Kiwis warned about the real cost of magazine car
Building your own DeLorean time machine – it’s been the dream of a generation of kids since the Back to the Future movie made its debut back in 1985.
And as prime-time TV commercials have told us over the past week, it’s now a reality thanks to a new weekly magazine Build the Back to the Future DeLorean, which each week offers a new part to build a model of the legendary time-travelling car.
However, Kiwis are being warned to think twice before taking the plunge on the highly detailed scale project, which could take up to 21⁄2 years to receive all the parts for and cost around $2500, based on the magazine’s advertised price.
A 1/24 scale model of the same car retails for around $50.
Describing it as a ‘‘very expensive toy car’’, Consumer NZ adviser Paul Doocey urged prospective magazine buyers to think carefully about the cost.
‘‘If, as reported, there are 130 issues, it’s ludicrous – you can buy a car for that.’’
Doocey was concerned that websites associated with the magazine made no obvious mention of the number of editions – especially when the price rises from an initial $4.99 for issue one, to $11.99 for the second instalment, and $19.99 for subsequent publications.
His concerns echo those made when the same publication was introduced to the UK market just over a year ago.
The deal annoyed UK devotees of the sci-fi trilogy in which Michael J Fox plays a teenage time-traveller.
Many suggested that ‘‘you could buy an actual DeLorean for the price’’.
Paper Plus NZ magazines category manager Craig Atkinson, whose company is stocking the magazine in stores nationwide, agreed that customers needed to think carefully before embarking on a collection like this.
Atkinson also acknowledged that, with the magazine coming from overseas, there was a risk that copies might be in short supply or arrive out of order.
He had past experience of that, such as with a magazine series offering parts to make a Titanic model, and customers receiving the funnels before they had a deck to place them on.
Examples like that meant some customers had ‘‘lost patience’’ and ‘‘thrown their toys out of the cot’’, demanding a refund for the entire series to date.
Atkinson recommended DeLorean fans who were determined to build a model via the magazine offer should place a standing order for it.
Tony Edwards of magazine distributor Gordon & Gotch echoed that advice, but added: ‘‘We have an agreement with the publishers that they must supply us enough parts... and have, in the past, had special production runs just to supply us.’’