I was recently invited to the press launch of Eaglemoss' "Build the Back to the Future DeLorean" to see the completed model. As some of you may know, I'm a huge fan of the films and a friend of mine led the team that restored the A car from the movies. So I was keen to see just how good this model was! Of course, Eaglemoss are well known for their collections in parts, such as Doctor Who, Marvel, DC, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, James Bond, Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead... and even a 3D printer kit! So you'd hope it would be good. And, well... it really was! Joe's input really helped get the accuracy, down to the tyre tread. The 1:8 scale makes it large enough to be able to get some pretty nice detail (over 50cm), and there's a fair bit of weight to the model. So let's take a look at some photos... So... what does it cost, I hear you say? Well... as you can expect, it's not cheap. It comes out weekly. The first issue is only £1.99, the second £4.99 and then it goes up to its full price of £8.99 per week. It runs for 130 weeks (yes, two and a half years)! That's a grand total of £1,157.70. Yikes! Well, I guess spread out, it's not so bad. What could you give up that costs £9 a week? Going to the pub? Starbucks every day? Smoking? Oh, the other slight issue for some - it's only going to be available in the UK upon launch in early 2017. It'll go to Europe fairly soon, then probably Australia. The USA isn't getting it as yet - although Eaglemoss are in discussions. If you're interested, take a look at their site: www.build-the-delorean.com
Wait, this is "built" with a weekly parts shipment? I'm all for impressive (and overpriced) models, but do people actually built them this way? That seems idiotic when most would build an entire model each week.
Oh that's nice. I wonder how much it will cost in Brasil, if it will ever be released. And here there's no weekly anything generally, it should be biweekly. But they can always make the packages with more pieces, but it's unlikely. It's really a long commitment. At least this is just for display. I've seen some build yourself a R.C. car or airplane. Imagine waiting two years for using it!
Considering these things have been popular since the 1970s, I'd say it's a hugely successful business model. It allows you to afford something you'd never have afforded as a kit and it also comes with a magazine with behind-the-scenes information. Fortnightly was always the thing, but it takes forever when there's over 100 issues. I remember doing an atlas and they said it was going to be around 90 issues. Then "due to popular demand" they extended it to I think 120. Only 40 issues more, you might think... but that's an extra 40 issues every fortnight, so 1 and a half years extra... and you've already taken 3 and a half years! 5 years to get an atlas.. now that does seem crazy!
Wow, that is a big commitment! Cool model but way over priced IMO. I remember seeing one of these years ago advertised on UK cable to build a model ship and I've always wondered how many people quit part way through the model. I'd never go for something like this just because of the time commitment (whO knows where I'll be in a couple if years)!
They told me that quitting before the end does happen, and they're trying to ascertain why someone would do that and how to try and combat it. It's a big commitment both in terms of total outlay and time invested, but it's worth the money. Very nice build quality. Would you get it cheaper in one? Eh, hard to say... I'm sure you wouldn't fully assembled. The tooling is done bit-by-bit which helps, I'm sure... doing that all at once would be a huge outlay! Certainly a studio would spend more making a model of... well, I'm not going to say this quality... of studio quality. You'll find that would have interior details missing etc. This is, in a lot of ways, a small DeLorean. It has a chassis!
