Last year I joined a Kickstarter for a Back to the Future DeLorean. I don't even remember how I found out about it, but it instantly got my attention. The people behind it were going to develop a collectors edition of the DeLorean, complete with lights and fog that comes out of the rear vents just like in the movie. Then they said not only did they have the blessing of Universal Studios but they were going through Tomy for its creation. Okay, I'm sold. As with most Kickstarters, once they got the funds the actual work took a period of time. I am skeptical of most Kickstarters, but they kept everybody apprised of what was going on every step of the way. Also were very upfront with the possible delivery date. They went through several test builds, plus Universal Studios had to give their sign off so that they could say it was an official product.
Last week I received a monthly update saying the product was done and they showed pictures of their warehouse full of shipping boxes. They said things would start shipping in December and the backers would get an email when it shipped. I can only hope they were able to get this thing into stores by Christmas. I guess my email got lost; I never got any notification of shipment, but Paula told me a huge box marked Tomy showed up today. All through this, they showed plenty of pictures of it, but it didn't really give me any idea of size. I got home from work, and she was not kidding - the shipping box was huge.
This thing is amazing. They are to be commended on their attention to detail. Plus, the thing lights up - from the headlights to the lights that would come on when it was traveling through time, the flux capacitor "fluxing," and the digital display showing the time where you started, where you've been, and where you're going.
(I apologize for the odd glow in the background.)
One additional feature that I was not going to test just now, but I did accidentally activate it. If you remember from the movie, when the DeLorean would come to a stop after traveling through time, steam would come out of the back vents. This toy will do that. It uses the same stuff you put into a model train locomotive to get smoke out of the stack. I was testing the various touch sensors to make things light up, and I hit the one that lights up the nuclear reactor on the rear. Apparently, this also activates the fog - they put enough fluid in it to do just that. I was not expecting that to work when suddenly I heard a motor noise and smoke started pouring out of the vents. My first thought was, "Oh shit, it's going to set off the smoke detector." Fortunately, it didn't.
Now I just have to figure out where I'm going to put this thing. I have a shelf in my room with a couple of other DeLorean models - a model kit I put together many years ago that switches between road and flight modes (unfortunately, one of the wheels came off.) I also have a larger model that lights up when you press a button and a diecast model that's even larger than that. Finally, a small figure that asks, "What if the DeLorean Time Machine was also an Autobot called Gigawatt?"
