The LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean DMC-12 →

Late last year, LEGO announced that the company would be moving forward with a Back To The Future DeLorean after fans at LEGO’s CUUSOO community went crazy for the design.[1]

Last week, it went on sale in the US. Here’s mine.

The DeLorean can be configured in three different modes:

  • The original, from the first movie, complete with the “OUTATIME” license plate and lead-lined plutonium tank.
  • The flying version from the second film. In this setup, the car is equipped with its futuristic barcode license plate and Mr. Fusion reactor for powering the time circuits.
  • The somewhat-rigged version found in the third film, complete with 1950s-era Doc engineering strapped to the hood and red rims. Sadly, LEGO didn’t include whitewall tires.

After building all three, I reverted to the original, 1985 configuration, but the “Old West” version is my second-favorite of the the three.

The car isn’t very big. In fact, it’s just a touch longer than the iPhone 5 is tall. The wheels look a little out of place on all three models, and the whole thing is much more fragile than other LEGO projects I’ve built recently. The doors are especially flimsy; I knock them off almost every time I move the thing, as that’s where my hand goes naturally to pick it up.

Those niggles aside, it’s a great model. While I may be a few years too young to have really enjoyed Back to the Future, the trilogy holds a special place in my heart — and now on my desk.


  1. In fact, the DeLorean is only the fourth CUUSOO project LEGO has green-lighted.  ↩