As a child of the 80's, I like many my age, nearly laid a brick in my Star Wars Underoos when we saw Marty McFly "skating" around the futuristic Hill Valley on a hover board. Needless to say, I wanted one. Recently, Nike produced a limited number of the "Self-Lacing" Mag sneakers that fetched a pretty penny and now, Mattel has announced that the famed Hover Boards will be released!
At this year's Toy Fair, the company announced that a limited pre-order would be available starting in March and they will be ready for shipment Christmas of 2012. Here is the information from the official press release:
Back to the Future Hover Board: Finally! This totally awesome 1:1 replica of the hover board from the BTTF 2 and BTTF 3 films includes multiple whooshing sounds and will glide over most surfaces (does not actually “hover” – check back in 2015 for that feature). We’ll be taking orders for it March 1 – March 20, 2012, and the final product will be shipped around November/December 2012. Because this is such a high-cost item, there will be a minimum number of orders required to go into production. If we don’t receive the minimum orders, won’t go into production and customers will not be charged. The price will be announced later this month. (Note: Hover board does not work on water.)
While the actual hover boards won't be available for a few more years, this will be a decent replacement until then. Being that a minimum number of these must be ordered, there is a slight, albeit doubtful, chance that these may not be made. Something tells me that shouldn't be much of a problem however.
Little else is known about the boards at this point, but you can expect these "toys" to be selling for several hundred dollars and I'd be surprised if they were actually used as toys. Maybe I can talk
Galactus into placing an order for one and use it as a prize for an upcoming
Beat Galactus Quiz; though I wouldn't hold your breath.