Hot Toys Back to
the Future Marty McFly (MMS-257)

NoisyDvL5

“Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Doc. Ah… Are you telling me that you built a time machine… out of a DeLorean?” – Marty McFly, Back to the Future

There’s one question I get asked a lot. It’s “when are you updating your checklists?” But, the second question is often “why don’t you review your Hot Toys?” The answer is that it’s complicated. They’re often long, involved photo shoots compared to the ones for little guys. And I don’t feel like I always take good enough pictures to do them justice. And then there’s the clothes… it’s tough sometimes to worry about every point of articulation on some of these figures, but clothes. That introduces folds, and seams, and fit. Drives me crazy. But I keep buyin’ ‘em, so I need to keep revewin’ ‘em too.

I thought I’d try and get back in the groove with ol’ Marty McFly here. I love Back to the Future rather obsessively. If it’s on I have to watch it. If the trilogy is on… well, what else do I have to do that day? I hear a hint of the music and its Huey Lewis the rest of the new day. And that’s not to mention the melody of the theme song. I’ll be replaying that in my head all day while you’re reading this. All day.

And the toys… all the wonderful toys… well, there’s not really hardly any actually. Somehow it escaped the action figure treatment of the 80s and 90s. A Kenner line would’ve rocked, but there was virtually nothing. I vaguely recall a knock-off Micro Machine? In recent years, nostalgia-driven business models have produced a slew of DeLoreans, some Minimates, and more recently, LEGOs. ReAction has got in on the game with our first figures, but we’re still waiting on a great 6-7” figure to go with our similarly sized collections. Oh, but yeah, there’s a Hot Toy!

I went back and forth over buying this one. While it is the best non-die cast toy we’ve ever gotten from one of the greatest films ever made, I’m kinda used to not having toys of it, if that makes sense. And this was an investment – not in terms of later value, but in line commitment. I’ll need a Doc. And the car… I’m afraid of that Hot Toys DeLorean. I’m afraid of how much it costs. How much space it will take up. Where my wife is going to take my son when they leave after UPS drops it off. There was a lot of bundled in with this Marty McFly. I thought it could be best to avoid it, but then the Sideshow EX version with exclusive guitar went waitlist super quick. I don’t need a 1:6 guitar really.

I put my name on the waitlist immediately.

Now that it’s here, I feel that same conflict anew. I do love it. There are some flaws that I’ll cover, admit plenty of highlights, but it’s weird. So many of my prior HT purchases have been super-heroes in… super-suits. So, this one in regular clothes, well, 80s clothes, and it’s a little weird. I’ve got to futz with jeans and a tucked in-shirt. Does the down vest sit just right? It’s kinda like I’m finally a sixth scale collector. Ew!

But I’m getting used to it. Hot Toys tends to knock it out of the park and Marty isn’t an exception. The focal point is usually on the head sculpt and they nailed this one. It’s so good that it almost comes back around to take away from the picture. The sculpt captures what is probably Marty’s typical expression – that he’s not quite sure this is really happening. The squint could be a little tighter, but it’s the gist. It looks fantastic. The only downside is that it doesn’t work with the guitar. Or skateboarding. Or listening to music. It works for staring at the watch. It works for the camcorder, but it is just so spot on as to be limiting. Now, I’m not advocating blank expressions – those are the worst, but I could really use a few multiple heads on some of these figures. My wallet disagrees, but my shelves are willing. Michael J. Fox’s little half smile, the stern face when you’ve called him a coward, or even just the full on shock face would all be pretty neat to have. Granted, I don’t have a million dollars. I probably shouldn’t have bought this.

The body is where I get a little lost talking about Hot Toys. I don’t undress (it’s uh, totally cool if you do though, okay?) so I don’t really know the differences – what buck should’ve been used or what’s new, blah blah blah. Marty is appropriately shorter than the average Hot Toy, clocking in at 11”. That seems just about perfect and I’d guess he probably shares some parts with Robin among others. All the articulation works great and posing him is pretty much a breeze. I’m still working on the shoulders, there are some tight ratchets there, but he can pull the glasses off his head or the earphones down. He’s a doll and the poseability is there if you want it. Some of the articulation, like the wrists or the elbows if you lose the jacket, throws off the aesthetic. But that’s really a testament to how great everything else looks. Continue to Page 2…

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13 thoughts on “Hot Toys Back to
the Future Marty McFly (MMS-257)”

  1. Excellent review as always, sir. That said, I am not pleased with the figure’s look. Honestly, my distaste for Hot Toys increases daily at this point. That Keaton Batman was a grail for me, but looking at it now, there’s something off about it… and it seems there’s something “off” about just about every HT figure. For the prices they charge, that’s unacceptable.

    On the other hand, it also seems that I am alone in fretting about this, so stay the course, Hot Toys…

    Meanwhile, I share your love for the BttF franchise. I desperately hope NECA gets the license someday.

