news again. This time, it’s not his name that has caused a storm – Colin’s many fans may remember M&S filed an intellectual property claim against Aldi back in April in an attempt to stop them from selling their copy cat-erpillar Cuthbert. Rather, it’s the suggestion that he may have been present at the Prime Minister’s impromptu birthday party,  that is raising eyebrows.

Like Prince, Madonna and Boris, in birthday party circles, Colin needs no second name, with over 15 million sales under his belt during his 30 year life. I’m only slightly older than Colin, and he’s been present at perhaps half the birthday parties I’ve ever attended, plus more than one wedding. When my best friend was stuck in a maternity ward in Sweden during the pandemic after a difficult birth, it was Colin we sent to the hospital as comfort.

Such is the cult of Colin that M&S created a female version – Connie the Caterpillar – who sports a pink bow. There are special wedding versions of Colin and Connie, complete with top hat and veil. Colin’s major birthdays have been marked with limited edition cakes. (I find the idea of celebrating Colin’s birthday unsettling, because it begs the question: what is Colin having as a cake?). You can also now buy Colin in mini-roll form, as gummy sweets and sour sweets, and, hauntingly, stand-alone Colin faces. The Colin canon is broad and terrifying.

The first imitator arrived in 2011 (probably Sainsburys, but Asda wasn’t far behind), and the other major supermarkets quickly followed. For the most part, the caterpillars are extremely similar: all are chocolate Swiss roll sponge with chocolate buttercream, and a chocolate covering, decorated with sweets. All the caterpillars have shoes extending down the length of their bodies, and a cartoon face that could generously be described as sort-of reminiscent of a caterpillar, or maybe a train that has come to life.