The popular children's television series Bob The Builder was receiving very good reviews when the second season aired in 1999. There were 26 episodes total. Pilchard Goes Fishing was the final episode of the season, but there was a 27th episode that was written between Lofty To The Rescue and Dizzy's Birdwatch. The episode was titled "Lofty's Bad Day". But this time, this episode actually doesn't focus on Bob & Wendy, it actually focused more on the "Can Do" machines.

The episode opens up with the original intro of Bob The Builder, like usual, and the title read "Lofty's Bad Day", and begins with Lofty moving around randomly for some reason. The opening sequence was the exact same as the episode "Lofty To The Rescue" There were a couple of slight differences however. The colors seemed a bit more dull and Lofty was going a bit slower than usual. The audio is a bit distorted and the voices can barely be made out. Neil Morrissey, the British voice actor for Lofty, Bob, Roley and Farmer Pickles respectively is talking in a very slow monotone voice that it was very hard to hear his voice.

The next shot however is perfect but Lofty is now moving into the shed, looking extremely sad as if he had witnessed something horrific. There is no sound at this point. The scene then fades to black and then this is where the episode got weird.

The next shot is at the shed, and Lofty looks extremely agitated. Roley and Muck are also present. They begin laughing at Lofty, but in a dark demonic tone that didn't sound anything like Neil Morrissey or Rob Rackstraw. Roley tells Lofty that he wonders who would be next to be sent to the scrap yards. Muck then tells Roley that Lofty should be next for being silly. At this point, the two actors sound as if their voices are clogged. Roley and Muck have acted pompous and arrogant before and sometimes tease their friends on the show, but this was something that was much more cruel and very dark for Roley and Muck to say. The next shot is of Lofty and his eyes move but then lock onto the screen.

He just stares at the viewer for about 30 seconds and fades to a still image for about one frame. From what I could make out, it looked like Scoop and Dizzy being thrown into a volcano. It looked absolutely horrific! It was for about 2 seconds, and we then see Lofty going down an old abandoned line. Lofty then begins to cry and his shiny blue paintwork begins to smear and turn dark crimson. This is where the episode comes up with two extremely different versions from the US and UK versions

UK Version:

Lofty then came across two small machines that look identical to Scoop and Dizzy. The small machines in fact WERE them, but they were completely dented, their faceplates were cracked, and they didn't even have their own faces. They look as if they were singed. Lofty began to cry at first, but a faint whisper is heard, and Lofty goes from crying to just being still. Lofty's eyes rolled over to me and he smiled. Then he says "This will be your fate!" Then he takes of down the line and begins laughing loud and demonic.

A shot of Lofty laughing began to play, but the scene plays backwards and repeats itself several times. Lofty then passed by Roley who is simply laughing at what he thought was Lofty's misfortune, and began moving slowly, laughing extremely demonic, and tells Lofty that there never was or will be any use for him or the two small machines. Lofty then goes from laughing to grunting and growling. Lofty then screams and the sound was so piercing that I tried to turn down the volume on my remote, but it sounded as if Lofty was in the room. Lofty got angry, and what appeared on his crane was a machine gun, and he shot and blew up Roley who tried to dodge the bullets and a loud explosion is heard.

Obviously feeling a bit guilty, Lofty races down the line, and goes down a narrow mountain line where he flies down the mountain side, and eventually reaches the bottom. Lofty instantly breaks in half and is completely mangled.

The last scene shows a horrific shot of Scoop, Lofty and Dizzy completely disfigured. They don't even have their faces. Scoop's sides appear to have been bashed and his arm used for digging was missing. There is also a big crack in his faceplate where his face belongs. Dizzy's wheels aren't even attached to her, and her bucket for mixing cement was missing along with her connecting rods that are cracked, and Lofty was the worst out of all three. It didn't even look like him.

Lofty's blue coat of paint was all rusted, and his cab was cracked in half. His hook had been broken apart and he is also missing his front bogie wheel. His four driving wheels are just hanging on the ground. Scoop and Dizzy also have blood stains all over their paint work. The scene pans out to show Roley(who somewhat survived the blast) and Muck laughing with Spud. Bob, Wendy, Travis, Benny, Pilchard and Bird are present, and Spud The Scarecrow came along side the two other machines saying "you're next!" In a very demonic tone. The last shot is of Bob, Wendy, Travis, Pilchard and Bird looking horrified as if they know what is about to happen. The episode fades to black for about one frame and then the normal end credits roll.

US Version:

Like the UK version, Lofty goes along an old abandoned track. The voice acting in the US was actually the same as the UK. However, Lofty ends up at a cemetery where he sees machine parts scattered all over the graves. Lofty hears the sound of demonic laughter coming from the sidings which sounds like Diesel 10 from the thomas and the magic railroad movie. He then hears Roley and Muck say "you're next" as he raced off into the distance. Lofty decided to hide into a siding and came up in front of a grave stone. Lofty began crying softly, but it sounded like an actual person crying as if Neil Morrissey was actually depressed. The next shot is of Lofty's face. His eyes aren't even moving, and he's just staring at the grave stone. The scene then zooms into the grave stone. There is no name written on it but it simply gives a time of death that says February 1st 1958- March 24th 2020.

This was actually the birth and death date of the US voice actor for Bob The Builder, William Dufris. Lofty then backs away from the stone, and goes off to hide in the sheds. The next scene is of Lofty spinning, and Roley is watching him and laughing at him. Lofty backs down into his shed and tears begin rolling down his eyes. Lofty's eyes are just staring into the camera as if he is staring right into the viewer.

The scene fades to black and then a shot of the shed, abandoned is used with the engines all rotting away. Lofty is on the turntable still looking depressed and begins crying. The engines that appear to be scrap engines are Scoop, Dizzy, Benny and Travis. The scene pans out to show Roley and Muck laughing with Spud. Roley then speaks and calls Lofty a small blue crane in a very demonic voice, and the episode ends with normal credits, but the theme song was a creepy music box version of the Bob The Builder theme song, instead of the catchy rock music. After the credits, an image flashed on screen for a frame. The image shows Bob himself hanging from a noose.

Afterwards:

After watching the episode, I decided to play back some of the shots that to me happened to have the strange differences in the characters' personalities. In the UK version, Lofty seemed to be acting very aggressive and acted as if he wanted everyone dead. It felt like he was actually talking to the viewer rather than being the regular timid, shy and friendly blue crane he always tries to be. In the US version, Lofty was acting very depressed and I felt very uneasy on watching this version seeing as how Neil Morrissey was actually depressed. I couldn't find any images surfacing the web but I made up the single image of what would have been in the lost episode.

As I went to sleep that night ,I had a nightmare that I was in the episode. I was running around my neigborhood and Lofty was able to ride off the road, and chase me. He kept yelling at me screaming "you're not getting away from me! I'm gonna rip out your organs and feed them to Roley and Muck!" I must say, ever since then, Lofty has been after me. Even when I'm walking through a store that sells Bob The Builder merchandising (Walmart and Target) I feeling all the Lofty toys are all out to get me! One night, I had another nightmare that my Bob The Builder Lofty action figure model came to life and tried to kill me. But it was only a small model, so I was able to destroy it. But as I woke up, I heard a tapping on my window. I looked out my bedroom window, and there was Lofty the blue crane himself. He had his angry face and his eyes moved up and down and he rolled right up to my window, and stared straight into my soul. So I ran upstairs thinking I found salvation until an army of Lofty models (Take'n play) had toy cars of anthrax and the real Lofty said "The next person who reads the article will find me in their room tonight!"