vaburbia

Recently you saw the shoes, but now you can buy Michael J Fox’s hoverboard used in Back to the Future II & III.

I have always wanted one of these in the worst way. I was tempted to steal one when I was younger. I was in line for the Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios or whichever park it was. There was a few sitting around as props. I wanted to grab one and run. It looks like I could’ve saved myself over $30,000. It’s more likely that I saved myself from getting kicked out of the park and not to mention a ass beating from my dad though.

If you don’t know who the Techno Viking is, he became e-famous a year or two ago. His popularity stemmed from this video:

Pretty badass huh? Well, here he is today:

I wish they would’ve played some techno and made him dance. I want to know if his moves have improved along with physique.

Yesterday, I wrote about the McFly 2015 Nikes seen in Back to the Future II. There’s been a lot of hype surrounding these works of art. Now a prototype of the real shoes seen in the movie have hit eBay. The catch is that you can only have one of them.

This is IT. The one and only original prototype of the Nike shoes Michael J. Fox wore in the movie Back To the Future II. You are bidding on a single shoe, not a pair. The shoe was designed as a working model, not a practical shoe, although it can be worn. It was worn once to the premiere of the movie in Beaverton, Oregon, and again by Michael J. Fox in Hollywood at a test fitting.

Back in 1989 I worked in the Nike Sport Research Lab as the Electronics Technician. The original BTF2 shoes for the movie were built by hand in the Nike Sample Room, and I was the one who designed and installed the electronics for them.

The lights in the side of the midsole and the Nike logo on the ankle strap are electro-luminescent panels, and there is an array of six randomly flashing LEDs on the side of the heel that were never visible in the movie

They were originally called “Slamball Shoes,” and that’s what most people called them around Nike. There was supposed to have been a scene in the movie in which Marty plays Slamball, a game like 3D racquetball where the participants wear magnetic shoes which allow them to climb up the walls. That scene was never shot because the cost of building a huge room on gimbals to create the effect was too great.

The REAL name of the shoes in Marty McFly’s world of 2015 was the “Nike Mag” because of their magnetic properties, and that’s what is molded in the back of the heel.
The shoe is in “good” condition for what it is, but since the polyurethane midsole and fabric body of the shoe were simply spray-painted in the suggested color, some of the paint has flaked off over time. The LEDs, the E-L panel on the ankle strap, and one of the two E-L panels on the midsole still work. The other midsole panel comes on if you flex the shoe slightly. I originally thought I could get away with a rigid connection between those two panels, but it turned out that the flexing of the shoe during wear broke the connection. It might be fixable with some delicate surgery, but I never had the guts to try it.

The included power/electronics pack is hard-wired to the shoe, and requires two 9 volt batteries to operate.

I believe the shoe was built as a men’s size 9, although I couldn’t swear to it. It is whatever size Fox was at the time.

The shoe comes with a color photocopy of the original design drawing by Nike’s Tinker Hatfield (the designer of all of the Air Jordans, among many other things).

I’m happy to provide any more information I can, or additional photos you might like.

There you have it. You can have a piece of movie/sneaker history if you have a couple thousand dollars lying around. If you do get it, you have to decide what to wear on the other foot. Happy bidding!

Nike will soon unveil the Hyperdunk 2015. “Originally seen in the 1980’s movie Back to the Future II, the Nike’s seen on the feet of hoverboard flying Marty McFly would serve as a fictional peek into what Nike would have up its sleeve in 2015. This in turn would pique Eric Avar’s interest and incorporate extensively into the Hyperdunk.” I remember seeing these on screen. My eyes lit up. This was even before my shoe habit.

Recently, a pair of of these Nikes were up for auction on eBay. Unfortunately, they were not authentic. They looked pretty good though:

An online petition has been going on for years, requesting that Nike produced these beautiful shoes. I have definitely signed it. I encourage everyone to sign it. Even if you don’t want a pair for yourself, you’d be helping out a good cause. Help those of us who want a pair for our very own. Nike, make these shoes!

On a side note, when I was younger we visited Universal Studios where I rode, Back to the Future the ride. They had several hoverboards set up as props around the line. I was so tempted to just grab one and run for my life. I wish someone would make some hoverboards.

If you’ve ever gone to DC to watch the fireworks, you know it’s ridiculous to try and find parking. Plus it’s always sweltering and humid. It might not be hot this Friday but the forecast calls for thunderstorms. What do the weathermen know though? That’s another story. I just heard on the radio that American Idol winner, Taylor Hicks, is performing on the National Mall too.

My friend Kevin called me yesterday to ask me what I was doing this Friday for the 4th of July. I said just having a couple people over. And that afterwards, some friends wanted to go downtown or Lake Fairfax to see fireworks. He then said something to the tune of how no one plans ahead of time. I told him I honestly didn’t care to do anything besides grill up some food and hang out.

The last time a bunch of friends went to Lake Fairfax, a few went at like 3pm just to camp out for a good spot. It’s like the time we went to Times Square for New Year’s Eve. It was freezing and we were blocks away from everything even though we got there four or five hours early.

Am I being a curmudgeon? Maybe it’s just me getting old but I’m over feeling the need to do anything special. This happens to everyone at every holiday. “OMG, what are you doing for [insert holiday here]?” I’ve seen and done it all and I don’t want to deal with the trouble of going somewhere way early or find parking. Everyone always gets their hopes up to do something cool and no one commits to doing anything. I even have friends who come out of the woodworks and only call me up a day or two before [insert holiday here] to see what I’m doing. I find this pretty lame, like the friends who disappear when they find a significant other. That is another story. Twice now, the wife and I planned a party only to have people not come when they said they would. This past NYE, we decided we’re not going to make a big deal of [insert holiday here] anymore. We don’t need to waste our time or money. If I am being a curmudgeon, I don’t care. It’s less stressful on me.

If you’re a resident of Fairfax County, you’ve probably heard of the Bunny Man bridge in Clifton, Virginia. I heard about it while I was in high school, not too far from Clifton. I was told that this crazy guy would kill children and hang them at the bridge. We had a friend that lived in the area and the only way to get to her neighborhood was to go through the infamous bridge. I’m not going to lie, I was a bit freaked out every time we went there.

Here is a link to the story about the bridge and how it all came about. Even the Fairfax County website has an article on Bunny Man bridge. The picture below shows the now cleaned up bridge. It used to have graffiti all over it. It’s not a good representation of what I used to drive through.

It has been reported that some local filmmakers are going to make a movie out of the legend. I bet after this movie is released, people are going to swarm to the area just like they did after the Blair Witch Project came out. I’m going to start selling bunny man outfits and capitalize on it. I know people would buy it because they’re the same morbid people who buy Jason, Freddy, and Scream masks. Oh and those creepy Burger King masks too.

There’s another urban legend that I grew up hearing. It was scarier because I lived right off of the street where it happens/happened, no more than a half mile down. There’s the legend of the hitchhiker who walks along Walney Road in Chantilly. He’s supposedly dressed in all white and only appears at a certain time like November 11th at 11:11pm or something like that. My friends and I tried to see if we could catch a glimpse of him. Actually, it was more like my friends wanted to go and I didn’t want to look like a huge pussy. The deal is if you see him and you don’t pick him up, you’re supposed to get in to an accident. If you do give him a ride, he just disappears. Either way, I would’ve pissed my pants.