Back to the Future III Delorean (lights and sounds) on YouTube. Will Lionel, MTH, or Menards ever produce anything like this?

The point of story was that the DeLorean Time Machine had no gasoline for the internal combustion engine.

The steam locomotive provided the power to push the Time Machine up to 88 miles per hour.

Andrew

falconservice posted:

The point of story was that the DeLorean Time Machine had no gasoline for the internal combustion engine.

The steam locomotive provided the power to push the Time Machine up to 88 miles per hour.

Andrew

In the video, the Delorean isn't motorized, but rather it uses track power for lights and sounds.  So you would certainly need a hijacked 10 wheeler to push it up to 88 MPH! Screen shot from the video:

I should have been more descriptive in the original post.

JD

I don't think anyone would be too keen on the idea of trying to develop merchandising off a movie that is almost 30 years old....

Slugger posted:

I don't think anyone would be too keen on the idea of trying to develop merchandising off a movie that is almost 30 years old....

Slugger, you're not thinking 4th dimensionally!

Not sure licensing BTTF would be worthwhile, but an enterprising manufacturer could certainly try working directly with DMC (which still exists) to license just the car design into a product.  I love the 12, but it seems more like a labor of love someone would be undertaking than a money maker. 

I did a quick google trend comparison. The graph shows the popularity of each search term. Red is the search term "back to the future" and and for comparison, blue is the search term "the polar express."  

Each Christmas, PE gets a little spike.  You can clearly see the spike for BTTF day 10-21-15.  Overall, BTTF clearly maintains a greater popularity over the past five years.

Personally, I think the manufacturers missed out on a opportunity to market BTTF items in 2015, but there is clearly great interest compared to the PE. 

JD

I am a fan of the BTTF movies and really enjoy part 3 with the old west theme and the train scenes, but unfortunately, the train stuff was just a bit part in the whole series.

I like the part where Clara wanders into the blacksmith shop as Doc is explaining the plan to Marty on how they will get the train to push the Delorean. He says something like, "We were just doing a little model railroading."

Come to think of it, right there is the perfect tie in! Someone needs to make an O (or even Standard) gauge set like Doc had, including the big rheostat thing he used to control the speed!

I've often wondered why nobody has ever made a BTTF train set with an engine and Delorean included. With modern digital sound and LED lighting effects, it sure would be a cool set and I'm positive it would sell well, even if the movie is 30 years old.  The fact that the film is 30 years old is an asset, not a hinderance. Why? Because many of the kids like me who grew up with BTTF now have real jobs and some disposable income to spend on something we've dreamed of having our entire lives. It's the same reason why Postwar trains started to become highly collectible starting in the 70's...because all the baby boomers were grown up and now had money to fulfill all those childhood dreams.

My guess is that a BTTF set hasn't been made for one of 4 reasons:

1) A licensing issue with Universal Pictures. Either they won't license the movie or the license is too expensive to make it worth the effort.

2) A similar licensing issue with the Delorean name.

3) The idea simply has never occurred to anyone at Lionel or MTH. I think this unlikely, but sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct one.

4) They've had the idea, but for some reason the cost to manufacture it is too high.

If they're not going to do a BTTF set, an alternative idea would be to do a really nice SCALE version of the Hogwarts Express. So far it's just been done as an O and G starter set. They've done a full scale Polar Express train, why not do the same with the Hogwarts Express? Given MTH's greater experience with doing European trains, I think MTH would probably do a better job on a full scale Hogwarts Express than Lionel. Lionel probably still has the license, however, so MTH may not be a viable option. Not sure.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

-Eric Siegel

P.S...

Best train related line from BTTF3? Doc Brown blowing the whistle on the engine and saying, "I've wanted to do that my whole life!". If they did a set, that line could be incorporated into the engine sounds! 

What would I do with my Polar Express 

The steam locomotive at the end could be a great model with lights, sounds, and moving features.

I think MTH's success with the Wild Wild West offering (early 2000's, movie was 1999, I believe) may explain why no one has pursued this.  Oh, wait........

