Customer Reviews

Bruder Cat Excavator

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

 

 

I purchased this for my son for Christmas. Once it came out of the box we were completely dissappointed. The child loves it but I give it a few days until it is a heap of plastic uselessness. It is made of the cheapest plastic imaginable. I cannot believe how expensive this is we paid $51.99 through amazon last month. It is shocking how cheaply it is made and being what we thought was a great named manufacturer (Bruder) we definitely expected better quality. Hopefully we can find another better made excavator. if you are considering this please keep looking. It is a waste of money.

My five year old son is obsessed with construction machines. This toy was the star attraction among his Christmas presents a year ago. One year later, it was destroyed. The crawler tracks came off and broke. The body separated from the base. Hydraulics snapped off of the boom. It could not stand up to the rigors of play, especially outside in the sand box. For the price, we expected it to be better made and more durable.

My 3 year old got this for Christmas and is thrilled. He does not tear up his toys (and gets frustrated when playmates do) and this has held up well. He has 6 Bruder Caterpillar machines and they are all detailed and realistic. The tracks have come off his excavator twice and I taught him how to avoid it. The tracks are MUCH better than the rubber-band style tracks on el-cheapo toys. This is a totally cool construction vehicle and even my 3 year old knows it. I would have given this a 5 star rating, but there are a few things that aren't quite perfect... One is that it's really large and a bit of a challenge for a 3-year old to man-handle. Another is that while the arm and the bucket move as a coordinated unit (curling/uncurling together) they are a little challenging for his strength level (40# at 3 years - he's no wimp). The other thing is that the swivel of the cab on the chassis has a detent in the straight-forward position that's a bit difficult to overcome. He just spins it on the tracks, not on the pivot, and that doesn't bother him. By 5 years old, he'll be doing everything with it.

Bottom line: 1) It's cool 2) It's durable 3) It works like a real excavator, and 4) It's not going to break unless he falls on it - and it will break him at the same time.

Buy-on Caterpillar fans!