For Back to the Future fans there are many things you can get to collect to celebrate your love for the greatest film trilogy ever made. Highlights include model DeLoreans, full sized Hoverboards and of course replicas of the Sports Almanac.
But today, we’ll be looking at the official Back to the Future Clock Tower Model. Yes that’s right, you can now create your very own model of the Clock Tower that when struck by lightning, can be rigged up to enable time travel for any passing vehicles…probably.
The set comes with a few sheets of foam boards which you can pop out and slot together to create the iconic movie location, and for the most part this was an easy process. I’ll be honest that I couldn’t quite get the steps to look like how they do on the box and I’m not sure why…but I also didn’t care after 2 minutes and found a way that slotted together that satisfied the ‘that’ll do’ instinct in me.
A slight issue was that the instructions show the pieces but don’t label them in to fully identify what piece they mean from the set. Of course, they are simple enough to recognise, and I suppose that gives an element of problem solving without spoon feeding you too much.
It didn’t take long to put together and over all is a simple, but effective recreation of the film set, but there are a couple of things missing which could have greatly improved the appeal of this set. It needed to have a mini Doc Brown and some cables to give the sense that this is the set during the dramatic climax of the film where the tower is about to be struck by lightning. With no lightning rod and cables to have Doc slide down them to unhook them from a tree this is literally just a model of a building.
Fair enough that this doesn’t have to be anything more than it is, but it brings to mind that scene from the movie Big where Tom Hanks complains that the Transformer figure turns into a building, and what’s fun about playing with a building. Certainly this is a collector’s piece which although stated for ages 6+ is definitely something that will appeal more to children of the 80s who want to have a nostalgia trip on their shelves. It could even inspire fans to build the rest of Hill Valley and set remote controlled time machines racing through the streets to set the models on fire just like in the movie! Of course if you plan to do this, make sure that like Doc and Marty, you have a fire extinguisher near by!!!
Conclusion
At it’s full retail price of £15 approx this really isn’t too worth it. For a few pounds more you can get Funko or Playmobil versions of the Clock Tower which include figures, trees and actual lightning!! Or actual plastic lightning anyway. This is a nice quick activity for Back to the Future fans to spend a few minutes constructing, but I wouldn’t expect this to be the prize piece in your collection.
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