    1. Completely agree. I don’t understand why everyone seems to gush over this one, but to me it looks totally off. Which is a damn shame, as I would have broken the embargo I have in place on ordering any more of these until my credit card is payed off for a good Marty McFly.

      And good friggin lord, that Keaton. What a colossal failure that one is, especially compared to the first movie one. Maybe if they spent less time doing stupid BOBBLEHEAD DOLLS they could get their sculpt quality back up to what it used to be.

      Their consistency has gone way down as of late. When they nail it they still NAIL IT (Gamora, Robocop, etc), but they seem to be missing the mark more often than not anymore. But why focus on getting the face sculpts back up to snuff when there are a hundred minutely different Iron Mans to make, right? Combine that with how sharply they’ve gone up in price from even just a year ago and I don’t know how many more of these I’m going to get. Especially with NECA’s larger scale figs looking so, so good (and for only a third of the price).

        1. That’s better than their official pics. Still doesn’t seem quite right, especially compared to the first movie figure which looks like it literally just walked off the screen and onto my shelf. Yes, they only had half the face to worry about there, but still, considering that the only (official) way to get it is to buy a set of two of these, which will likely be $600-ish (I haven’t looked if it’s up for order yet because disappoint), it damn well should have been perfect. Oh well, money saved.

          1. It’s $345 from Sideshow – the 2pks aren’t Mattel-priced thankfully! And, even better, you can usually clean-up on eBay if you only want part of it. There will be folks wanting just Bruce Wayne or that prefer the armored look of Batman over the original and have no need for the Bruce. I got most of an extra Steve Rogers for a custom at great prices.

            As for perfection, nothing is perfect. There will always be something for each of to decide if we want to deal with it. I’ll definitely be picking up the 2pk to get Bruce & the Armored Batman. I’m gonna have to buy him some new clothes though, the tuxedo just doesn’t do it for me.

            1. That…makes no sense. How is a set of two of these – one of which has a very complicated costume, numerous accessories, and lots of alternate hands – less expensive than Thanos or Ultron*, both of which come with almost nothing? Heck, if I didn’t hate the Returns suit and the face on Batman wasn’t painted so as to look like he’s wearing lipstick and blush, that might be worth trying to t.

              And oh yeah, eBay is great for these. I’ve got me a Dark Knight Two Face, First Avenger Cap, and Dutch Schaefer thanks to scavenging parts thereabouts. I likely will just do that for Bruce if the final head looks closer to the pic attached above.

              And wow, people sure are crazy. The Nicholson Joker is by far the best likeness they’ve ever done, in my opinion. That one is amazing.

              *Ultron I can understand given how all of it is newly sculpted/tooled and how hella intricate it is, but Thanos pisses me off.

    2. I’ll still buy NECA stuff to be sure. I’m kinda wondering if Funko can go Legacy since they’ve done ReAction.

      As for things being “off”, you don’t want to know this, but they often look better in person. That said, it’s a unique experience – I think my Jack Nicholson Joker is one of the best but I’ve had people over and they point to him saying “They’re all amazing, except him”. People are crazy. lol

      1. That would be fantastic if they could. Maybe they will? I still hold out hope that they’ll give Goonies the Legacy treatment, but apparently the ReAction figures didn’t do so hot (They needed glossy finish, guys! It’s the Kenner way!) so it’s not likely. But Marty, Doc, Biff, they all have so much variant potential. Maybe SDCC will bear fruit.

  3. Excellent review. I think the head is a little off. It’s still good as you can tell who it is at a glance but the likeness just isn’t as good as some of their other figures. Having said that I am not a big fan of BTTF (or time travel movies in general) but I love Teen Wolf so maybe it’s because I keep thinking of his likeness from it instead of BTTF.

  4. For real, though, how were there never any BTTF toys back in the day? Yeah, you’re right about a micro machine (or likewise) set or two, I remember I had the future Texaco station from #2 with a tiny flying delorean and I think another car. I’ll always remember that, I saw it while my mom, grandma, and I were at the mall and I snatched it up because there just was just never anything from BTTF, and then the next store we went into had the BTAS Bruce Wayne which I had spent months searching for, and I wasn’t allowed to get it because I just got the car set. So it instantly became a source of bitterness, lol. Then there was a set of happy meal toys, or I think they might have been from burger king actually, from the cartoon series. But that was IT. It’s funny, when stuff like Robocop and Rambo and other things not AT ALL appropriate for children had multiple full lines, how was there never ANYTHING from BTTF?

  5. I guess what I don’t get about Hot Toys, and it’s made more obvious with Marty, is why Hot Toys doesn’t use an endoskeleton. Longevity issues aside (and I assume that’s not a problem, since most sixth scale collectors baby their toys), you go to the trouble of having this ultra-representational face sculpt and then you see the wrist joints, the elbow joints, heck, even that neck, and they look totally disjointed. One a smaller figure, it’s no big deal, and I actually like seeing articulation areas because it reminds me that I have an action figure and not a pricey collectible. But on articulated statues like this, it really seems nothing should be visible.

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