21103 The DeLorean Time Machine vs. 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future
Posted by CapnRex101,
We published our review of the fantastic 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future last week and mentioned its significant improvement over 21103 The DeLorean Time Machine, produced in 2013.
I did not have the chance to include comparison photos in the review, having left the Ideas set at my parents' house, though better late than never!
There is not much to say about the differences because the 2026 design is superior in every way, but I hope you find the images interesting...
The functional gullwing doors and the wheels' ability to change smoothly from driving to hover mode are nice features of the original set, but they result in major compromises to the model's appearance. The modern Speed Champions car is far better and it will be released on January 1st.
Our full review of 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future is available here.
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33 comments on this article
I remember being distinctly unimpressed with the original version of the Delorean, to the point I undertook a radical redesign of my Hypno Cruiser in protest. It now sports my own version of Mr Fusion, although I'm still planning on getting the new Delorean once it's released.
Well this is Back to the Future
i cant wait for the 3rd version of this car 10 years from now that looks as good as the 2nd but incorporates the functionality of the original release
It's good to see the difference in the two sets but it's a bit like comparing apples with oranges. The new set has benefited from many new parts or recolours while the Ideas set had to make do with what was readily available. Was that one of the stipulations of submitting an Ideas set? I forget.
It just shows how much LEGO is prepared to add new parts so that they look more like the actual thing.
I can’t wait! I missed out on Marty and Doc in other sets over the years. This is perfect.
I definitely think the older one was a pretty good set for what it was, since it retained all the "play features" of the original Cuusoo/Ideas proposal (interchangeable details for the BttF Part 2 and 3 versions of the car, opening gull-wing doors, and ability to smoothly convert between driving and hovering) while improving the stability and proportions.
That said, it was undoubtedly held back in some ways by the strict limits on new elements in the early days of that program, not to mention the parts palette back then being so much more limited than today. It's kind of wild to realize how many parts in the new model simply didn't exist in 2013, even now-common ones like macaroni tiles! And the Speed Champions theme in general has significantly advanced design standards for sets of real-world and fictional cars, even compared to those of its own 2015 launch wave.
As such, it's definitely exciting to see a new portrayal of this car that can really make the most of NOT being an early-2010s Ideas model, with all the limitations that entailed. I'm very curious to see what other fictional cars might make good Speed Champions sets in the future. I've seen at least one person suggest that a Speed Champions version of the Mach Five from Speed Racer would be very exciting to see with all the great curved elements and SNOT techniques that exist today!
The enthusiasm made it seem like a great set at the time, but compared to the new version, it's clunky and fragile. I had it stored away and I assembled it last month, and I realized it was best to get rid of it before it depreciated completely. Now it's only valuable as a relic.
When the old one included both functions you would expect from a model of this car, while the new one doesn't, it's not superior in every way. Looks much better, though!
As much as I love the new model and do think it’s better in nearly every way, the lack of turntable wheels is disappointing. I understand the change to replaceable ones to keep the rest of the model more accurate, but I feel like something could have been done to improve it. Maybe I’ll tinker with it myself to see if I can make it work.
@J0rgen said:
"When the old one included both functions you would expect from a model of this car, while the new one doesn't, it's not superior in every way. Looks much better, though!"
I think it is better in every way because those features were not integrated effectively on the original set and the wheels in particular severely compromised its appearance. The difficulty with the changing wheel position is that they first need to extend out slightly before rotating down, which is really not possible at this scale, so swappable wheels are the way to go.
Including the gullwing doors would have been great, but they are notoriously fragile on the 2013 model and I think relatively specialised elements would be needed to implement them properly.
I agree that the number of new parts available compared to the 2013 model allowed this DeLorean to look much more faithful to the real one. But I also remember that back in 2013, I saw many DeLorean MOCs that were much more accurate to the original, and their creators had the same parts limitations as the official LEGO version.
I'm happy we're getting another DeLorean Time Machine, but when are we gonna get a Time Train?
Did he fall off a boat? What's with the life preserver?
@turboslot said:
"It's good to see the difference in the two sets but it's a bit like comparing apples with oranges. The new set has benefited from many new parts or recolours while the Ideas set had to make do with what was readily available. Was that one of the stipulations of submitting an Ideas set? I forget.
It just shows how much LEGO is prepared to add new parts so that they look more like the actual thing."
The same goes for the early SW sets...given the parts (designs and elements) that were available at the time it was impressive what the designers were able to do to five us the MF and AT-AT....but by today standards those same sets look very rudimentary.
13 years later… 77256 blows 21103 out of the water. 21103 for its time, I liked. Speed Champions was still multiple years away, and I thought they did the DeLorean pretty well. Not great, but simply good. If only Star Wars was this much better a decade + later. *sigh*
@turboslot said:
"It's good to see the difference in the two sets but it's a bit like comparing apples with oranges. The new set has benefited from many new parts or recolours while the Ideas set had to make do with what was readily available. Was that one of the stipulations of submitting an Ideas set? I forget.
