Bruder 02439 Cat Excavator

THE GOOD-The details are exceptional on this one.-Its target audience may be slightly older than who I bought it for, but my little 5yo wants to use this like the life-size version. He digs in the dirt!-He seems to like it much better than the true junk found in the local mega-box store. -The price is a little steep, but If it lasts a couple of years and he gets as many hours of enjoyment as he is currently getting the it was money well spent.The bad-I wish the plastic was a little thicker.-The hoe portion of this could be easier to manipulate. (or make each part of the arm independently manipulable.-The plastic tracks stretched very quickly (1 week), and there is no tensioner or adjustment to be made. So the tracks sag on the bottom. This could be redesigned with a fabric core (think timing belt on car) to prevent stretching.

This brand is on the pricey side, but mostly good quality...I spent a lot of time putting on the tracks with the little plastic attachments to hold it in place, with great care, but even so, many have come off and or gotten lost. The track does not move at all on sand, which is where my grandson uses it exclusively, but on the floor or carpet the tracks worked very well initially. All of the other aspects are excellent and work well and look very realistic. If I had it to do over, it would have been wheels not tracks! The Bruder Brand is expensive, but for a toy these days to last, you have to pay more for it...so I have to say I'd buy Bruder again, just to get higher quality, but this particular model let us down a bit. I hope the company makes improvements on this model. I would recommend for indoor use only, or an outdoor hard surface, not sand!

We bought this for our 2yr old on his 2nd birthday. He loves Excavators, and really isn't interested in anything that isn't a realistic representation. The "cartoony" type of toy equipment just doesn't hold his interest. This one nailed it though. The tracks, the pivot points in the boom, everything. He can even put his "dude" into the drivers seat. Great toy, well worth the money.If I had any con's, it might be that it isn't rugged. Its plastic, so its obviously easier to break than the old metal tonka trucks. However, despite saying that, I've seen him being faily rough with it, and it held up well, so maybe saying it isn't rugged isn't valid anyway.Great toy, I highly recommend it.

This toy was given as a gift to my nephew and he fell in love with it. It is a larger toy, and it really captures his imagination. It looks just like the real thing, has a working claw, and is great for indoor play. I would be afraid to leave it outside as some of the plastic pieces may break, but so far the toy has held up to his rough playing.

We got this excavator for my 3-year old a couple of weeks ago. It's the excavator of his dreams; he LOVES it. But alas, our rambunctious neighbor broke off the hydraulic arm that tilts the scoop. I was upset thinking that this new, expensive truck was going to be plastic junk in the landfill after only a few short weeks. To my delight, I discovered Bruder actually sells spare parts and makes it easy to find them on their website! When the replacement arms I wanted appeared out of stock, I emailed Bruder customer service, thinking I was likely sending a message off into the void. A mere couple of hours later, someone emailed me back, asked me for pictures to confirm exactly which piece it was, and is sending us a replacement piece plus another set of hydraulic arms (for the next fateful breaks) for free because we bought it less than 30 days ago.The trucks are expensive but worth it in my opinion. I love that Bruder dedicates itself to making spare parts available to extend the usable life of their toys and so impressed with their customer service that it moved me to write my first-ever Amazon review. They are definitely earning their 5 stars in my book!

I bought this excavator for my 5 year old boy and he loves it. Its much larger than I expected and very high quality. The shovel does swing 360 degrees and the bucket moves and extends in a realistic fashion. The tracks move easily and it rolls smoothly even on carpet. The cab door does not open, and to put a guy in the seat, you have to shove him through the window space. This frustrates my 5 year old somewhat. The engine compartment does open. This is a very nice toy and if you are planning on letting your child use it in the sand, there are lots of little places that sand will get into and probably never come out. My boy has no trouble working the digger but we use it to scoop blocks and marbles not dirt. It's just too nice to mess up. One major positive is that there is no real small pieces to lose or break.

I purchased this for my grandson in October 2011. He was so excited to receive this, as he has a large collection of Bruder trucks. He had it five days and it broke. My daughter called me and said he was very upset. So I contacted Amazon for a replacement and they acted very quickly. He received his "new" Bruder within a week. But this time he was very cautious in playing with it, as he did not want a repeat. Unfortunately it happened again. My grandson does not abuse his toys and especially his Bruder trucks. He plays with them as they are designed. I had read the reviews on this particular Bruder and found that they were breaking, just as my grandson's did. But I took a chance because this is what he asked for. He found a sort of "fix" for it on You Tube and is very happy with the result. The Bruder company should be more aware of what is going on with their products. They need to go back to the drawing board and redesign this item and correct the problem. I would not hesitate to purchase other Bruder products in the future but I will always first read the reviews. Amazon handled this problem very professional and took care of the problem. And that is one of the reasons I purchase through Amazon and will continue to.