Heavy elements from the future

Just a quick post to alert UK & German readers (and presumably some or all other European countries) that 21103 Back To The Future The DeLorean time machine is *probably* available in physical (not online) LEGO® Stores from today - 14 days in advance of the official release date, 1 August. But please ring your Store before you travel! As the early release was not really intended, it's possible your Store have not put it on shelves.


It seems some Store Calendars were mistakenly printed and released stating an 18 July release, but it was definitely supposed to be 1 August. I'm really impressed that TLG have made it available on the 18th, to avoid customer disappointment. As far as I know, North America and the rest of the world will need to wait a fortnight or use a time machine... or a jet plane will do actually.

My nearest store, Stratford, has it on shelves and I raced down to buy one just now. This is weird behaviour from me, I almost never buy sets on day of release. But the combination of many factors got me all worked up - the massive nostalgia of Back to the Future being resurrected by my favourite brand, the thrill of getting it early, the first CUUSOO set with potential wide mainstream appeal across many age ranges, and frankly the huge negativity directed at this set in advance of its release has simply got me wanting to discover it for myself.

And of course I'm excited about the new elements in it, which are new prints of existing parts. The minifigs of Marty and Doc are just superb but here are the other printed elements, resting on the high quality set instructions.

• The main point of note about the Flux Capacitor, top left, is the misspelling of 'shield'! Whether LEGO will reprint this embarrassing error remains to be seen, but suffice to say it's not the first time a misspelling has ended up on a piece. 
• The two numberplates - two because with this set, you can build alternate models of the DeLorean as seen in the three films - are my favourite parts of this set. As a BttF fan these just encapsulate the whole joy of having LEGO release this set. The Orange [BL] / Bright Orange [TLG] one even has potential to be used in other MOCs.
• Finally, the Time Settings Display bottom left. (Yes, believe it or not, I faked the first picture on this post.) In a sweet touch, the Destination Time displayed is not from the films but is in fact the date that LEGO patented their bricks for the first time. A perfect little humorous touch to meld the worlds of BttF and LEGO, and certainly one of the dates I'd love to visit if I had a working time machine. I'd go to Billund and tell Ole Kirk Kristiansen to keep better archives. Actually that would be too sad to do, knowing that he'd die 2 months later. Oh, the great responsibility of owning a time machine.

I shan't review the set here, but highly recommend you read Rufus' review on Eurobricks. A really impressive and thorough review including excellent coverage of the elements. He noticed something rather worrying with some of his Flat Silver [BL] / Silver Metallic [TLG] Radiator Grille 1X2 tiles (Element ID 4619636 | Design ID 2412) - the mould appears to have changed ever so slightly. Glad to report I have no such issue with my version (see pic), but it will be sad to see that particular change rolled out with the grille tile. Admittedly it's a tiny change, but for the record, 2412 is my favourite part. I really don't fancy having to sort them into current and new moulds!