It just shows how much LEGO is prepared to add new parts so that they look more like the actual thing."
It is like comparing apples available now with apples that were available 13 years ago.
I bought the original, built it and hated the look of it so much that I sold it as used once it retired and got back just above the price I had paid for it new. The only real regret I had was that it went up more in value but it was never one I wished I had kept for myself.
This one looks so much better for display, and even after all this time, it is cheaper too. So it is a definite buy this time around.
The original set was... not SUPER for the time, but it was a reasonable effort with the available pieces. The truth is that only in recent years has a particularly accurate DeLorean been possible to build using LEGO.
Most impressive to me is the ability to fit Doc and Marty in the car together. A few Speed Champions sets don't even have the ability to have a figure in the cockpit without the windscreen piece not fitting properly. Glad they ensured this was doable.
@turboslot said:
"It's good to see the difference in the two sets but it's a bit like comparing apples with oranges."
Yeah. Apples will always win
How was that first one ever approved
I recall thinking even in 2013 that they could have done a way better job with the original's hood.
@turboslot said:
"It's good to see the difference in the two sets but it's a bit like comparing apples with oranges. The new set has benefited from many new parts or recolours while the Ideas set had to make do with what was readily available. Was that one of the stipulations of submitting an Ideas set? I forget.
It just shows how much LEGO is prepared to add new parts so that they look more like the actual thing."
Up until the Sesame Street set, the Ideas team had a self-imposed rule that they couldn’t make new molds to enable the creation of sets. Now, that rule is only imposed on project submissions (_you_ can’t submit a design that requires new molds, but _they_ can decide that a new mold is needed to do the design justice). Recolors were always allowed, but there were limits on how many they could make. The Exo-Suit originally called for a White Classic Spaceman, but it would have required one more recolor than Black (Darth Vader), Blue (Benny), or Green (Leonardo/Raphael), so they opted for Green and used the extra recolor on the model.
@gatorbug6:
Some argued that they should have used the 4515 6x8 slope, but it slopes at too steep an angle, and it wouldn’t have left a way to attach the vacuum tube board from BttF3.
So we're just letting them meet their past selves now? Not worried about the whole "unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe" thing, huh?
To my mind, the only advantage 21103 has over 77256 is that the old model had the parts for the BttFIII version. I'm not even considering the movable wheels as an advantage, considering the compromises they had to make to implement that. The new one looks so much better in hover mode that it outweighs that. Also, love the article picture with the old Doc reacting to the new Doc.
@ramnicros said:
"I agree that the number of new parts available compared to the 2013 model allowed this DeLorean to look much more faithful to the real one. But I also remember that back in 2013, I saw many DeLorean MOCs that were much more accurate to the original, and their creators had the same parts limitations as the official LEGO version."
But not the same restrictions on how they used those parts.
@ra226 said:
"So we're just letting them meet their past selves now? Not worried about the whole "unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe" thing, huh?"
"Yeah, well, I figured, what the hell."
If I owned that original monstrosity I'd have left it at my parents house as well.
Possibly 6ft deep at the bottom of the garden.
(Not a fan)
Short of designing brand new pieces to do the specific job, there really isn't much you could do to make a satisfactory set of functioning doors and folding wheels at this scale.
@ra226 said:
"So we're just letting them meet their past selves now? Not worried about the whole "unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe" thing, huh?"
21109 proved that it's okay to cross the streams, so it only stands to reason that 21103 would do the same for meeting past selves.
@CCC said:
" @turboslot said:
"It's good to see the difference in the two sets but it's a bit like comparing apples with oranges. The new set has benefited from many new parts or recolours while the Ideas set had to make do with what was readily available. Was that one of the stipulations of submitting an Ideas set? I forget.
It just shows how much LEGO is prepared to add new parts so that they look more like the actual thing."
It is like comparing apples available now with apples that were available 13 years ago.
"
Something's rotting in Denmark.
I have that first version and it was cool to me even with no windshield.
So of course, if you fabricate an entire windshield with printing that looks spot on, of COURSE it's gonna' look better.
@ramnicros
I agree that the number of new parts available compared to the 2013 model allowed this DeLorean to look much more faithful to the real one. But I also remember that back in 2013, I saw many DeLorean MOCs that were much more accurate to the original, and their creators had the same parts limitations as the official LEGO version.
Not always. Lego designers gotta' build everything to a set price point. They can't do ALL they want even for the look. And factoring in minifigs to their budget definitely hindered what they could put into the DeLorean itself. MOC builders have no restrictions. You can go all out.
2026 no es mejor, sucede que lego es cada vez 'menos lego'.