Muck/Behind the Scenes

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Behind the Scenes

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This is a behind the scenes subpage for Muck. This subpage contains all behind the scenes material relating to said article.

Background Information

A tracked dumper with a bulldozer blade, the type of vehicle Muck is based on.

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Muck was the second machine to join Bob's team as shown in When Bob Became A Builder. Muck is based on a tracked dumper, a type of off-road dump truck which has caterpillar tracks instead of tires and can in some cases be fitted with a bulldozer-like blade.

When the show was being dubbed for American audiences, Muck's gender was changed from male to female for a more representative cast.

Behind the Scenes

Stop-motion model

Muck's original stop-motion model was scratch-built for the original series by Mackinnon and Saunders. The model's body was constructed from plastic, fibreglass and diecast, the catapillers were made from rubber and had 8 wheels, the eyes were also made to turn around, the model was painted in a glossy finish.

Concept art reveals that Muck was originally going to be coloured red/yellow and blue. However, the final model is mostly red with orange on his blade and dumper.

Concept art by Curtis Jobling (October 13, 1997)

Primary basis.

Secondary basis.

The model’s first appearance in “Scoop Saves the Day”.

The model in the second series.

Three different mouth-plates were made for Muck, two of which would be shown upside-down to resemble different expressions. Two of these original mouth-plates would be used from seasons 1 through 5, and were duplicated for Series 6 onwards.

Muck's smiling mouth that appeared throughout the entire stop-motion era... (1998-2008)

...and was also seen upside-down to resemble a sad mouth.

Muck's happy/content mouth that appeared throughout the entire stop-motion era... (1998-2008)

...and was also seen upside-down to resemble a dissapointed mouth.

Muck's neutral mouth that appeared throughout the first five seasons. (1999-2002)

Muck's second smiling mouth that only appears in most episodes between the seventh and the sixteenth series... (2003-2008)

...and was also seen upside-down to resemble a second sad mouth.

Muck's neutral mouth that appeared between the six and the sixteenth series. (2002-2008)

In Snowed Under: The Bobblesberg Winter Games, Muck was shown wearing three of Scoop's mouths whilst imitating him. Muck is later seen wearing Scoop's mouth plates in Muck's Convoy and Built To Be Wild to convey shock. Muck was also shown to be wearing Roley's mouth in Roley's New Friend, once again while imitating him.

In Race to the Finish, one of Muck's models were given yellow stripes to resemble one of the Unknown Machines, was given one of Tumbler's mouths (albeit painted black), and made the eye pupils bigger.

One of Muck's models is currently on display at the Museum of Science and Industry, while another is in the possession of series creator, Keith Chapman. It was also on display at the Puppet Masters: Celebrating Animation event in 2016.

One of Muck's models on display at the Museum of Science and Industry

One of Muck's original models along with the original Bob puppet on display at the Puppet Masters: Celebrating Animation in 2016.

Aerial stop-motion model

A smaller scale model was made for Muck for aerial shots for both the Original Series and Project: Build It.

CGI model

In 2010, the series was relaunched as Bob the Builder: Ready, Steady, Build!. It introduced Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing stop-motion animation. Muck was recreated from scratch in CGI by SD entertainment. Photographs of Muck's stop-motion model were used for referencing.

Final render (clean)

Final render (with mud texture)

Muck's neutral mouth recreated in CGI

Voice Actors

• Rob Rackstraw (UK)
• Lachele Carl (US; Series 1-16)
• Sophie Aldred (US; Ready, Steady, Build!)
• Jukka Rasila (Finland)
• Gabriel Gama (Latin America - 2001-2004)
• Víctor Ugarte (Latin America - 2005-2013)
• Irwin Daayan (A Christmas to Remember) (Latin America - 2001)
• Lutz Harder (Germany)
• Marcin Przybylski (Poland - 2000-2012)
• Jarosław Domin (Scrambler to the Rescue) (Poland - 2007)
• Stan Limburg (Nederlands)
• Mino Caprio (Italy - 2000-2004)
• Carlo Scipioni (Italy - 2005-2012)
• Björn Gedda ("Sweden - 1999-2012")
• Jonas Slättung (Sweden; 2012-2015)
• Carlos Macedo (Portugal)
• Angélica Santos (Brazil)
• Gregor Čušin ("Slovenia - 1998-2005")
• Takayuki Yamaguchi (Japan)