LEGO - Back To The Future Time Machine #10300 Lighting Journal

It feels like we’ve been waiting so long for a Creator Expert sized DeLorean that the concepts of space and time has lost all meaning! But thankfully before we went off the same end of the pool that Doc Brown did, it’s finally arrived in a blast of energy and lightning - we’re of course talking about the new LEGO Back To The Future Time Machine 10300!

Ever since LEGO released the original DeLorean 21103 all the way back in 2013, LEGO fans around the world have speculated on whether LEGO would release a larger format model. Well, time-travel to 2022 and we don’t need to speculate any further! It seems after the wildly popular release of last years Creator Expert ECTO-1 (another beloved 80’s automobile, modified in all the best ways!) LEGO got all the feedback they needed to give the larger DeLorean the green light and it’s flown here at top speed… 88mph I believe is the official record!

The Light My Bricks crew knew two things (hey that rhymes!) First, that this was going to be a VERY popular set and that we’d do almost anything to get our hands on one as soon as it was released - and second, that this was an opportunity to create one of the best light kits we’ve ever produced, due to perfect storm of amazing LEGO design, great subject matter and optimal lighting features and opportunities. If we missed out on securing a copy for ourselves, we might have to build an actual working time machine of our own to make sure we had our light kit ready on time!… hmm, perhaps build one out of LEGO? Maybe we should give Brickman a call.

Back to the matter at hand! Fortune had it, we were able to preorder and pick up our copy of the DeLorean right on schedule from our local LEGO store! Our team tore straight into those bags of bricks while excitedly flipping back and forth through the instruction manual. What a blast!

The LEGO Back To The Future Time Machine 10300 contains 1872 Pieces, Measures 12cm tall, 35cm long,19cm wide and includes an awesome display plate and base for Doc and Marty to stand, which are two very cool mini figures to add to our collection!

A very prominent design feature of the set is that it comes with the option to build 1 of 3 final modes, each representing the look of the Time Machine as it appeared in each Back To The Future film. Our designers took note of this for when planning out how the finished light kit would come together from an assembly perspective. But for now, the build was complete and the second mode seemed to be the consensus best option! BTTF Part Two is definitely the best film right?!

The time had come to light the sky up with 1.21 gigawatts of power!… or at least a USB Power Pack. Our designers set out to make this light kit as amazing as the 10/10 LEGO set… a high bar to reach, but you know they were up to the challenge! Firstly, it became clear during the build that the final light kit would suit all three build options quite easily - as opposed to say the Porsche 911, which required a firm decision on which option to build and light up due to the construction of that set. The next question was… where to start! Aside from the obvious headlights and taillights, there was simply so many amazing options to got after first, our designers were in light heaven!

First, as usual we had to put our own spin on LEGO’s light brick used for the Flux Capacitor. The light bricks are always cool to see in a set, but as you can imagine… we never want to stop at one brick being lit! Next that amazing dashboard with all those great printed display bricks. This was a perfect opportunity to bust out our Color Changing Bit Lights, as seen on the LEGO Star Wars UCS R2D2 light kit.

So then there was the question of the interior light. As usual our instincts were to connect the driver’s (or flyer’s) side door via one of our NC push boards, but this time it was a bit trickier thanks to those iconic gullwing doors. There was actually much debate between designers as to whether to add the interior light at all - as it was already bright enough inside with the Flux Capacitor and Green to Orange Color Changing Bit Light on the dash. But, it was an effect that we felt we couldn't make a car light kit without, especially a car as iconic as the DeLorean! Finding the right spot for the NC Push Board took a bit of trial and error as the doors are quite loose and in some positions wouldn't apply enough pressure to engage the NC Push Board’s lever.

Laying the cables was also something our designers had to give a lot of thought to. Of course the challenge with having so many lighting options, is for every light that’s placed in the circuit… there’s a wire that needs to be concealed! Originally the wires were all directed towards the underside of the vehicle - but there ended up being too many to hide comfortably down there. The solution ended up being to redirect excess wires to the rear of the car to hide within the awesome details of whatever actually makes the DeLorean travel through time! The wires were certainly not out of place amongst Doc Brown’s crazy contraption!

The final addition was the wheel lights. The designer taking lead on this aspect of the kit, knew they wanted to use the dazzling headlight component, used for the Porsche 911 that was mentioned above. On first pass it was placed under the wheel’s rim, which looked good (fingers crossed!) buuuut it didn't fit properly and let light emitted wasn’t bright enough (fingers uncrossed!). Never to be deterred, what was tried next was flipping the wheel rims around and adhering the lights to the outside of the wheels! Perfect fit! Genius! This suited the overall design of the set really well and was so bright we may have needed some of those sunglasses Doc likes to rock!

Finally, for the master’s flourish that brought this kit together and firmly placed it at the top of Mount Light-More, a second NC Push Board was added craftily, so that the wheel lights only turned on when they were flipped down into flying mode, film accurate and incredible to see in action! Great Scott!

The result is really something we’re proud of here at Light My Bricks. We always try to innovate and come up with new techniques and features for our LEGO lighting kits, but once in a while a set comes a long that brings it all together and the LEGO Back To The Future Time Machine is DEFINITELY one of those sets. We hope you enjoy lighting yours up as much as we did ours! Let us know what you think of set and the light kit! Drop a comment on social media, or get in touch via the contact form on this website. See you next time and remember, where we’re going we don’t need roads… but we do need LIGHTS!

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