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11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
 Fantastic high-end toy actually worth the money Aug 18, 2005
By Fancy Nancy
Okay, it was an expensive toy. But. After he opened all the gifts I did not get him (nor would I have) like the screaming action-figure monster truck that smashes things and makes a deafening crunching noise but doesn't do much else, and the flashy robot gizmo, and the action figure with the inexplicably disproportionately large feet and the weird go-cart with little creatures from an animated movie stuck all over it -- my son time after time comes back to this amazing toy. It is simple and unadorned and therein lies the key to motivating a child's creativity. A child must use their imagination with this toy and that is what holds his attention. First of all, the size of the thing is incredible. The working pulley and crate thing are soo cool, my son just plays with it day in and day out and ignores everything else. He is not an especially trucky child, either. It is just a toy that screams out for a child to imagine and PLAY and this is learning play. I feel great about giving him such a quality toy and know that he is using his brain to be creative and solve problems while having fun. We also got him the bulldozer (soooo nice and huuuuuge -- it has a lever that makes the bottom drop out of the front bin thing so that when you pick stuff up, you can then dump it out) and also the dump truck. A nice trio and simply the highest quality money can buy. Very pleased with these items. Guidecraft totally rocks - we buy all their stuff. You simply must find a picture of this toy - do not let the price throw you. (btw, I am a real person, NOT a spokesperson for Guidecraft, lol.) P.S. did I mention these are the only toys he plays with day in and day out?
JULY 2009 UPDATE: Four years later and it still is a wonderful toy. BUT make sure the child does not wind up the string too tightly on the crane. Our string broke because my son didn't understand how to use the notches on the crane's arm to hold it up high, so he just kept cranking up the lever to wind up the string hoping that that would make the bin go higher, and pop! The string broke. Important note: the string is not flimsy by any means. My son really cranked it too tightly repeatedly and must have frayed it somehow. I called Guidecraft simply asking how to repair it and they sent me a whole new crane immediately. Because of the way it is built, you can't thread another string through, which they recognized and rectified. The customer service was outstanding. No other problems whatsoever with the three items in the set we purchased.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Screws fell out! Oct 15, 2010
By SFmomma
Very disappointed in the quality of this crane! I researched this toy and read only positive reviews so I asked the grandparents to get it for my son's 3rd birthday. Within a few weeks, screws began to come loose, tiny wooden "plugs" covering the screws came unglued, and now almost ALL of the hardware has fallen out (screws, nuts, bolts and washers!!)
It was very expensive and now it is so many pieces!!
I am going to try to repair it, otherwise it belongs in the trash.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
FABULOUS CRANE! Jan 29, 2007
By K. Kuhtenia
"BargainHunter"
I would give it 10 stars! This is the best crane I have seen by far! It's big, works amazingly well, is top quality construction and perfectly designed for the little construction worker in your life. I could not have been more pleased when it arrived and and it was a huge hit and has been played with daily for countless hours. (Mine arrived w/o the little wooden driver. I called Baby Because and they were terrific on the phone; contacted Guidecraft and it arrived within a few days, well before Santa.) These Guidecraft CITO wooden construction trucks are worth every penny. I highly recommend all of them, but think this Crane is particularly excellent.
Big & fun, yet seriously disappointing quality & packaging... Nov 13, 2011
By Nathaniel Allen
I bought this along with Guidecraft's Log Truck for our son from an Amazon reseller.
First disappointment: opening the boxes (they were shipped together) in the presence of my son, only to find both trucks broken. The crane's truck cab was literally broken in half. Both trucks tore free of the Guidecraft packaging they were zip-tied to, and I had loose pivot pins, an unglued trailer hitch, exposed nails and the crane's arm split into two separate pieces.
Rather than contact the reseller, I contacted Guidecraft directly and sent them pictures of all the damage. They graciously offered to send replacement units directly, which I received within a week. However, these replacements suffered nearly an identical fate: they both broke free of their packaging, and left to rattle around the box in transit I found another separated crane arm, an unglued trailer hitch, and some other loose / broken parts.
I ended up using parts from the first order to fix the broken vehicles in the second order. (I relayed my experience to Guidecraft, and told them I would attempt to repair these, so asked only that they look into their packaging -- I can't be the only one!).
With that out of the way, these are fun, large, solid toys. But they have some problems.
The log truck and the crane truck (cab portion) look identical, but are slightly different in their hitch (5th wheel) dimensions, meaning that they're not interchangeable when hooking up the trailers. Try explaining that to a 2½ year old. Heck, I can't really tell the difference until they're connected but not quite mating correctly.
The rear wheels on the cab rub against the underside of the trailer in a bad way. So when my son is doing a tight turn around the leg of the coffee table, the knobbies on the tire grip and literally stop the truck in its tracks. Disappointing.
And the crane crank -- the little handle that lets the cable (string) in and out -- has a bit of an intricate locking system. There's a little pin on the crank arm that must be aligned with a keyway cut into the wood crane arm, then the whole crank arm must be pushed sideways to the pin slides into the keyway. My son doesn't really grasp this, so the load drops to the floor every time he wants to let go of the crank arm.
It's a really fun toy, and built substantially enough that my youngster hasn't broken it yet, but it's just a shame that it can't stand up to the UPS man, and that it has some design quirks that make it seem as if Guidecraft didn't really "play test" this toy with kids OR adults.
Nevertheless, my son loves it -- which is why I stuck with it, despite my misgivings.
 So Disappointing Jan 13, 2011
By MEWDC
This is also my first time posting a review on Amazon but I am so disappointed by this toy -- especially given how expensive it is -- that I feel compelled to write. We ordered this toy for my son over a year ago for Christmas and it's been a headache -- the glue used to hold the wooden pieces together has failed and the wooden pegs have fallen out, so my husband has tried to rig it back together with tape, superglue, etc. Unfortunately these fixes don't last long -- and should not be necessary in the first place, since we paid over $70 for the toy, based on some good reviews we read online. We also purchased the bulldozer which has disintegrated even further than the crane.
My son was very excited to receive this crane, given his obsession with all things revolving around construction vehicles. It's been very disappointing to watch it fall apart. Guidecraft needs to do some serious quality control on their line of construction vehicle toys.
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