Tag Archives: BTTF

The first Back to the Future movie in 1985 spawned two sequels, and has been inspiring LEGO builders ever since. Doc Brown’s time-traveling DeLorean DMC-12 alone has been rebuilt in LEGO more times than we can count. See some of the best BTTF models right here on The Brothers Brick.

LEGO Creator Expert 10300 Back to the Future Time Machine – Well, it’s about time. [Review]

Oh, we’ve seen LEGO Back to the Future time machines before. Beyond numerous excellent fan versions, there have been two official sets: 2013’s CUUSOO 21103 Back to the Future and 2017’s Dimensions 71201: Back to the Future Level Pack. But really, neither of those sets were terribly accurate takes on this iconic movie vehicle. Now, after years of rumors, false leaks, and empty hopes, LEGO has announced Creator Expert 10300: Back to the Future Time Machine. This 1872 piece set will be available April 1st for US $169.99 | CAN $219.99 | UK £149.99. Will the third time be the charm? Or will we have to hope someone goes back in time yet again to try and fix things?

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Click to read the full hands-on review

Where we’re going, we don’t need roads: Back to the Future DeLorean

As you probably know, today, the 21st of October 2015, is the day that the DeLorean Time Machine from the 1985 blockbuster Back To the Future travelled to.

2015 Delorean Time Machine Front

Back in 1985, the makers of the movie imagined a rather cool-looking future in which we’d have flying cars, self-drying clothing, hovering skateboards and lots of fax machines, among other things. The hoverboard may be on its way, but fashion fortunately went in another direction and there are no flying cars either or at least none that work reliably. Instead we have smart-phones and social media.

Flying Delorean Time Machine from Back to the Future

We also have LEGO parts that I certainly couldn’t have imagined back in the eighties, as well as lots of different third-party accessories. Brian Williams (BMW Indy) has put some of these to very good use on his version of the Time Machine, with parts with a matte metal finish as well as lots of LED lighting and “glow” wire. He first posted pictures of this beauty a few months ago, but now seemed a particularly fitting day to bring it to your attention.

Three eras of a DeLorean time machine

Adam Grabowski (misterzumbi) made a DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future out of LEGO. It’s actually silver. It’s six wide. And it looks nice in all its clothes.

Untitled

21103 Back to the Future DeLorean [Video Review]

To complement our previous DeLorean review by Andrew, I’m bringing you a video review of 21103 Back to the Future DeLorean. The set was released in August 2013 and retails at $34.99, with 401 pieces and 2 minifigs.

Here is my summary of the highlights of the set, which are elaborated in the review video below.

Pros:

  • 2 new and popular minifigs
  • Nicer than usual packaging and bound instruction book
  • Includes extra parts for different versions of the DeLorean


Cons:

  • No new/rare parts used in the DeLorean besides the printed tiles
  • DeLorean hood design is not optimal
  • Car seats only 1 minifig

Overall, I would recommend this set more to fans of the movie and collectors than to builders. Even though the set has an above average price to parts ratio, buying this set for parts won’t add much to the diversity of your collection due to the lack of rare and new parts from this set. If you’re into collecting, then this set is a must-buy due to its novelty and popularity.

LEGO 21103 BttF DeLorean now shipping

The LEGO and Back to the Future DeLorean set (21103) (reviewed here) is now shipping (at least in the US). So if you’re keen on this set and haven’t already noticed you can help us help you and buy it.

LEGO BTTF & Lone Ranger train kitbash is inevitable but awesome

We generally don’t highlight LEGO models that primarily include only official sets, but this one is too cool — and frankly, rather creative — to pass up. Stuart Miles over at Pocket-lint has combined the new LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean set with the LEGO Lone Ranger Constitution Train Chase set to recreate an iconic scene from Back to the Future III.

LEGO BTTF and Lone Ranger kitbash

Head on over to Pocket-lint.com for more photos and Stuart’s write-up.

LEGO CUUSOO Back to the Future DeLorean [Review]

The LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean set, the 4th set to be released as the result of a LEGO CUUSOO project, is being officially unveiled this evening in San Diego at Comic-Con. LEGO sent us an advance copy, and I’m pleased to bring you a full photo review.

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (1)

First, the details: 21103 LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean goes on sale tomorrow morning (July 17, 2013 in the US) for $34.99. The set includes two minifigs — Marty McFly and Emmett “Doc” Brown — and 401 LEGO pieces.