Yes those of us who were fans as kids have the money to spend on such a thing, but are there enough of us?  Not likely.  The majority of the current hobby demographic were middle aged back when the movies came out, so with rare exception, most probably don't hold the affection for the series those of us who were not yet adults might.

-Dave

If I am not mistaken, one of the OGR issues I have(earlier this year) had someone who had a Delorean hiding behind his model church or whatever the building was. I'll have to look back through unless someone else knows what issue(or other magazine it was).

Google trend comparison with Wild Wild West as the yellow line.  I tried the movie and Tv show, both were flat liners:

The interest doesn't compare to BTTF.

The train in the Harry Potter films is less relevant to the overall story compared to BTTF III, where it is a major focus of the movie.  Granted, Harry Potter has a much wider appeal and greater popularity overall compared to BTTF.

 

 

You can buy a 1:43 Delorean and probably mate it to a EZ Streets/Super Streets chassis with a little work.  They also made a Hallmark ornament which may be closer to 1:48.  I don't know if you would see enough demand to justify tooling up for a new product, but there are options.  I'd much rather see something more universal, like an EZ Street city bus.

ericstrains.com posted:

I've often wondered why nobody has ever made a BTTF train set with an engine and Delorean included. With modern digital sound and LED lighting effects, it sure would be a cool set and I'm positive it would sell well, even if the movie is 30 years old.  The fact that the film is 30 years old is an asset, not a hinderance. Why? Because many of the kids like me who grew up with BTTF now have real jobs and some disposable income to spend on something we've dreamed of having our entire lives. It's the same reason why Postwar trains started to become highly collectible starting in the 70's...because all the baby boomers were grown up and now had money to fulfill all those childhood dreams.

My guess is that a BTTF set hasn't been made for one of 4 reasons:

1) A licensing issue with Universal Pictures. Either they won't license the movie or the license is too expensive to make it worth the effort.

2) A similar licensing issue with the Delorean name.

3) The idea simply has never occurred to anyone at Lionel or MTH. I think this unlikely, but sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct one.

4) They've had the idea, but for some reason the cost to manufacture it is too high.

If they're not going to do a BTTF set, an alternative idea would be to do a really nice SCALE version of the Hogwarts Express. So far it's just been done as an O and G starter set. They've done a full scale Polar Express train, why not do the same with the Hogwarts Express? Given MTH's greater experience with doing European trains, I think MTH would probably do a better job on a full scale Hogwarts Express than Lionel. Lionel probably still has the license, however, so MTH may not be a viable option. Not sure.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

-Eric Siegel

P.S...

Best train related line from BTTF3? Doc Brown blowing the whistle on the engine and saying, "I've wanted to do that my whole life!". If they did a set, that line could be incorporated into the engine sounds! 

Agree that it must be the cost of licensing.  Also, I have read that the writer of the movies is 100% against any remakes of the movies.  They also would not make any additional films in the series without the original cast.  I don't blame them, but they (the writer, Universal, etc.) do seem protective of the BTTF brand.

That would be a great crewtalk line. Another one I like is when they hijack the train and the engineer yells out, "is this a holdup?!" Doc says, "No, it's a science experiment!"

BTTF train and accessories always seemed like low hanging fruit to me for the train manufacturers.  Seems like it would be a better fit compared to mega tracks. But like you said, it probably a licensing/cost issue. 

JD 

Can you add lights and sounds to a freewheeling DeLorean Time Machine in 1:43rd scale from Vitesse.

VITESSE BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III DIE-CAST DELOREAN TIME MACHINE [1:43] (RAILROAD VERSION)

https://www.backtothefuture.st...DeLorean_p/24014.htm

 

 

Andrew

 

Eric: Bachmann made a H0 scale Hogwarts express a few years before Lionel did. I've also seen Hornby 00 sets at shows as well. Not sure if an O full scale version would sell well enough for Lionel to invest in the tooling.

The BTTF train set or whatever the manufacturers could come up with would be a great idea, IMO. Even some of us that were in our 30's at the time the movie came out had kids that loved the movie and we watched it with them (some parents liked it too ).  If they ever do make one I would be interested. Now we're gonna have to find a 1.21 gigawatt power supply somewhere...