Customer Reviews

I Love Big Machines [VHS]

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

 

 

This sometimes silly video showcases both machines we automatically would assume would be in a children's video (such as road-construction machines) and some others that are quite unusual (a swing drawbridge very much like one we used to cross every day!) There's upbeat music as well as easily-understood descriptions of how the various machines work, often narrated by people who actually run the machines. My son (now almost three) has loved this video for over a year and a half, and it still holds his attention the whole time. One of the best of the "I Love..." series that began with "I Love Toy Trains" (of which "...Toy Trains" and "...Toy Trains 5" are also five-stars in our opinion).

We excitedly bought this video for our construction truck-loving 22 month old son. The video starts off great, showing loaders and other earth movers, but then it starts showing waaaay to many workmen and equipment operators and my son immedidiately loses interest. The video digresses away from trucks even further at the end where it spends 5 minutes talking about hot-air balloons and ducks. I just purchased I Love CAT Machines part 3 and hope to get more of what my son my son wants... scenes of construction trucks, rather than a 10 minutes of construction footage stretched into a dopey 27 minute video that loses his attention.

My son wants nothing more than to watch trucks and tractors in action. I was so excited to see this video at the toy store -- but was soooooo disappointed when I viewed it. As another reviewer suggested, the production quality makes this video almost impossible to watch. It also seems the producers tried to intersperse the video images with goofy, "stimulating" or "educational" content -- very lame. Leave that to Baby Einstein. All my kid wants is to see the trucks at work -- with maybe a little background music. Keep it simple, please.

I was talking with another father recently and he suggested I look into a video for my son that features large construction machines. A quick trip to Toys-R-Us had me purchasing "I Love Big Machines - Vol. 1" on VHS. My son wasn't as interested as I would have hoped, but I can attribute it to him being 15 months old and perhaps too young for it. However, as a video professional, I can tell you that the production level of this video is poor. There is a kid on the video that has no business narrating anything beyond a school project. The microphone used couldn't have been anything better than something found on the discount rack at Radio Shack. And the editing was similar to what you might find on your local cable public access station. It may be cute to use your son on your video projects (I have to think it was the producer's son used as a narrator), but not for a professionally marketed tape. For the price paid ..., I expected much more.

"I Love Big Machines Part I & II" are both favorites of my 3 boys (ages 2, 3 & 6). Before I purchased them, we must have checked them out at the library at least 50 times. Every single time I put "I Love Big Machines" in the DVD player, my boys will watch every moment until it's over. I notice that some other reviewers mentioned the silly distractions or things other than big machines being shown. This is true, they do get sidetracked on the video and I personally think some of the things they show are goofy BUT like I mentioned earlier - my kids are the ones watching and they laugh and laugh and laugh at those moments in the video. Actually, that is one of their favorite parts and they usually get up and dance because the video also plays really fun music with those goofy parts. So it comes down to a matter of opinion but think of your kids and not what you would want to watch. This is a great DVD!

This ought to get a terrible review. It is possibly the most boring video ever, the production 'values' are non-existant with bad picture quality, bad editing (some bits seem to be repeated a few times) and bad narration.

I was babysitting my 2 year old nephew and in a moment of desperation I found this videotape laying under the couch and shoved it in the machine, knowing that he is very interested trucks. He was delighted and couldn't tear his eyes away. He just stared and stared and called 'oh! Cars!' every single time a new vehicle appeared on the screen. I since learned that his parents had not actually tried playing him that tape yet, but that it was now his favorite video.

As I say, it is a boring video, but the monotony is occasionally broken up by some musical interludes which have a light pleasant tone - I didn't find anything creepy about it. My nephew can watch the whole thing three times over very happily.

Includes some items that are not big machies (a wind-up duck toy, bridges, hot air balloons), annoying diversions from the theme, and an adbsurdly sexist comment. A lot of the footage is repeated, some of it a few times. Overall the production is amateurish, bad sound quality, creepy music, and the narration by a pre-teen is sometimmes unclear. Not recommended.

I recently purchased this tape and "I Love Toy Trains" for my four year old twins (boy/girl). The title is appropriate: they truly love big machines! They're both becoming well-versed in all of the equipment necessary to build an interstate, thanks to this tape. The tape is short, entertaining, informative, and quite humorous. The narration is terrific and simplifies the construction process without talking down to the viewer (making it enjoyable for adults and children). The whole family loves this tape. Definitely worth the price!

We borrowed this video from the library a week or so ago. It came time to return it and my son had a fit. We had to renew the loan from the library. Now, I'm online buying a copy.

The video is good. The narrartion is perfect for the 18 months to 3 yrs group. My son (2.5 yrs) sits and repeats the narration, which is done mostly by a young boy - probably 8 to 10. When the songs start up, my son is up and dancing like a wild man!

Good video. Very education and it will probably be the death of my VCR as it's watched at least twice a day in my house.