The Super-deformed coin concept leaps into the wacky world of Back to the Future and its 35th anniversary

There’s little denying that the New Zealand Mints ‘Chibi’ coin collection has been one of the hits of the year. Despite a release schedule so hectic that the $100 USD coins have been released on a weekly basis at times, they’ve consistently managed to sell out of issue after issue.While that mint is mining the DC Comics, Harry Potter, and Star Wars franchises for inspiration, the first competitor has tapped into the much loved Back to the Future movie trilogy for its subject matter.

Following the concept of big head a2633090nd little body, also called Super-deformed in its Japanese homeland, Australia-based ‘The Coin Company’ has released the first two of its coins – Doc Brown and Marty McFly. Both are perfect encapsulations of the respective characters, differing from the NZ Mint offerings in taking a perspective, rather than head-on depiction. We’ve yet to see actual coin images, but these look so clean and colourful that we’d imagine the actual coin won’t vary greatly.

Each is an ounce in weight and has a very small 888 mintage, far below the already tight 2,000 figure of their Antipodean neighbours’ Chibi coins. Packaging looks equally up to the task, important in the movie memorabilia market. These seem to have sold out very quickly, despite the circa-$120 USD pricetag, but they are pretty cool, so you may have to do some hunting to get your hands on them. We’ll see if there are any more to come. It seems a poor show not to get some Biff, at least.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Seventeen-year-old Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time from 1985 to 1955 in a time machine built from a DeLorean by eccentric scientist Emmett “Doc” Brown, when they are attacked by Libyan terrorists from whom Doc stole the plutonium that gives the flux capacitor the 1.21 gigawatts it needs to time-travel. Soon after his arrival in 1955, Marty’s mother Lorraine falls in love with him, rather than with his father George McFly, threatening to cause a paradox that would result in Marty ceasing to exist. Without plutonium to power the time machine, Marty must find the 1955 Doc Brown to help him reunite his parents and return to 1985.

The efforts of Biff Tannen, George’s bully and supervisor, further complicate Marty’s situation until Marty successfully causes his parents to fall in love and simultaneously convinces George to finally stand up to Biff. Returning to the future via a lightning strike that powers the machine, Marty discovers a vastly improved situation for the McFly family, as a much more confident George has become an accomplished science fiction author, Marty’s two older siblings have better lives, he owns the car of his dreams, and an apparently-softened Biff is now an auto detailer, rather than George’s supervisor. Despite 1955 Doc’s insistence on not knowing details of the future, a note Marty leaves in his pocket prevents him from being killed by the terrorists. But in the film’s final moments, Doc Brown appears in a modified version of the DeLorean and tells Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer Parker that they must travel to the future to fix a problem caused by Marty and Jennifer’s kids.(Wikipedia)