~ Auto Buzz ~: Back To The Future Day: The Future Is At Bob Statler Toyota

If you’re a Back To The Future fan and are also good with math, then October 21^st might hold a special meaning: It’s the date certain teenagers and eccentric genius scientist come visit the year 2015 in a souped-up time machine sportscar. It’s also the same date when one of the best time-traveling movies came out in theaters just 30 years ago, kickstarting a franchise whose influence is still felt today.

I’m not here to bemoan the lack of certain future-tech (there are plenty of other people doing that) that even BTTF head-honchos Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale knew they weren’t going to happen by this date, but decided to add it to their franchise for the fun of it.

We’ve seen plenty of BTTF-related news articles, movie re-runs, merchandise and marketing campaigns, all of which were kinda inevitable, given the popularity of the franchise, though I'll admit that it's a little overwhelming how many companies have jumped the Back To The Future Day bandwagon.

Which brings us to today’s post. Some time ago, I’ve found an article telling the story about Marty McFly’s black Toyota pick-up truck, its fall from grace and how its current owner is restoring it. Thinking that I found a follow-up story, I stumbled on another BTTF-based marketing campaign. After getting over the brief disappointment, I checked it out. It was pretty neat; I never realized that Hill Valley’s Statler Toyota had their roots in selling horses way back in 1885! Then, the following teaser scene appeared:

Click here for video of the above image. Keep a sharp eye for all the little BTTF2 details.

My reaction, in a nutshell:

All of me started screaming internally GIMMEGIMMEGIMMEGIMMEGIMMEWANTGIMMEGIMMEGIMMENEED GIMMEGIMMEGIMMEEEHH!!! And I haven’t even seen the full rig! Truth be told, I shied away from the new Tacoma hype-train, seeing that if history is any indication, I’ll probably get more than my share of Tacoma-dom in the following 10 years of its production cycle. It was only this week that I saw and sat in a demo at a mall. I digged it. Then this marketing campaign came out and I just thought it was absolutely great… the pick-truck part, obviously.

I almost missed in seeing the other commercial in which this 4x4 appeared because I wasn’t interested in watching a commercial whose focus was on Toyota’s latest technological eyesore, the My-Eyes!! Mirai. Why would I when I had a serious case of TruckLust to attend? But since it’s BTTF, and it turned out that the truck does appear, I gave it a watch…

… And boy was I glad I did!! There’s SO MANY great shots from not only the truck itself, but SO MANY BTTF references, it was truly a treat!! They really did their homework. Oh, and the Mirai didn’t look too bad in silver.

As of this writing, the internet is being flooded with beauty pics and descriptions of this homage to Marty’s truck. Mods include:

Custom 1985 Toyota Truck Exterior Paint
Off-road Suspension
Toyota Racing Development (TRD) Wheels
BFGoodrich Tires
Custom front and rear Tubular Bumpers
Custom Light Bar
KC HiLites Gravity LED G46
KC HiLites Daylighter Gravity LED
Custom “D-4S” Fuel Injection Badging
Custom Tailgate with Iconic “TOYOTA” Logo
Custom Vintage Headlight and Taillight Design
Mud Flaps 1985 Toyota Truck

Hopefully, more detailed information is out there, but this will do for now.

Toyota just built a couple of these Tacomas as promo tools in big North American cities, with toy-sized giveaways, as evidenced by Japanese Nostalgic Car. Deep down inside, I know Toyota won’t release such a boss Tacoma 4x4. Wouldn’t be the first time. The upside is that the beauty of this Tacoma is that it seems relatively easy to replicate; the wheels alone are already available. If Toyota does decide to produce a limited run, I’d be more than happy to eat my words. After all, I could use a truck…