Retro Spins: Back To The Future

I wanted so badly for October 25th to fall on a Tuesday this year. If it did, I was going to push this post out to that date. Sadly, it lands on a Sunday.

Steven Spielberg presents an irresistible comic fantasy that accelerates beyond the time barrier with wit, imagination and infectious, wide-eyed wonder. Michael J. Fox stars as Marty McFly, a typical American teenager of the Eighties accidentally sent back to 1955 in a plutonium=powered DeLorean "time machine" invented by slightly mad scientist Christopher Lloyd. During his often hysterical, always amazing trip back in time, Marty must make certain his teenage parents-to-be, Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson, meet and fall in love - so he can get back to the future. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, this delightful comedy-adventure will make everyone want to get Back To The Future over and over again. - Back of the original VHS

A perfectly crafted film, matched by an equally wonderful soundtrack. That's my opinion anyway.

It has the awesome hits, Power Of Love and Back In Time by Huey Lewis And The News, and from there delivers some fantastic tunes to coincide. Are they as good as Power of Love? Not necessarily. However, they're also not bad.

You get Lindsey Buckingham's Time Bomb Town, Eric Clapton's Heaven Is One Step Away, and a couple delightful score tracks from The Outatime Orchestra - composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri. With this being more than enough to shape a solid album, it's not everything.

The soundtrack rounds out with the popular 1955 hit from Etta James, The Wallflower (Dance With Me Henry), and some newly recorded classics via the fictional band, Marvin Berry And The Starlighters. These include Night Train, Earth Angel and Johnny B. Goode. The latter of the tracks being credited to the fictional Marty McFly (in addition to The Starlighters).

Much like the film, I can't help but call the soundtrack perfect. It's one of the few albums I have which all the tracks have made their way into my iTunes and iPod shuffle.

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Back To The Future Part II Skateboard (Valterra)

Back To The Future Part II
Valterra
1989

While I was by no means a skateboarder, I had one in the 80's. Didn't we all? I think they were state issued across the USA for anyone between the ages of eight and eighteen.

I remember, on one of those not to bright idea kind of days, locking a bike chain around the bar of the seat on my brother's bike. The intentions were for him to pull me on a skateboard down the street. It sucks how the smallest of rocks can ruin a good day, and even more so, how you always seem to find them on a skateboard. A sudden jolt which thrust me forward through the air and ending with a hard thud on asphalt resulted in a golf ball size bump on my forehead. I think that was the last time I ever got on a skateboard.

Still, skateboarding was all the rage among many of the kids in the neighborhood. It wasn't hurt by pop culture thrusting the concept down our throats in television and movies. Back To The Future pretty much lead the charge in that regard. As such, it was no surprise that boards would also be made available.

Valettra not only made boards based on the 1985 film, but also the one featured in it. However, these are a bit difficult to track down. Because of this, I instead thought I would focus on this amazing one from the 1989 sequel, Back To The Future Part II.

This one was unique in a way simply for the fact that it came in a box. Typically, boards were hung on pegboards, sometimes surrounded by heat sealed wrap, and didn't really display all that well. Adding the simple touch of cardboard packaging made these things pop on store shelves. Not only that, but it made them wrapping paper friendly for parents putting them under the tree or next to birthday cakes without it being obvious what was inside.

Even the design of the board was different from most skateboards of the era. It had a futuristic look to it, which I suppose makes sense considering the film it was tied into.

There's definitely a collector's market price tag attached to this board. They're not too common on secondary markets, and can easily set you back $200.00 loose and more for boxed ones. Oddly though, not by much. I've seen boxed ones sell for around $250.00.

Still this is far less than what you'll pay for an original Valterra board from the first film. Those can set you back anywhere from $600.00 to $750.00! To put it into perspective for you, most boards cost between $60.00 to $80.00. You don't start to see prices in the high hundreds to thousand range until you get into the professional boards market. These Back To The Future ones, while nice, are far from pro boards.

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You Don't See That Every Day

It's always fun to be met with a random event in life which catches you off guard, but in a good way. That's kind of how things went today when I stepped out of a restaurant after having lunch and came face to face with...

Time circuits on!

The back obviously isn't decked out with a flux capacitor, nor do I know if the owner of the vehicle even intends to do so. Still, the car looks really odd with this blatant omission.

Running into this was a fun little reprieve from an otherwise every other day work day. I'll definitely take more surprises like this anytime. Such fun!

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Painted Memories: 88 Miles Per Hour!

Please share your own thoughts, memories and stories in the comment section.

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Perfect!

Remember that time you waited twenty-six years to buy a Pepsi?

Remember when Pepsi charged $20.15 for a Pepsi?

Remember the time you tried to spend $20.15 on said Pepsi only to find out you couldn't buy it?

Remember how you couldn't spend said $20.15 on said Pepsi because Pepsi only produced 6,500?

Remember how said limited Pepsi was supposed to go on sale at a specific time on a specific date and Amazon botched it?

