Customer Reviews

CATERPILLAR small Excavator

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My preschooler loves this excavator. In the morning he will play with it for hours in his playroom, and still drag it out with him to the sandbox or garden for the afternoon. He never tires of it. Being a typically sturdy Bruder toy, it will probably never tire of him, either.

That said, it is a nasty piece of work on his tiny, tender hands! Each time he's played with it since we gave it to him for his birthday last week, it has pinched him somewhere. His palms and fingers have little purple bruises from the pinches. I haven't yet identified why this particular model does this. He has two other, larger Bruder diggers/trucks which have never "bitten" him.

If this were a lesser-loved toy, I'd just take it away from him. But fat chance -- he LOVES this toy. Instead I'll just have to keep telling him to play more gently with it.

My son is pretty tough on toys but this one held up great. It has dug and dug and dug some more. It is very detailed. The feet came off once or twice but they snap right back. Hoses off just great.

My 2.5 year old boy loves this toy and wants to play in the sandbox with it all day if I let him. He can be rough with his toys, but this particular toy seems to be holding up pretty well w/o any damage from my little monster. As one of the reviewers mentioned, it can potentially pinch little fingers. It's because the handle attached to the boom requires some coordination to operate... and most toddlers don't have that coordination. It even took me some practice to maneuver it in order to scoop sand w/ it. So the little boy rather likes to hold the arm of the excavator and scoop sand with the bucket directly w/o using the handle. Doing so, his fingers sometimes get pinched between the hydraulics and arm of the excavator. My boy learned it quickly and he avoids getting his fingers pinched... and it doesn't seem to be a big problem. I guess that's part of learning toddlers get with this toy. Overall, this is a great toy except for the price. But it's made in Germany not in China, so you're buying the Mercedes... 4 stars, not 5, b/c of the price and finger pinching.

We bought this for my son's 4th birthday in the spring. It held up beautifully through a summer full of sand digging and then an autumn of semi-loose dirt digging when the sand ran out. My guy is hard on toys. Not that he abuses them by throwing or stomping or anything. He just has high expectations and if it's a "digger" well then it better dig.

A few times the stabilizers have fallen off, but they easily snap back on. And once or twice the hook assembly for the bucket "broke" but was also snapped back on quickly. I believe that bucket issue was due to trying to dig into hard packed dirt.

He loves this toy and plays with it daily. After 7 months it is still his favorite toy and he still spends hours at a time digging and dumping.

I would purchase this excavator again in a minute. And am so delighted with the number of hours this toy has put in, if it did break tomorrow I'd happily buy another one.

For Christmas we are considering other Bruder trucks.

I gave our 2 year old grandson the Caterpillar small Excavator and it quickly became his favorite toy! It is durable and very like the actual excavator working on a project near our home. Amazon delivered my purchase very quickly much to my satisfaction.

When I purchased this for Christmas, I dismissed the other review that mentioned pinched fingers, thinking to myself that their child must be too young for the toy, or it was an isolated incident. Well, my 3 yr. old just ran into the den screaming and holding out his pinched finger. It is pinched so badly that the skin is blue and protruding (sticking out) in the pinched position even a few minutes after it happened. He immediately pointed to this toy and is now reluctant to play with it again. Money wasted.

I bought this for my 3 year old grandson, he was playing with it, and we heard something break, he is pretty hard on toys, typical boy. Oh, well, it was fun for a while.

We looked at a lot of excavators before we chose this one for my 3-year-old son. He got it for Christmas along with a Tonka dump truck and the two toys are compatible size wise. He plays with it quite a bit, but the way that the bucket works is rather advanced for a toddler. My 13 year old was more happy with the way that it works like a real truck. Also, when it got dropped, one of the "pistons" on the arm popped off. I was able to snap it back into place, but if any of the plastic had broken it would have ruined the entire truck. Overall, though, I am happy with this product.

Bought this for my 2 year old's birthday and he LOVES it!! Its great and has held up well and we have had it for a little over two months now!

this is a great toy because it is not too big but seems fun 'big' for little hands, and he can play with all the pulls etc....it seems sturdy and my 3 yr old loves it!