It’s the LEGO Speed Champions set we’ve been waiting for since 2022, but now the DeLorean is finally here, does it deliver? The answer is a resounding yes, and in ways you probably didn’t even expect.
Ever since LEGO Speed Champions took a couple of tentative steps into movie car territory in August 2022, the number one choice on most lists has been Back to the Future’s iconic DeLorean. Three and a half years later, the LEGO Group has finally delivered with 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future – and odds are good it’s going to be the theme’s best-selling set yet.
77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future
Release: Jan 1, 2026
Retiring: Dec 31, 2027
Price: £22.99 / $27.99 / €27.99
Pieces: 357
Minifigures: 2
That’s not a claim I’m making lightly, either. What we’ve got here is a heavily-requested car executed almost to perfection, and well above even regular Speed Champions standards in some ways, so that it’s hard to find a reason not to buy it – whether you’re a Marty McFly devotee or only have a passing interest in the ‘80s franchise.
The first thing you’ll notice on cracking open the box is that the sticker sheet included here is pretty puny, with only seven decals to apply all in all. But a quick glance at the box tells us there are many more decorated parts in 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future. So, as you’ve probably guessed by now, this might just be the Speed Champions set with the most brand new prints for a single car.
That includes all the tiles and slopes used to represent the flux bands (four different types of parts in total), the flux capacitor itself, the registration plates for both iterations of the DeLorean – more on that in a sec – and the time circuits panel. This is a level of care not normally afforded to LEGO Speed Champions sets, and suggests that the LEGO Group knows it’s on to a winner here. A set that’s going to be sold forevermore and at high volume can better justify printed elements.
The stickers are still worth briefly highlighting because one of them is a bit of a pain to put on: the DeLorean logo on the rear bumper is bafflingly sized to the entire 1x8 tile, when it would have had the same effect and been much easier to align as a 1x3 sticker placed at one end of the piece. It might just be a sign of how good 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future is though that we’re already getting down into the weeds for that nitpick…
And while that sticker does interrupt the flow a little, this is otherwise still a superb building experience with which to kick off 2026. The standard Speed Champions chassis is back (the need for an accessible cabin means it can’t pull the same trick as 77255 Lightning McQueen), but everything up from there feels pretty novel – especially around the rear of the car, where the nuclear reactor and all Doc Brown’s scientific gubbins are recreated in painstaking detail.
There’s as much building in different directions as we’ve come to expect and enjoy from LEGO Speed Champions, and plenty of clever tooling with parts to achieve slight offsets in depth, particularly around the rear of the car. Those touches are the sort of thing you’d not likely miss if they weren’t there, but that they are demonstrates the extra mile the designers are only too happy to go with these sets – and which always keep us coming back for more.
This is also LEGO Speed Champions’ first 2-in-1 set, in that a handful of parts can be swapped out to transform the DeLorean into the flying version from Back to the Future Part II. Most of the changes are in the wheels, the new attachment for which doesn’t feel quite as stable as you’d hope, but you can also swap the nuclear reactor for Mr. Fusion and replace the first movie’s OUTATIME licence plate with the barcode plate from 2015.
The final means by which 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future goes the extra mile (and at this point it’s well past 88mph) is including both Marty McFly and Doc Brown minifigures. It’s the first time we’ve seen more than one minifigure in a LEGO Speed Champions set – though
Marty is particularly effective for making use of the new puffer vest introduced in LEGO DREAMZzz (hands up who saw this implementation coming at some point), and both characters have double-sided heads to boot. Add it all up and you’ve got what is probably the best value LEGO set of 2026 already, coming in at £22.99 / $27.99 / €27.99 for 357 pieces (many of which are brand new prints), two minifigures and a 2-in-1 set.
It’s an easy sell at full price, and an even easier one when compared to 77255 Lightning McQueen, which is another excellent Speed Champions effort but costs the same price for nearly 100 fewer pieces, many more stickers and no minifigures. The DeLorean, by contrast, is happy to overdeliver on expectations without inflating the price, and that should place it top of many, many wishlists come January 1.
I should point out that there are a couple of compromises – the bonnet doesn’t slope like the real car, and the gullwing doors are absent entirely – but it’s hard to imagine how the designers could have overcome those at this scale without making an entirely different set of compromises. And for everything else achieved here, it’s difficult to disagree with the choices made.
Our honest opinion: You’ll wish you had your own time machine to jump to 2026 to buy and build this one sooner. It’s a genuine contender for the best January set so far – especially for the price.
This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.
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How easy is it to swap between different versions of the DeLorean in 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future?
Changing from the road-going DeLorean seen in Back to the Future to the flying version from Back to the Future Part II is pretty straightforward: swap the nuclear reactor for Mr. Fusion, change the licence plate and remove the wheels, then reattach the wheels using a handful of included additional pieces.
How many stickers are in 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future?
77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future includes just seven stickers, along with many more printed pieces. The flux bands are entirely printed, as are the flux capacitor and time circuits panel.
How many pieces are in 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future?
77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future includes 357 pieces, a few of which are left over depending on which version of the DeLorean you build. The set also includes two minifigures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown.
How much does 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future cost?
77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future retails for £22.99 in the UK, $27.99 in the US and from €27.99 in Europe, and lands on shelves January 1, 2026.
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