The Machines (Bob the Builder, 1998)

Scoop, Muck, Dizzy, Roley and Lofty are all main characters from Bob the Builder. They are machines owned by Bob and Wendy, they used to live in Bobsville, before moving to Sunflower Valley in Project Build It so they could build the city there, they currently live in Fixham Harbour starting with Ready Steady Build.

They are sometimes known as The Machines or The Can-Do Crew when being referred to all of them.

In the UK version, Lofty and Roley are voiced by Neil Morissey, Scoop and Muck are voiced by Rob Rackstraw and Dizzy is voiced by Kate Harbour.

General

 * 1) Despite their designs being the overused Sentient Vehicle trope, they are designed in a unique way compared to most shows that have sentient vehicles in them, and the designs of them are admittedly cute to look at.
 * 2) * Not to mention, the designs have a strong appeal to toddlers and young children.
 * 3) They are all beautifully animated with fluent stop-motion.
 * 4) Rob Rackstraw, Neil Morrissey and Kate Harbour all do great jobs at voicing them.
 * 5) Each character has their own distinct personality with their own traits.
 * 6) They make the building sequences very enjoyable to watch.
 * 7) Many of the episodes that focus on them are all enjoyable and unique every time.
 * 8) Whilst they do make mistakes from time to time, they always learn from their mistakes and make sure to never do them again, therefore creating character development.
 * 9) They all are caring towards Bob and Wendy and they all know when to tell the truth if they did anything wrong.

Scoop

 * 1) Compared to the other machines, he is the most passionate when it comes to getting building jobs done.
 * 2) He is a great leader to the machines and manages to avoid from coming across as completely cocky or egotistical when being one.
 * 3) He has a good relationship with the other machines and is willing to give help to others whether something is wrong.

Muck

 * 1) While he has a silly personality, he is silly in a good way.
 * 2) Much like Scoop, he has a great relationship with the other machines, most notably Dizzy.

Dizzy

 * 1) Her excitable, energetic, and know-it-all personality is rather enjoyable and she is admittedly pretty cute when she gets excited about certain things.
 * 2) Her design and her voice is adorable.
 * 3) Although all the machines create an appeal to kids, Dizzy in particular actually creates an even stronger appeal to children thanks to her cute design and her energetic personality.
 * 4) Even though she was terribly redesigned in the 2015 reboot, she still remains as a likeable and enjoyable character.

Roley

 * 1) He his pretty chill and calm compared to all the other machines.
 * 2) What makes him unique compared to the other machines is the fact he has a strong love for music and singing.

Lofty

 * 1) He is shown to be friendly to the other machines and he also has a soft side to him.
 * 2) His voice is pretty cute.
 * 3) He has relatability too, as he has moments in the show where you do feel sorry for him and hope that he feels better about himself.
 * 4) Even though is a coward, he is shown to stand up for himself at certain moments in the show.
 * 5) He is the most well behaved machine in the whole show and he never causes trouble (although he does make mistakes sometimes).

General

 * 1) All of the machines (with the exception of Dizzy) were all flanderized beginning with the 2015 reboot.
 * 2) Since Ready Steady Build, the machines' grill mouthes now move when they talk which looks jarring and rather unsettling.
 * 3) Because most of the machines were voiced by females in US dub, most of the male machines (with the exception of Scoop, who was voiced by a male in all of the US dubs) can sound way too feminine or too much like children.
 * 4) *Lofty in the first US dub sounds way too much like a woman, however, his replacement voice actor in Project Build It and Ready Steady Build does a better job at making him sound a little bit more boyish.
 * 5) *Roley's US voice makes him sound a lot younger than in the UK dub, he also sounds way too much like Cubert Farnsworth from mh:besttvshows:Futurama in the first US dub.

Scoop

 * 1) He can have a fair amount moments where he is unlikable, the best example where he is pretty unlikable is in the special Snowed Under, where he would get extremely angry and fussy at the other machines all because he thought they were "acting like they were on holiday", he even went as far as to insult Roley for accidently crushing a small hill, calling him a "Clumsy Lump", and also called Muck a "show-off" when he criticised Scoop for being bossy and rude to the other machines.

Muck

 * 1) He does have a fair share of moments where he is unlikable, much like Scoop.
 * 2) While not as bad as in the 2015 reboot, he can have moments where he completely screws everything up and sometimes does things without realising and therefore getting into trouble.
 * 3) For some reason, he was changed to a female in the US dub, which is confusing for fans of the show and is also unnecessary since no one was complaining about the lack of females in the show (though, the reboot changed him back to a male).

Dizzy

 * 1) Even it's adorable when Dizzy gets excited about everything, it could make her character come across as a typical Genki Girl trope.
 * 2) Along with Roley, she was pushed over as a side character in the 2015 reboot for no apparent reason and barely even gets any spotlight anymore.
 * 3) Her excitement does lead to her rushing out the building job that she is doing and therefore making mistakes.
 * 4) Arguably, she has the worst design out of all of the machines in the 2015 reboot.

Roley

 * 1) Along with Dizzy, he was pushed to a side character in the 2015 reboot and he never gets the spotlight, as mentioned earlier.
 * 2) Even before he became a side character in the reboot, he has the least focus in the whole show and there is quite a lack of episodes where he gets the spotlight.

Lofty

 * 1) His voice, while cute, can be somewhat annoying depending on your view.
 * 2) He sometimes lacks confidence and even goes as far as to doubt that he can do the things he obviously can do.

Trivia

 * Scoop's original name was going to be Dig.
 * Some of the machines have different gender in different dubs of the show:
 * Scoop is female in the Polish and Swedish dubs of the show.
 * Muck is female in the American, Greek, Brazilian and Korean dubs of the show.
 * Dizzy is male in the Romanian and Slovenia dubs of the show.
 * Roley is female in the Swedish dub of the show.
 * The coin-operated ride company Jolly Roger Amusement Rides LTD made a kiddie ride out of Scoop in 1999, which featured 2 rectangular buttons, a green one to start the ride and a red one for sound effects and phrases. Later on, one was made with Roley in 2003.