Amazon.com
Mighty Construction Machines is a simple half-hour video that's likely to get young truck lovers' wheels turning, and not just the ones on their Tonka toys. In this video, the smiling, overalls-clad teen host Jennifer serves as tour guide at a series of bona fide construction sites. First we're off to a public park project, where, after a helpful reminder from foreman Todd that strapping on a hard hat wouldn't be a bad idea, we meet a hard-at-work backhoe. Watching the tool in action is cool enough to begin with, but
Mighty Construction Machines does one better: it backs up the backhoe's moment in the spotlight with a hard-rockin', especially apropos anthem. From there, Jennifer journeys to a pack of other projects, where she grills the cooperative if not overly chatty operators of a wheel loader, scraper, bulldozer, motor grader, wheel dozer, and excavator (a cement mixer and a crane also make the cut, but without the input of their drivers) about their jobs. Most enthralling is her quarry adventure; that's where the gargantuan, ground-shaking machines you don't see every day get to show their imposing, impressive stuff. Besides its educational bent, this video is likable for its inclusion of women--Kim commandeers the wheel dozer, and Peggy prizes her position at the wheel loader's helm. Buy it for anyone who's transfixed at the sight of work trucks--not only will it get their engines revving, it'll teach them a little something, too. (Ages 3 to 8.)
--Tammy La Gorce
DVD ~ Mighty Machines