Wasn't that perfect? You know, Pepsi Perfect?

Yes, the day which used to stand for the time Marty McFly ventured into the future to the date October 21, 2015 has forever been soured for many Back to the Future fans. They waited those twenty-six years since the film was released in 1989 for Pepsi to produce and release a Pepsi Perfect only to get slapped in the face - Hard.

Pepsi did indeed follow through with what many fans would hope to happen and did in fact release Pepsi Perfect on this day. However, their marketing plan was such a messy debacle it left many fans up in arms just with its announcement.

Pepsi stated on October 21, 2015 it would produce and release 6,500 bottles of Pepsi Perfect for sale - 1,500 would be immediately carted off to Comic Con, while the remaining 5,000 would be made available on a first come / first serve basis on Amazon - Limit one per customer.

Oh boy, what a mess this announcement was. Did Pepsi truly believe only 6,500 Back to the Future fans existed? Did they honestly think producing such a minimal quantity would go over well? With millions of Back to the Future fans out there this gave a whole lot of people who had waited and waited for such a special occasion a big old middle finger.

Despite this ill feeling which lingered in the air, fans flocked to Amazon in droves to be one of the lucky few to purchase a bottle of Pepsi Perfect - A plan that soon turned futile for the majority of them. Many were met with continuous loading screens, timed out screens and worst of all  a sold out label within mere minutes of going on sale. Even those fortunate enough to get the item into their online cart and thought they had achieved victory soon found themselves with messages that their transaction could not be completed. Anger ensued across the internet.

With bad press surrounding the campaign growing rapidly by the hour, Pepsi made an announcement that it would release a second batch of limited Pepsi Perfect. Once again 6,500 bottles would be made available, this time directly from Pepsi's own website.

Once again tempers flared as angry fans took to any venue they could find who would hear their cries of how even in light of attempting to make it right Pepsi was still infuriating the masses and spitting on the fans. How could anyone possibly get a Pepsi Perfect with such limited production and how could Pepsi feel this was okay? 13,000 was still minimal product to feed a fan base of millions - Only USA resident fans at that.

With more ill feelings surrounding the campaign, many tried once again on November 3, 2015 to get one of the final runs of Pepsi Perfect only to once again be faced with the same issues. Lag outs, unfulfilled orders and in short, no Pepsi Perfect. The outrage continued once again online and to this day remains from bitter fans who will always remember the day(s) Pepsi screwed them on fulfilling their ultimate Back to the Future fandom moment - Enjoying a Pepsi Perfect while watching the Trilogy.

So what was all the hype about? Why was everyone so eager to purchase a Pepsi for $20.15? What's the big deal here?

Well....Let's take a look.

Okay, it comes in a neat box. That's great for collectors. It's got the fun Pepsi Perfect logo on it and if you look closely you can see a little more detail in the corner; 

That's cool. Every collector loves seeing the words limited edition on their item. Makes them feel like they got something special. 

The bottle fits nicely in the center of the box in a little cut out designed specifically to hold it and it's then placed in a plastic bag...To seal in freshness? I don't know.

Let's take it out of the bag and have a closer look. 

Okay, it's a fancy bottle and it looks like tooth rotting Pepsi inside the bottle. It's neat that it's made with real sugar and not corn syrup - Common these days, but not so much in 2015.

So how does it taste?

Well, I wouldn't know. That's actually a Coke I ordered at a restaurant for this post. I'm not about to drink a Pepsi that cost me $20.15 (plus shipping) or that's three years old at this point. Plus I don't like soda. It makes a great display piece in my collection, but that's about as up close and personal as I'm going to get with this thing.

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Back to the Future (Funko / ReAction Figures)

Back to the Future
Funko / ReAction Figures
2014

Gotta get back in time...With Funko's nostalgic style Back to the Future figures. Fans of Back to the Future have been waiting decades for an action figure line based on the hit trilogy, and Funko delivers - Though in small quantities.

Unlike other Funko ReAction Figures which have launched with six to eight figures, BttF got only four. Licensing issue perhaps?

Whatever the reason, fans will have to suffice (for now) with Marty, Doc, George and Biff - We suppose something is better than nothing.

Marty McFly

Doc Brown

Biff Tannen

George McFly

It's difficult for us to justify and / or endorse exclusives in general, and it's even harder when said exclusive is nothing short of the same repackaged figure from the basic line with an added in plastic dog. At an average of $40.00 - We don't consider that money well spent.

Marty McFly and Einstein (Japan Limited)

Hopefully we'll see some new figures in the very near future. This particular series hasn't even nicked the surface. While it does provide a little scratching for that itch, the itch is still very much there. It's odd that so few figures came out for this particular series, because out of all the others released (Nightmare Before Christmas, Big Trouble in Little China, The Goonies, Etc.), BttF has three films that could expand the line well beyond most of them.

Join us next time when we take a look at Big Trouble in Little China!

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