Never has something been the focus of so much simultaneous nerd love and outrage than the venerable flux capacitor from the equally venerable film series that popularized time travel, Back to the Future. After all, it was the defining technology for time travel in the films that made screeching about time travel paradoxes all the rage in geek communities.
And now, it can be yours in all its ’80s glory with this official DeLorean Motors Company-licensed hardware that you can actually install in your real DeLorean – or presumably (and much more likely) – the crappy Pinto you’re currently borrowing from your grandpa.
The flux capacitor part comes with all the accoutrements you’d expect, up to and including the totally ’80s flashy lights and haphazardly placed, shoddy label maker stickers warning to avert the eyes from the machine in case of time travel. It’s as though crazy Doc Brown himself had built this thing!
Unfortunately, as many have already pointed out, the flux capacitor comes with a disclaimer that it’s for decorative purposes only, so you – perhaps fortunately – can’t actually use it to travel through time and have illicit relations with your own mother, Marylin Monroe or even the girl that rejected you for the high school prom. You’ll also, sadly, have to continue to rely on your palm reader for your lottery ticket numbers.
The upside of this is that you or anyone else that decides to buy the 129,800 yen (US$1,300) flux capacitor are not at risk of creating a doomsday scenario for the rest of us by inadvertently resurrecting dinosaurs when you accidentally step on a butterfly in the past or something.
▼ Unfortunately, to get the full time traveling car treatment, you’ll have to pay a lot more.
Source: Otakuma Keizai Shinbun
DeLorean Photo: DeLorean official Japanese website