Today will be a little holiday break from the usual fare... it's time to play with LEGO bricks!

I count Back to the Future as one of my favorite movie series, a fact known to most of my friends. So it's no surprise that I had been gifted a Back to the Future themed LEGO set. Kit #41611 from their "BrickHeadz" line of caricature figurines represented our stars Doc Brown and Marty McFly. This is my first BrickHeadz set and I was very curious to see how they would come together.

Our heroes are depicted as they were at the beginning of the first movie, when Doc demonstrated time machine operation for the first time in the parking lot of Puente Hills Twin Pines Mall. Marty is in his puffy 1985 jacket holding a VHS camcorder, and Doc is wearing his white lab coat with radiation symbol on the back and holding the car's remote control.

These kits minimize appearance of LEGO studs, using a lot of smooth pieces to create the desired appearance. This is especially apparent in the face and hair. Marty had many smoothly curved pieces, whereas Doc had a much more random jumble of pieces to represent his wild Einstein-like hair.

When I poured all the pieces out on the table, I wondered about a few pieces that were brightly colored in a way that did not match the color theme of the character. As I followed instructions, I learned these pieces would not be visible when properly assembled. Hence these oddly colored pieces were designed to be a visual indication if assembly should go wrong. Here's a partially complete Marty, the bright pink and bright green pieces sit inside the body and head, invisible when properly assembled.

LEGO 41611 1 partial Marty

Once Marty was complete, it was time for Doc. Again, the bright pink, yellow, and green pieces would not be visible when properly assembled.

LEGO 41611 2 Marty done time for Doc

And here is Doc and Marty, ready for their adventures through time. It's very generous of LEGO to give a few extra small pieces that are easy to lose. Assembling both of them consumed approximately 30-45 minutes, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

LEGO 41611 3 Doc and Marty