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- Verified Buyer
We wanted large, durable outdoor construction toys for our son's birthday. Also wanted a toy line that could be added to in future gifts (I like matching scale). I looked at Tonka, John Deere, Bruden & others with large construction style toys. It was a tough choice between the 3 mentioned. I was able to experience the first 2 in person but not the Bruden's. My evaluation follows, (ymmv) it's only my opinion.Tonka: Many of us remember our Tonka's, those were the days. Not quite the quality today but still decent comparatively. Bottom line - Good buy/value, for me was a razor thin 2nd place choice & may have been the best choice (definitely cheaper). Probably the best outdoor choice of the 3 but selection for future gifts to match is somewhat limited and what metal is used is less than top quality with some safety concerns. Also, tracks on tracked vehicles have attachment & durability concerns for me.John Deere: My son has several of the smaller scaled farm equipment toys but I would not recommend these for outdoors. While the main body is well made both in detail & durability the tires come of easily and get lost. The accessories such as trailers, etc. are thin, hard plastic & do not stand up to boys use. Bottom line - If I was only looking at dump trucks JD was the best value IMO but the rest of the line is geared towards farm equip, diff scale & not the best choice for serious outdoor use. Lastly my son's favorite color is yellow.Bruden: I knew nothing about Bruden and in pictures/videos while having great detail, scale and extensive line of available products all geared to construction (this was important to me), they appeared more of an indoor toy. Since my initial purchase was for several for both our son's and grandson's b-day, it would be a reasonably expensive mistake if I got it wrong. In the end, reading reviews & doing as much research as possible, I hesitantly chose Bruden. Living rural I have made many purchases off of Amazon over the years and although having to return only 1 or 2 items during the years, my experience is Amazon backs up they're return policy. That said I felt little risk in dealing with Amazon, Bruden had a good line of choices within the large construction line of toys, and Bruden was made in Germany - they make good stuff right? LOLAfter a couple weeks of in the dirt, tough boy testing here's my take - May not have been the best choice but still a good one for our needs. I believe I gave up some outdoor durability, the Tonka's will still be going strong long after the Brudens have broken down. That said the Bruden's are so far, tougher than they look (time will tell), well crafted with not great but decent materials, and have by far the best line of large construction geared toys. Our son likes to transfer these from indoor to outdoor & back again several times a day. Tonka's don't make that transfer as well prefering to stay outdoors and do that as well or better than any others that I know of. My main complaint against the Bruden's is that they're overall & wheel/tire design trap a good amount of dirt/gravel/sand making transferring them constantly from outdoor to indoor a genuine pain and if you are not on constant guard duty you'll ruin a good vacuum in short order. If these hold up another 6 months I will be adding more of these for Christmas but I will buy the few available Tonka's soon for strictly outdoor use & relegate the Bruden's to strictly indoor.Bottom line: If you are looking for outdoor stuff and you don't mind a limited choice in specific to construction product line and lack of scale or aesthetic detail then I would go with Tonka hands down. If you want strictly indoor then Bruden is a great choice but remember they are big.I bought this for my son for his birthday and he totally loves it. He loves to haul everything around so this trailer lets him haul a lot. It’s really huge compared to most of the other toys. It has some unique features on it for being a toy. I do think it could be a little better made as far as the plastic. I was expecting it to be a little heavier duty. I few things have already broken because of the cheap plastic. It’s a unique truck so I would buy again for that reason.4 year old birthdayWell worth the money. Bought for our twin grandsons for their 3rd birthday.It was priceless to see the expression on their faces when they both opened up their presents from us. Excellent quality, durability and made to look like the real thing. Definately made to hold up under little hands. Hay, even made for larger hands since the adults wanted to play with them. The Bottom line, you have a regular customer.Got this truck and tractor for my 4 and a half year old grandson for Christmas and his mom said it was the highlight of his Christmas morning. He just loved it and had to have a parade of all his other Bruder toys; dump truck, fire truck, and little loader. They are so superior to many of the toys, mostly produced in China now days. As a child I remember having German made toys when we were stationed in Germany. They lasted til I passed them on. These toys are so well designed and so authentic in their appearance and functionality. They have plenty of moving parts that add to the realism and therefor, keeping the toy interesting to play with. I started my grandson out with the Mack dump truck for his 3rd birthday and he loved it. Most played with toy til I got him the firetruck and the last time I saw them, they where still like new. They are tough, but not indestructible, and if you have a child that is extremely rough on toys, there are parts that can be broken off or damaged and depending on the particular toy, moving parts with gears that can be stripped and no longer work. So you may want to show them how to play with it at first.I highly recommend this and any other Bruder toy for your child or if you just like collecting quality toys for yourself. Can't wait to get on the floor and play with his new ones myself, with my grandson of course. (c;Bought this for a 4 year old grandson. Truck, trailer, and construction tractor were very cool looking. Expected some metal construction for the price paid. It was almost entirely plastic. The ramps on the rear of the trailer pop off constantly, and the detail pieces of the truck were poorly attached.My son saved his money for this truck and backhoe. When it arrived, everyone was surprised at the size of it! It is definitely true to size (and will take up some space in your playroom). The truck functions well and the trailer fits easily on and off. But other than that there is not a lot of extras to the truck. I think adding opening doors or interchangeable tires would be a nice option (since there is already one spare tire on the back). The backhoe works well too with multiple options for the front loader and the backhoe. Again steering might be a nice option for this vehicle. Our only complaint is that the stays on the back of the flatbed are a little weak. One of ours snapped in half. Even that doesn't really affect the functionality of the flatbed though. Over all, I think the price tag is a little high for functions that you get with the flatbed and backhoe, but maybe the size of the vehicles makes more expensive.When we received the box, the toy had obviously already been opened. The cardboard was torn, and part of the truck had the zip ties removed. The truck was falling out of the packaging. It seemed to still be in new condition, and it had not been assembled. I kept the toy because it was my grandson's birthday and I did not have time to order another one. The toy itself is great and he is really enjoying playing with it. I was very disappointed that they sent a toy that obviously had gone to someone else first without at least making sure it was repackaged.We chose this as a Christmas gift for out three year old who is heavily into the construction industry. The pictures depict a small child, who looked about the same size as ours, playing with a toy which seemed large and impressive, just the trick we thought. Be advised, the pictures lie. This thing is a monster. Not that this makes it any less awesome, in fact our boy loves his big truck, and has played with is every day since Santa came. The little truck sits happily on top of the big truck, when it isn't being used to excavate our living room, and the big truck has so far withstood all sorts of unfortunate 'neenor' incidents, emergency situations being another favourite topic of play for our son. In hindsight, we really should have checked the product dimentions in the description, but then the mistakes of people like us are the lessons for people like you :)My grandson was delighted with this.Sturdy and durable up to nowHappy with purchaseBought as Christmas present for our grandson. He was delighted with it and plays with the truck and digger for ages. It is very robust although a bit bigger than I had imagined. Speedy delivery and well packaged.Made a nearly 3-yr-old boy's Christmas. Box was damaged owing to the packaging being just a plastic bag but the item itself was fine. It's big and very rewarding to play with. Made even more so by buying (separately) the light and sound module.It is a very strong and well made toy with loads of scope for imaginative use indoors and outI would recommend the toy to all parents and careers of children. My grandson can not wait to use it in his sandpit in the Spring. Mt grandson picks this toy out himself as he already had a truck from this range before.
