- Brand: Bruder
- Toy vehicle form: Excavator
- Material: Plastic
- Age Range (Description): Kid
- Theme: Animal
- Made in Germany; Made of highest-quality ABS plastic; Solidly put together with no glue or screws
- Cab windows made from transparent and shatter-proof plastic; Door opens; Chasis: plastic genuine chain links (not rubber tracks)
- Shovel can be removed; Hood opens; Body can be turned through 360ยฐ
- Fully functioning excavator arm, operated by the manual lever

















Tribulation Exodus –
First and foremost, the User Experience video that Bruder uses to promote this toy will set false expectations for the consumer. For example, Bruder USA shows this Excavator going down hill in the sand. Its actually a wooden ramp hidden by sand and a cleaver low camera angle. Bottom line, this is not a sand toy by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, at the Bruder USA website, they correctly position this as an “indoor toy”. So why they promote this way is beyond me.The Tractor Belts are difficult to turn and if they get sand in them, the hard plastic belts lockup and then slides when pushing it across the sand making for a poor user experience. It’s a shame Bruder did not use the rubber belts similar to the ones used on the Bruder Caterpillar Buldozer where the belts actually work in the sand. The engineer who designed this plastic belt, the product manager and video marketing manager should loose their jobs because this lame design and false expectation. The Excavator also comes with 20 or so individual little rubber inserts to aid the hard plastic tractor belts to stick to slick indoor surfaces. These inserts do not stay in the belts, get loose, get lost, and could become a hazard to smaller children; more reason to switch the design to a rubber belt.The video also shows the product rotating with ease. This is somewhat misleading as well. It does swivel nicely when its not in the locked forward position and if the toy has never been exposed to sand. However, the forward position locks into a rut. To push it out takes three hands. Because the product is so light due to the plastic materials, the excavator would rather slide sideways in the sand than to swivel out of the rut and turn as it should. If any sand gets into this swivel area, it becomes real gritty, further impeding the ability to rotate the excavator.As for the Shovel, we used it once in dry, loose, white sand at our local park’s sand box. Because of the product’s poor design, the Shovel arm has practically no leverage nor sufficient weight behind it. So it is incapable of easily scooping up sand without putting your hand directly on the shovel. Again the Bruder Video demonstrating this capability used crafty video editing by only showing an already fully loaded shovel full of sand starting the video at the tale end of the scooping process. Again, deceptive marketing to misleading the consumer user experience with false expectations. This is critical when considering this is the primary function of the toy. Bruder does not show the product actually scooping up sand because the product is pretty much incapable of doing it with ease. The handle on the arm does a good job managing the scoop once dirt is in it, but its incapable of scooping up dirt as easily as the expectation they attempted to demonstrate. In a real user experience, one hand will be on the handle, another directly the other on the shovel to help it dig, and a third hand to help manage the excavator rotation if its locked in the forward position.The last negative is just a small gripe. The engine hood has a very small clip lock to keep it shut. Its too small and will not keep the hood closed.MY RECOMMENDATION TO THE CONSUMER is to buy the Bruder Liebherr Articulated Road Loader L574. This has large wheels instead of a belt. It is the only Bruder Loader that turns and turns very well. The shovel leavers are designed and perform exceptionally well. Its size ratio matches the Bruder Dump Truck perfectly at 1:16 ratio. So the Articulated Road Loader is perfectly matched to scoop up and dispense sand into the Bruder Dump Truck for a most excellent creative play user experience.I have a 5 year old son who loves to play with construction sand toys. Essentially, he claims the Excavator is worthless. So much so, he asked me to return this birthday present; that’s how really bad his experience was with the Excavator. But my son absolutely loves the Bruder Articulated Road Loader to get the same job done right. So go to that page and get the BRUDER ARTICULATED ROAD LOADER L574 & the BRUDER DUMP TRUCK 1:16 ratio. Again, this is the only one of three Bruder Loader that turns; the others just go straight for a less than exceptional user experience.Now if your child has no intentions using this Excavator in the sand and play exclusively indoors with it, then this Excavator is an OK product for the price, but you still have the rotation and potential safety issues.MY FEEDBACK TO BRUDER & BRUDER USA is most of all be honest with your product capabilities in these videos and try not to set false expectations with the user experience; your integrity is seriously damaged with me. Redesign the Plastic Tractor Belts and inserts using RUBBER Belts, put a double leaver directly on the shovel to aid in the scooping/digging process (remember this is the primary function of the toy regardless of cost), eliminate or greatly minimize the swivel lock and get a more functional lock on the hood. Wish you still sold metal sand toys too, but I understand the multiple reasons why this is no longer practical.
E.A. –
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!
kH –
Bought for my sons 2nd birthday and he really enjoys playing with this toy every day. Its been about 3 months of heavy use and the only thing that broke is the plastic railing inserts that were not very sturdy from the start. This is due to the fact that he likes to sit on the back and ride the excavator as he digs and loads his rock trucks. Everything is very realistic and very detailed. The excavator can spin 360 degrees and the tracks also turn as you roll both forward and reverse.was very skeptical about this purchase at first due to some of the other reviews and the price. Overall very pleased and can honestly say if it was to break today I would order a new one because seeing him play with this day in and day out and the abuse it take is worth it.
PS –
My two year old grandson received this for his birthday. He is beyond thrilled. I know it’s intended for older children but he is able to fully operate the bucket and is able to turn and push the cab area. The track moves very easily on tile and carpet and it makes a realistic noise when pushed. He currently has it in his sandbox and the track is working well. The actual toy is larger so it may be too big for some two year olds. Our grandson just has an innate ability to use most vehicles. This excavator is very realistic. The details are amazing. We did not attach the side mirrors. We set those aside for later. They are fragile and we thought our little guy would insist on taking them on and off.
Anna V Jefferson –
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!
DS –
Operate and look like the real machine.
Andy –
Nothing can beat the old metal Tonka trucks I grew up with but they had nowhere near the realistic detail of the Bruder toys. My daughter…yes daughter…loves playing in a big dirt pile that we have with this and her Bruder Mac dump truck and several Bruder “employees” I bought to go with them. Next on the list is a Bulldozer.
Mary Walters –
This was a gift for my grandson who loves equipment for his birthday! It is very realistic and definitely a hit!