UPDATE: The set is apparently only available at San Diego Comic-Con today (July 17), and it will be on sale globally on August 1st.

First impressions & the finished model

Normally I’d talk about things like the build and parts selection before rendering judgment about the completed set, but let’s just get this out of the way, since there’s already been a lot of discussion about what the set looks like. The official set is, of course, based on a LEGO CUUSOO design by Japanese LEGO fans Masashi Togami, who built the DeLorean, and Sakuretsu, who created the custom minifigs.

LEGO CUUSOO Back to the Future DeLorean

The official set was designed by Steen Sig Andersen, a 30-year veteran of LEGO set design. (As a side note, I think it’s important to remember that official LEGO sets are designed by people much like hobbyist builders, who care just as much about the final design as we do and who are no less affected by criticism, but who have to work under far more constraints. Nevertheless, my job here is to review the end result of the process, not speculate on how my critique is going to affect Mr. Andersen’s feelings.)

Like many of you who commented here and elsewhere, my first impression when I saw the box art was not entirely positive. Frankly, I’m not sure why the final, official set looks the way that it does. My first impression when I saw the set was, let’s be honest, confusion. The hood has been re-sculpted using stepped tiles rather than the single large slope in Masashi’s original (a frequent and logical solution, as Larry Lars demonstrated in the version that Ralph highlighted last week). The roof is four studs wide rather than six studs, with the windshield frame angling inward to give the whole cab a pinched look.

There’s been speculation that this design change from Masashi’s original model might have been because of part availability in LEGO’s current production cycle. But Light Bluish Gray Slope 10 6 x 8 is indeed currently in production, in at least two 2013 LEGO sets. Short of the one functional reason (read on…), I’m still not sure why stepped tiles were necessary to achieve the final design in the set.

But in person, in less-dramatic light than the angle in the box art, it’s not nearly as bad. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement, and I don’t think the box designer (or photographer) did this set any favors by giving the steps on the hood such deep shadows. Similarly, the set designer could certainly have angled the windshield frame pieces much wider. I’ve done so in a number of the photos, and I think this subtle change alone makes the set look much better.

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (7)

The rest of the DeLorean includes all the key details and play features you’d expect — from opening gull-wing doors and the big black exhaust vents to wheels that turn down for flight.

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (3)

Another problem with the final roof design is that it limits headroom inside due to the gull-wing doors coming in closer to the center of the car. As a result, you can only fit one minifig inside, in the driver’s seat. There’s enough floor room (six studs) there for two, but the 4-wide roof prevents both Marty and Doc from riding in the DeLorean together. Since the DeLorean is a time machine, Doc is not particularly happy about being left behind.

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (4)

If you can get past the hood and cab — granted, the very first things you see in any three-quarters “hero shot” on box art — this really isn’t a bad DeLorean. But it could be better, much better, as other LEGO fans (including Masashi) have demonstrated. And that’s more than a little disappointing.

Packaging, instructions, and the build process

Like LEGO Architecture sets and previous LEGO CUUSOO sets, the DeLorean comes in a solid box suitable for storage.

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (13)

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (2) LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (14)

Similarly, the instruction booklet (printed in English and French) is perfect-bound rather than stapled, and includes background info on the movie, profiles of the CUUSOO project initiators, the LEGO set designer, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Throughout the instructions, there are little notes about the model or the source material.

As someone who grew up in Japan and is bilingual, one thing that bothered me was that the writer referred to Masashi Togami as “Togami” several times (meanwhile, “Sakuretsu” is a screen name). Given that the writer wrote “Steen” for Steen Sig Andersen, I believe the writer’s intent was to use Masashi’s given name as I’m doing, and that the writer assumed incorrectly that “Masashi Togami” followed name order used in Japan (surname, given name). A minor linguistic quibble, but a reminder that a quick read by someone familiar with the other culture or language is always a good idea in cross-cultural communications…

The set comes in five unnumbered poly bags, and with 401 parts, I just dumped them all in the box. (Poly bags are boring, and I’m not sure why other reviewers feel the need to photograph them. I won’t bore you with those photos myself.)

In several respects, the model comes together like one designed by a fan, and not an official set. For a set that did indeed originate as a fan design, that’s a good thing. Though SNOT is no longer unusual in LEGO sets, there are enough single-stud connections, half-stud offsets, and hinge-based connections that it felt like I was building something designed by Daniel Siskind, Tyler Clites, or Christopher White — all of whose custom designs I’ve had the pleasure of building for myself (there’s value for even experienced builders in trying out someone else’s designs from time to time).

