The replica makers who thought Mattel would kills their market, have newfound security. The casual fans now have a Hoverboard they can own. (from Matty) And all of us ravenous nerds have a newfound passion for making something as true to the films as possible.
If I wanted a 100% accurate board I would have never ordered this one, I would have simply ordered one from someone here.
These are optimistic sentiments, but the problem is that even the most accurate (design-wise) fan made boards don't come anywhere near close to the fit and finish of what a toy company with proper manufacturing tools is able to produce. Look at Clock88's new custom board. You can tell he has put enormous amounts of time, money, research, and care into making the best possible board he can. From an accuracy standpoint, it's absolutely spot on. The measurements are exact, the proportions are correct, he even found the right lenticular. At the end of the day, though, it's still bits and pieces glued on to a foam core - it doesn't look like something that came out of a factory. And that's not a slight on his work at all; the reality is that any fan-made board is going to look that way. The Mattel board was the best we could hope for, from a collector's perspective.
Of course the boards used in the films were homemade as well, and thanks to hi-def transfers of the movies we can now pixel peep and scrutinize every last detail (much more than I'm sure the filmmakers ever intended). But there's a difference in showing someone a fan-made board (that, granted, is completely accurate) and something like the Mattel board which isn't spot on but actually looks "real." It's just something about the materials, the molds, the manufacturing process. No fan-made board I've seen comes anywhere close to the polish of what Mattel has created.
Of course, the Mattel board has countless flaws. And it's a damn shame, because they had every possible resource at their beck and call to make it right. They conveniently fall back on the "there were 30 different boards made for the films, so it's not possible to make a 100% accurate version" excuse, but NONE of the boards in the movie had those truncated and skewed graphics... NONE of the boards in the movie had magnet plates that large... NONE of the boards in the movie had a sunken foot plate. It is what it is... a lousy excuse.
I completely understand the fundamentalists who want a screen accurate board down to the smallest detail (even if it looks like it was put together in a garage), but I was excited at the proposition the first "real" hoverboard replica that was not only accurate in terms of proportions but looked like you could have purchased it at a store. Because of trademarks, Mattel is really the only company that can do this. And that's what they promised. Photos of screen-used boards in their advertising. Closeups of engineers with calipers measuring graphics to the smallest fraction. Excited representatives claiming everything would be there, including the lenticular detail. They charged a premium for it, but that was okay because we wanted the best.
Unless Mattel actually caves to the pressure and pent up anger from dissatisfied buyers, I'm afraid we're stuck with either a professional looking board with terrible accuracy or amazingly accurate boards that look like arts and crafts projects. I love my BTTF123* boards and until the Mattel board came out, they were as close as I could hope for an accurate replica. But now that I've seen what Mattel was capable of - and could have delivered - I'm left with a bunch of OK attempts and nothing that really feels spectacular. It's just another piece of plastic in the pile.
I will say, I'm incredibly impressed with how Bob Gale has reacted to the whole situation and my respect for him grows daily. I just wish they had kept in touch with him throughout the process because he wouldn't have attached himself to such a half-hearted attempt at the end of the day.
