This is the new Hot Wheels Back to the Future 40th Anniversary Set, it’s so new that it hasn’t even been released yet, it will be formally released on July 24th this year. Sales are strictly limited to two per person, and they retail for $32 USD direct from Hot Wheels.
Each of these is packaged in a movie-themed diorama display, which itself is packed in a protective outer box. Most collectors will keep the vehicles inside the diorama display to preserve value, but some will roll out Doc Brown’s GMC Value Van and the DeLorean Time Machine and put them on display individually.
This Back to the Future set includes the DeLorean Time Machine, and for the first time from Hot Wheels, it also includes Doc Brown’s GMC Value Van which was used in the film for transporting the car. As a result of this, the model version here has dual ramps and the DeLorean fits neatly in the back.
History Speedrun: The DeLorean Time Machine
The original draft of Back to the Future used a refrigerator as the time machine, however this was changed due to concerns by Steven Spielberg about children attempting to emulate the film by climbing into refrigerators and potentially suffocating.
As a result of these concerns Robert Zemickis suggested a DeLorean, largely because it was so unique looking and would look like an alien spacecraft to a 1950s-era American family.
The Ford Motor Company had offered $75,000 USD to use a Fox Body Mustang instead of the DeLorean, but screenwriter and producer Bob Gale responded that “Doc Brown doesn’t drive a f@#king Mustang” and that was that – the DeLorean became the official time machine of the series.
The DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) had built the DMC-12 from 1981 until the company went into receivership in 1982. 9,000 or so examples were made and ~6,500 are estimated to still be on the road today – a remarkably good survival rate.
Back to the Future hit cinemas in 1985, just three years after DMC folded, and the film very quickly made the DeLorean the most famous car in the world. One can only wonder if the company would have survived if the film had debuted three years earlier, causing a sudden spike in sales and thus fending off the debt collectors.
The Hot Wheels Back to the Future 40th Anniversary Set
The new Hot Wheels Back to the Future 40th Anniversary Set was developed by Mattel Creations, a sort of Skunk Works division of Hot Wheels. They recently released the Hot Wheels 50th Anniversary Jaws Set, which also comes in a diorama-style box, and sales of that one have been predictably strong.
This Back to the Future set includes the DeLorean Time Machine, and for the first time from Hot Wheels, it also includes Doc Brown’s GMC Value Van which was used in the film for transporting the car. As a result of this, the model version here has dual ramps and the DeLorean fits neatly in the back.
Above Video: This is the scene from “Back to the Future” that this Hot Wheels model replicates, with Doc Brown’s van and the DeLorean Time Machine in the parking lot of the Twin Pines Mall.
Both vehicles are 1:64th scale and they come in a cleverly designed box that doubles as a diorama display case, recreating the parking lot from the Twin Pines Mall (later the Lone Pine Mall) in Hill Valley where the first time travel experiment took place.
Only two units are available to each person, with an MSRP of $32 USD. You can visit the listing on the Hot Wheels online store here, and they offer both US and international shipping.
Images courtesy of Hot Wheels
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.