The DeLorean on the box art comes together after 93 pages and 63 steps. But there are still 12 more pages of instructions, and I still had about 50 pieces rattling around in the box. The remainder of the instructions and parts enable you to convert the DeLorean into the versions of the car seen in Back to the Future II and Back to the Future III.

The conversion to the BTTF2 DeLorean just adds a Mr. Fusion and swaps out the 1985 license plate for a 2015 license plate, plus four clear bricks to “float” the car off the ground.

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (10)

To convert the base DeLorean into the version seen in BTTF3, you swap out red wheels for the gray wheels in the tires on the original. Why LEGO didn’t just include 4 more tires I don’t know.

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (11)

You also build a greebly panel to put on the hood, which (finally) explains the stepped tiles rather than a single smooth slope for the hood.

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (12)

I still think the same effect could have been achieved (somehow — I’m not the designer with 30 years of professional experience) with the 6×8 slope in Masashi’s original design, but at least this answers the “Why?!” that so many of you out there have expressed.

The minifigs

The highlight of this set is the pair of completely unique minifigs. Marty McFly wears his puffy vest (mistaken for a life jacket in the first movie), and Doc Brown wears a nuclear hazmat suit.

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (5)

Both the minifig torsos and their heads are printed on two sides — “happy” and “scared”/”angry”.

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (6)

The minifig parts appear to be of the quality you’d expect in a standard set, not the cheaper-feeling minifig elements you get with some Collectible Minifigures (which you can distinguish by the mold imprint on the inside of the left arm).

To answer a question I’ve seen elsewhere, no, there aren’t additional minifigs in the set to reflect the characters’ outfits in the second and third movies.

Parts selection

Although this probably isn’t a set I’d recommend for a draft, there are definitely some rather special parts in this set that you absolutely won’t be getting anywhere else. In a revelation that I think will truly shock many of you, every one of the unique decorated parts in this set is properly printed rather than a decal. Here’s a shot of the back of the box that shows all of them.

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (15)

The Flux Capacitor, white California 1985 license plate, orange California 2015 license plate, and time readout on the dashboard are all printed! Combined with the minifigs, if that’s not motivation to buy this set and rebuild it to your own liking, I don’t know what is.

Though less-exciting, and I’m not 100% sure, I think the purple skateboard is also new. That was actually another opportunity for printing, and it would’ve been cool to see LEGO’s official take on the hoverboard. Still, new parts in less-common colors like purple are always welcome.

Value

Based on early photos and the part count, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see this set sold at $40-50 MSRP. A licensed product, 401 pieces, two minifigs, and collectible-quality packaging all add up to at least $40. The final MSRP turns out to be $34.99. The LEGO Minecraft set sold for $34.99, so I suppose the same price for the next CUUSOO set isn’t such a surprise after all.

I generally don’t address collectibility or the secondary market in my reviews, but that seems unavoidable here. LEGO couldn’t keep the Minecraft set in stock for more than a few hours during its first year, and the $35 set is still going for $50 and up on the secondary market even though you can buy it for $35 from LEGO again. At times when LEGO didn’t have any in stock, it wasn’t unusual to see the $35 set sold for $100 or more (likely driven by the possibility that it was “out of print”).

Strictly on price-per-part and probable collectibility, this set is a bargain.

Recommendation

This is ultimately, inevitably, and somewhat unfortunately, a mixed review. If you’re both a LEGO fan and a hardcore Back to the Future fan, buy this set. If you want to use the unique printed parts and the base design to make a better DeLorean, by all means do so (the key slope piece starts at about 35 cents on BrickLink, if you don’t already have one).

At $34.99, the set is also a good value, both for the number of parts and the likely scarcity of the printed pieces. I hate to fuel speculation or the secondary market in general, but I can’t imagine that this set will be any less collectible than other licensed LEGO sets, and as a one-off, potentially even more so. Buy one to build (or rebuild), and buy a second to sell to a collector in three years at a 400% profit, thus enabling you to buy more LEGO to build with. Just don’t be a jackass and hoard 30 of them in your basement.

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean (9)

I’ve written the word “buy” quite a lot in the previous two paragraphs. But that doesn’t change the fact that this set could have been much, much better. Changes to the hood and roof design are both baffling, and severely detract from the “shelf appeal” of the set, without really adding anything in terms of sturdiness or playability (normal compromises I’d expect).

