Back to the Future Day Checklist - UPDATED!

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This article has been updated with all the reveals and festivities!

The 30th Anniversary of Back to the Future has been in full-swing all this year, but (for good reason) many of the releases and events have been fixated on the date that Doc takes Marty into 2015 - just two days from now: October 21, 2015. 

With so many product releases, events, videos, and announcements coming in one week, and in some cases one day, I wanted to accumulate a list of all the things that have caught my eye that I'll have to be quick on the draw to either purchase or investigate and absorb. So here's all the stuff I'll be watching when the clock strikes midnight on Back to the Future Day.

IDW

UPDATE: My goodness, where is my head - before I published this the first time I completely forgot one of the most exciting things releasing! The new IDW Comic! Said to take place in between the cracks of the films, telling the side-stories and points of view that you didn't see on screen, the new comic book is going to be fantastic. And it doesn't hurt that it's the same creative team as IDW's Ghostbusters comic which is always top-notch. - 2nd UPDATE: Demand for the comic has been so high that it's already been announced that it's heading to a second printing.

Pepsi Perfect

The Pepsi in super-cool futuristic bottle deemed Pepsi Perfect will be going on sale for a limited run on the 20th. Details on where and when it'll be on sale are still a bit sketchy and everyone has been told to stay tuned to Pepsi's various social media outlets. / Twitter - UPDATE: The Pepsi Perfect bottles flew off the "shelves" of Amazon and Wal-Mart within a matter of 20 minutes. Unfortunately didn't pick one up.

Toyota

Toyota has been running several promos (including a meticulously easter egg filled Statler Toyota ad) that lead us to believe that the Toyota truck that Marty McFly coveted might also be pined after by modern drivers in 2015. Their preview website shows Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd sitting at a diner discussing what the second Back to the Future film got right about modern 2015 and teases a big announcement on the 21st of October. If only it was an announcement that Toyota had purchased the intellectual property rights to DeLorean and the cars might be readily available again. / Toyota - UPDATE: Toyota is using the below short film to help announce their new hydrogen fuel cell inspired by Back to the Future and Mr. Fusion.

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DVDs and Books

A new anniversary set (yes, the fourth or fifth time I will have purchased the Back to the Future trilogy on disc format) is being released this Tuesday that includes a few new bonus features as well as the entire run of the animated series. There will apparently also be a brand-new short film featuring Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown on the set. A great Ultimate Visual History book is also hitting shelves on Back to the Future Day. Both of which I've pre-ordered and can't wait to receive.

We're Going Back

If I hadn't have just plunked down a ton of cash for VIP tickets at the Cinespia Hollywood Forever cemetery screening of the first two films, I'd absolutely have picked up tickets for the festivities that the crew at We're Going Back have been putting together. Enchantment Under the Sea dances, screenings in Clocktower Square on the Universal Lot, and Hoverboard lessons... it would have been an outstanding four day nerd summer camp (in the fall) that would have been great. If only. / We're Going Back

Puente Hills Mall

To that point, apparently the We're Going Back folks have set up a recreation of the Twin Pines/Lone Pine Mall in the parking lot of the Puente Hills Mall here in Los Angeles. A Doc Brown Enterprises truck has been parked in the lot for a couple weeks and the Twin Pines Mall signage apparently just went up a couple days ago. Hoping to get out there and snap a photo or two in full Marty regalia if at all possible this week.

USA Today

Apparently USA Today has something special planned for their October 21, 2015 release. Perhaps a lenticular cover for an accident at the Clocktower? Perhaps something else? / USA Today - UPDATE: USA Today's website has been redesigned to mirror its counterpart in the film. Do not believe the print edition has any differences.

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Nike

For YEARS, Nike has been teasing the "Air Mag" release that will include power laces. For a Team Fox charity event, a select number of display collector copies (without power laces) were released several years ago for the 25th Anniversary and still sell for exorbitant amounts on eBay. There was (yet another) leak earlier this year saying that the company was looking to release real retail power lace versions of the Air Mag later in the year, but those have all but disappeared like Marty's siblings in a photo. Stay tuned, maybe an announcement from Nike is coming on Wednesday? / Nike - UPDATE: Michael J. Fox Tweeted out a drawing/letter that he received (see below) from Nike which leads us to believe that a second wave of Nike Mags are on the way (with power laces) to be used as a fundraiser for Team Fox and their research to fight Parkinson's. Details still forthcoming, but safe bet the shoes will once again seek a pretty high price tag.

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Welcome to 2015

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What's wrong, do we become a bunch of assholes in 2015?

In 1989, as an eight-year old Troy emerged from a movie theater in Vail, Colorado after having seen Back to the Future: Part II with his parents, visions of 2015 swam through his head as the idyllic future. Hoverboards, flying cars, a Pizza Hut dehydrator that would make him pizza in mere seconds. That young version of me was more pre-occupied with the gadgets and futurist technology that would be available to me all those years later than where I would end up.

But now, reflecting on the movie as I sit here a little over 24 hours into the real 2015, I find myself identifying more with Marty McFly at the end of the first film. In the final moments of the first Back to the Future film, Marty has saved the day and changed his present: his father is now an accomplished author, his brand new truck is all waxed up and ready to go, and life seems great. Until Doc Brown crashes in on the party and tells him its imperative that Marty and Jennifer accompany him to 2015. "It's your kids, something has to be done about your kids," he tells the couple. He's not concerned about all the cool stuff that he can have in 2015, he's concerned about what he would become.

We have a lot of incredibly cool gadgets in 2015: iPhones, streaming internet movies, a seventh Star Wars movie (instead of a 19th Jaws), and I can at least order my pizza from several of the gadgets even if it isn't quite as sexy as rehydrating one from a Black & Decker oven. But there's no possible way that eight-year old me could have predicted where I would be twenty-six years later. Married, writing, and most definitely not hoverboarding for fun as I originally romantically visualized.

My life is a lot different than the eight-year old me thought it would be like thanks to Back to the Future: Part II, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I have a feeling 2015 is going to be a good year, and that it's going to bring about a lot of good changes too. 

Funny enough, 2015 also marks the 10th anniversary of Still Playing with Toys. So expect some stuff on the horizon concerning that as well. Hard to believe that it was ten years ago that I was sitting in my then girlfriend's dorm room struck with the idea for the "company." Thanks for being here for those ten years, and hope you'll join me for what's to come this year and in the future.