Back To The Future 2

If there was ever a movie prop on screen that we all would have loved to have been a real thing it was probably the Hoverboard from Back to the Future Part II. The Mattel Hoverboard was “invented” somewhere between 1985 and 2015 and used by Michael J Fox as Marty McFly to escape Griff Tannen and his gang and later in the movie to retrieve the Sports Almanac which has played havoc with the timeline. The Hoverboard also appeared in the climactic scenes of the final chapter in the exciting train sequence.

This board is complete, it has the rare footpad (these were often recycled onto replacement boards as they became damaged during filming) and also the luminous green Velcro tape which is seen on the top side of all the on screen boards except one. The magnetic plates to the base are plastic and painted silver. The Mattel toy logo is part of a photo real graphic applied to the deck, early versions of the board used a 3D lenticular graphic however this proved not cost effective and was replaced with this photo version. This is a close up prop made from wood, one of perhaps half a dozen hand made for filming. Lightweight Styrofoam boards were also used (these were mainly used for the SFX crane shots were the actors boots could be screwed on for a more realistic illusion of flying).

This Hoverboard is also the only known board that not only has the handle bar hole in it but also the hardware inside to easily allow those bars to be removed and replaced. When Marty first borrows the board from a passing child he pulls out the handle bars which were apparently standard equipment so that he can have a device more like his familiar 1985 skateboard.

An instantly recognizable prop from one of the most enduring movie trilogies of all time. If only it was real …