After I fixed the roof, everything was right as rain. The scale is off between the vehicle and mini-figures, but its spot on for a LEGO vehicle. That’s just what happens unless you’ve going for a Smart Car build. The original designer and LEGO knocked it out of the park – it’s still instantly recognizable as the Time Machine and even better, it comes with alternate pieces to get the looks right from all three films: both the original and future barcode license plates, swappable tires, and both Mr. Fusion and the exposed vacuum tube contraption on the hood that replaced the damaged microchips. I’ve mostly stuck with the BTTF2 look with Mr. Fusion though I’m partial to the original license plate. I mainly like it because the wheels fold down into hover mode and some clear bricks were included to give the Time Machine the appearance of flying.

Finally, there are two special bricks with special tampos that you won’t need to change out: the flux capacitor and the time display. The time display is notable for having the date of the first patent on a LEGO brick displayed (certainly a notable event) and the Flux Capacitor piece is notable for a misspelling. Yep, it says “SHEILD EYES FROM LIGHT”. Doh.

The set includes two mini-figures, Doc & Marty. Both are well done and match their looks from the first film. If there’s any regret I have it’s that I don’t get more BTTF sets to get a few more of their iconic looks as mini-figs. Both feature a regular face and a screaming face and LEGO did their usual great job of somehow distilling the actor’s likenesses into the simple mini-fig faces, particularly on Doc Brown’s screaming face. I don’t know how they do that. Marty includes his original skateboard, which is cool, but I don’t know what to do with it. The only nitpick on the mini-figs is a LEGO Ideas rule – no new pieces. In the same way that the Ghostbusters set just looked like it dropped the ball on the hair, the Time Machine suffers too. Marty looks fine with that slightly messy hair piece, but I’m not feeling the Joker hair on Doc. He looks fine, so it’s not a deal-breaker. I do wish LEGO Ideas would make an exception for hair though.

Overall, this set is fantastic. I would like some new hair for Doc and I did have to mod the windshield/roof, but that just hasn’t gotten in my way of enjoying the set. I love Back to the Future though, so I’m an easier mark. I’ll watch it compulsively any time I see it on and I still hum the opening notes of the music randomly when I’m bored. So, yeah, a LEGO BTTF Time Machine is right up my alley – but it also meets those expectations. The build is solid, the extra parts to recreate all three versions is wonderful, and the two key characters included for only $35 feels like a steal. Great set all round.

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