Overall, yes, I can recommend this set with a clear conscience. But you deserve to know exactly what you’re getting. And what you’re getting isn’t perfect.

LEGO CUUSOO Back to the Future box art revealed [News]

While official details remain somewhat sketchy, high-res box art is now everywhere online for the forthcoming LEGO CUUSOO set #4. Behold 21103 LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean Time Machine.

LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean

The DeLorean, Marty McFly, and Doc Emmet Brown are sitting here next to me as I type this, so look for a full review of this new set in the next day or so, once the official info is due to be released.

Also, remember that this week is San Diego Comic-Con, so check back here on TBB for full coverage of official announcements as well as on-the-scene reporting by TBB contributors attending in person.

You built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?

When first introduced, the DeLorean DMC-12 looked as though it came from the future. In reality, however, it turned out to be a disappointment. Its stainless steel body was impossible to keep clean, its fancy gull-wing doors leaked, its electronics were unreliable, the build quality was shoddy and its performance was lacklustre. It is no surprise then that DeLorean Motor Company went bust after a few years. Nonetheless, the Back to the Future Trilogy turned this sleek but hopeless clunker into a pop culture icon. In the words of Doc Emmett Brown: “The way I see it, if you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?”

Back to the Future is a popular subject for LEGO builders, and we’ve featured a fair number of Back to the Future models here on The Brothers Brick. Now, thanks to LEGO CUUSOO, LEGO is getting in on the action too, with an official BTTF DeLorean scheduled for release soon. Like many of you, I’ve seen some of the preliminary pictures, and though I quite liked the original version on CUUSOO, I though it looked rather over-sized with the figures standing next to it. The size was chosen such that it could seat two minifigures side-by-side in a vehicle.

Since I am currently building cars from Eighties movies and TV shows anyway, seeing the preliminary picture of the set prompted me to have a go at building one myself. Since minifigures are oddly proportioned little characters and play value isn’t my priority, I decided not to bother with them, opting for a brick-built figure instead. I chose the flying version of the car that is introduced at the end of the first movie and was used during Part II.

DeLorean time machine (1)

I am not the only builder who was prompted to build a DeLorean by pictures of the forthcoming set — Larry Lars has finished his own. It is a rather different interpretation of this movie classic, but it looks the business. The model is slightly smaller than mine, which makes it about the same size as the CUUSOO version. In Larry’s words, it’s all about shapes and not so much about the details. He didn’t skimp on the details, though.

BTTF Part II Time Machine - Flying

Larry and I realise that we don’t have to work with the same constraints as LEGO set designers. Our models would not work as a set; they use far too many parts, are too complicated and use a few illegal connections. Furthermore, mine doesn’t drive very well and the doors are very flimsy. I suspect this isn’t different for Larry’s model either. Inevitably, there’s something lost in translation between fan-designed models like ours and an official set. I’ll await definitive pictures of the set before making up my mind, but I hope LEGO haven’t turned a sleek design into a clunker.

Check back soon here on The Brothers Brick for coverage and a review of the official LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean.

Next Lego CUUSOO set: Back to the Future Delorean

Lego CUUSOO posted the results of their first quarterly review and announced that the next CUUSOO set will be the Back to the Future Time Machine. The final product has not been revealed at this time. You can read more about the results of the review on the CUUSOO blog.

LEGO Cuusoo goes Back to the Future with Masashi Togami’s DeLorean [News]

LEGO Cuusoo is really picking up speed lately, breaking 88 miles per hour moments ago! Masashi Togami’s DeLorean project on Cuusoo achieved the 10,000 vote threshold tonight, meriting it an official review by the LEGO Company, and if all goes well, development into an official LEGO set.


Pinky & The Brain Mosaic + a Back to the Future bonus...Narf!

I recently finished these two mosaics and was able to display them at Emerald City Comic Con this last weekend. They are my first mosaics but won’t be my last, as they were much more fun than I was expecting. I guess there is something to be said for building outside your comfort zone, eh?

Pinky & The Brain

Doctor Emmett Brown

I was also able to meet Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche, the voice talent behind Pinky & The Brain, and get them to sign the mosaic. Unfortunately, Christopher Lloyd had to cancel or I would have snagged his autograph too. Oh well…you can’t win them all!