Customer Reviews

All About Big Red Fire Engines/All About Construction

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is the first of this "All About" series that I have encountered. It was given to us by my in-laws, for our 2-year-old (who does love all sorts of trucks and construction). I have a suspicion they gave us this video partly because they couldn't stand watching it themselves!

This is basically two videos: one about fire engines, and one on construction vehicles. The sound quality was pretty bad throughout, hence I found some of the dialogue between characters hard to understand - particularly during the construction section of the video, which was filmed outside (with somebody's camcorder bought on clearance from a discount store?) During one conversation between "Construction Genie" Hard Hat Harry and the dumb-looking kids who are hanging out with him, I could have sworn one of the kids called the other one "stupid" for getting the name of a construction vehicle wrong or something. I was sort of taken aback by that. I couldn't believe they'd have kids calling each other derogatory names on a childrens' video. I don't want my 2-year-old to get the idea that it's cool to toss around "stupid" every time someone mispronounces a word, etc, and I sure wouldn't want him to FEEL "stupid" for making a mistake.

When construction machines such as the road paver or a bulldozer were supposed to be talking, it was always in some really bizarre voice and accent. "Why does the paver sound like a child molester?" wondered my husband. I couldn't come up with any good answer to that. I guess they were trying to make the voices "interesting" and varied, to hold the attention of young viewers, but this device seemed over the top and unnecessary.

On the whole, we found most of the writing, dialogue and acting pretty grating (my husband got up and left the room; he just couldn't sit through it). The only reason I hung in there and watched it is because as a parent I feel a responsibility to know and evaluate what my kid's watching. Since the fire engine portion of this video was slightly better than the construction part, I'll allow it two stars overall rather than the total thumbs-down which was my initial gut reaction after the construction segment.

This one got hidden up on a high shelf right away, its fate yet to be decided, but it will likely end up in a Goodwill bin if not the trash (do I really want to subject other peoples' children to this if I deem it unworthy for my own, or should I just have a modern-day book-burning with this as the tinder?). I'm keeping an eye out for something similar, of higher quality and better production values.

While the sound quality and actors (or maybe they are real firefighters trying to act?) leave a lot to be desired, this video is fantastic. My kids were glued to it. It describes the purpose of the firefighting equipment and includes demonstrations of their use.

This is a primitive video, so you cannot skip scenes. You can only fast-forward.

The construction video is nice too-- definitely entertaining and educational for the little ones.

My 2 year old loves this dvd. It is a little cheesy but, the content is simple to understand and very engagining for my son. My husband said he even learned a few things about construction equipment.

We were given the "All About Trucks" DVD as a gift for our son and, though it was seriously cheesy, our son loved it. We purchased this one because he loves construction vehicles and fire trucks, as well, and assumed it would be similar to the other "All About Trucks" DVD. Alas, we were sadly mistaken.

The production values (as noted by other reviewers) are bad, and both episodes seem too long to hold my three-year-old son's attention for the entire length. In addition, the fire trucks episode doesn't have Hard Hat Harry (HHH), though HHH is in the construction vehicles portion of the DVD and we did like that episode better of the two.

Unfortunately, even the HHH construction episode was not very well done. It seemed like it must be an early episode of HHH, before they'd gotten down the signature HHH format. In most HHH episodes, HHH is joined by a boy and a girl, and the three of them actually interact with the vehicles they're talking about. I think this helps make it more interesting to kids, plus I like how they include both a boy and a girl. However, in both of the episodes on this DVD, the kids are boys only.

Personally, I would probably give this one star, but I boosted it to two stars because my son actually asked to watch it more than once (I think we watched it all the way through a total of 2x). He hasn't asked to see it for a few months now, and we're definitely not complaining about it!

I bought this for my 2 year-old son who loves anything with lights and sirens. It was an immediate hit. The production isn't great, but he doesn't seem to mind. Unlike some movies about firefighting, this one actually shows a LOT of firetrucks, lights and sirens and all. They also show the equipment firefighters use, and there's some footage of real firemen putting out real fires. The construction part isn't as good, but he loves watching all of those big trucks working. If you have a little one who is into firetrucks and/or construction trucks, this is definitely a good pick. I doubt it would entertain any kid, though, that didn't already have that interest.

This DVD has about 5 minutes of previews that you can't fast forward or bypass in any way. Very frustrating for something that is purchased. It's creepy, slow, and doesn't immediately get to what the kids want to see: fire trucks on the go. I didn't even bother with the construction site area. My kids hate it. It's educational if you're an adult. If you're looking for something for toddlers on up, skip it.

This arrived in the mail today. Upon watching about 10 mintues of it my 3 year old told me the only way to make this video fun is to watch it while walking backwards. It's pretty boring.

These "All About" videos are interesting for kids, but parents will be taken aback. They are "hosted" by the very creepy Hard Hat Harry; a very strange genie who pops up in the middle of kids playing, and takes them on adventures. I certainly don't want my kids to wander off with some weird guy who invites them to look at trains/cars/etc. Honestly, he strikes my wife and me as a potential molester. Finally, the quality of the videos is lousy: many of them look to be filmed - poorly - in the early 1980's. We are not buying any more of this series, and now have to explain to our kids about talking to strangers.

We have trains and planes and my three year old and one year old love it. So I bough airplanes and helicopters, fire engines and construction, and cars and motorcycles. THESE ARE TOTAL JUNK!!! The picture shows race cars and action scenes. None of that happens. It's some stupid actor with a few kids talking the entire time about magic and all the parts of an engine while they hang out in a service station. OH THAT'S FUN FOR KIDS!!!

Or have a fireman stand by a truck in the station and pull out and point at every fixture and piece of equipment with the most monotone drone that goes on and on. What are they thinking?

My three year old said, "There's just talking. Where are the cars?" He thought it was a preview to the actual dvd. Then he said, "It's just too boring Mama. Watch something else."

Luckily they only cost a few dollars each but I am trying to contact gtmediausa.com to get my money back.

We first came upon the Construction segment of this video about 10 years ago when our oldest son was a truck-obsessed toddler. We owned it on VHS and he completely wore out the tape! He learned a lot from it though, and could name just about any piece of construction equiptment you pointed out. On one family road trip when he was just 2 we were stopped for road construction. He happily pointed out the "off road articulated dump trucks" on the side of the road and then proceeded to explain that "articulated" meant that they could bend in the middle. Poor acting, bad sound quality and corny jokes aside, this video is a winner for any child who is fascinated by construction equiptment. I'm ordering the DVD version today for our youngest son who is the new truck-obsessed two year old in our house! We've been watching the series on Netflix and he fell in love with the Hard Hat Harry Monster Truck video recently. He got that DVD for Christmas (and loves it) but now he's been asking to watch "Hairy Dump Truck" every afternoon!