A Matter of Time: The Unauthorized Back to the Future Lexicon Paperback – November 20, 2012

I consider myself a HUGE Back to the Future fan. I thought I knew everything there was to know about my favorite trilogy of all time. Wow, was I wrong! Do you know Marty McFly's phone number in the year 2015? Do you know Biff's home address? Neither did I, but I learned both in just the first few pages! Heck, I learned something mind-blowing in just the foreword alone! I won't spoil it but it involves the mall scene in part 1 when Marty first sees the DeLorean. If you even remotely enjoy this trilogy, or cartoon, or card game, or video game (I could go on and on!) get this book! You will not be disappointed! Every square inch of the Back to the Future universe is accounted for! I cannot imagine how much time had to go into creating it.

This book meets all the expectations as mentioned. What an awesome book for any BTTF fan.

100% recomendable...Muy buen producto....espectacular....vendedor rapido y confiable

My husband is a huge BTTF Fan and he LOVED this book. It includes so much random information from not only the three movies but also the theme park ride, the game, and even a pinball machine. This is a MUST for any BTTF fan.

I bought this as a gift for an impossible to buy for 15 year old. No surprise - he loves it! Hasslein Books, you've done it again!

It is more like a dictionary. I thought there would be more photos or pictures. It's ok for a die hard BTTF fan.

This is easily the best printed book about BTTF. I am absolutely thrilled by how thorough it is! Can't wait to start reading.

for the prompt service. The book was a father's day present. He enjoyed it very much. Thank you again for the prompt service

Author, Rich Handley could have saved himself a lot of trouble if he'd dropped 'Futurepaedia wiki' an email asking; ''hey guys, can I reproduce your website in paper please?'' Instead he went to the self proclaimed 'one-stop-BTTF-shop' that is, bttf.com (which I believe is over rated and a victim of its own hype).Why has; ''no-one else done it before now?'' the writers query. Probably because there is not much demand. Even a diehard fan, such as myself would find it difficult to justify the writing of this book especially when most, if not all, of what it contains is readily available from various other sources, the excellent aforementioned online database Futurepaedia Wiki, for one.Want it or not it's here, so let us see how it holds up. First up Handley's introduction informs us that; ''Watching the trilogy (and I watched it a LOT while writing this lexicon...)'' and ''Oh, sure, I knew the films like the back of my hand''. Unfortunately I spotted plenty of (easily fact checked) mistakes after one read through.Before we hit facts I will give my personal opinion on the look and general design (which you can take or leave). The introduction by Handley feels overly long and a forward by a bttf.com employee Stephen Clarke, (who is too busy being excited at being given Forward duties to say anything interesting), is boring and uninspiring. They recount how they sat in awe at their local picture house at their first viewing of Back To The Future and how it changed their lives. I have the same story as does any fan of the Back To The Future series. Stephen Clark goes on to gush about bttf.com contributing to official material and things of that ilk (all of which is on the website anyway). Forgive me but, I want to know about the book not your website. It adds nothing of interest and in fact just makes the mistakes in the book that more embarrassing after their bold claims of being big fans and painstakingly researching every facet of the series.I feel the layout, art and general presentation is a little cheap. Less is more guys. Every single page from the letter A through to Z is bordered with a large, I feel unnecessary, repetitive, Time Machine circuitry design. It's a waste of ink and page space. Very distracting and irritating. What makes it worse is the lack of colour, all black and white from start to finish, no-doubt to keep costs down at the printers but it is a shame. Each alphabetical section opens with a commissioned piece of relevant art. M is a montage of the McFly's, where it looks like poor Maggie's face is melting. V is a picture of the Libyan Volkswagen van, so on and so forth. Note to artist: when juxtaposing a picture of young and old Goldie Wilson, I'm not sure his gold tooth changed position from his 50s to 80s self. They're all cute but once again, unnecessary in my opinion and draws more attention to it being unofficial (maybe that was the point though) and made me long to see a glossy full colour officially produced print. It's a first publication so hopefully a better design will present itself in future editions.A 'gallery' closes the book but once you've seen 15 dark black and white, low resolution, slightly different, versions of the same VHS and DVD cover you soon get tired. There's a couple of interesting things but the grey muddy colours just ruin it. Check out the galleries on the DVD or blu-rays if you want some really cool artwork.Now for the facts. There are typos that slip in such as an entry where the key lists it as happening in Part II when in fact it was Part I and vice versa. Let them off for those? Hmm maybe. Then again don't they have people called fact checkers and editors? Surely in this day and age the simplest things should be spotted, yes?Speaking of the key, there are 41 key abbreviations. 41! And a further 13 suffixes on top of that! I find it ridiculously complicated and unnecessary. So complicated in fact that every single page has the key there to refer to when you (and you will) get lost and confused. I can't even begin to understand some of the logic behind the key. For example every music video that featured some tiny element of BTTF, has its own unique key reference, which in my mind is pointless when the information in question is so negligible. Surely one key reference could have been used for all music videos which would have greatly simplified things. Plus there is no Index. Looking something up from a one of the films or animated series episode is out of the question unless you already know what you're looking for. If I want to go to every entry about Part III directly, then I should be able to look up the pages of interest in the index and be directed accordingly but unfortunately, no.There are times when entries I would think are quite relevant have very limited information. Such as the Time Circuits, which gets a 9 line, 60 word description, that amounts to what you can gather yourself from watching the first film. No explanation on HOW they work or how they changed slightly in Part II or the radical difference in the Animated Series. There is a bigger entry on the Scream Awards cast Reunion which I could care less about quite frankly! Read this Futurepaedia entry; [http://backtothefuture.wikia.com/wiki/Time_circuits] on Time Circuits then the AMOT entry, which I have reproduced below, then make up your own mind about which is more informative.''time circuit: A component of a system built by Emmett Brown to turn a DeLorean DMC-12 sports car into a time machine. Pulling a lever on the time circuits activated the device, illuminating three gauges, labelled ''Destination Time'', ''Present Time'' and "Last Year Departed". The vehicle's operator could then specify the month, day, year, hour and minute (as well as AM or PM) for each trip through time. ''I mentioned errors earlier and here are what I've spotted for the films. The entry 'Hill Valley' states ''no dialogue in any of the films established Hill Valley's state or zip code''. It did in Part II when Doc, Marty and Jennifer arrive in 2015. Another is 'Buford Tannen'. Rich claims ''Back To The Future II's museum video identified Buford as Biff's grandfather, but that would seem unlikely...'' you're not wrong Rich considering it actually says 'great' grandfather. Put the subtitles on or something guys. Inexcusable mistakes.The entry regarding Frank Tannen states him as an ''ancestor'' which implies a lot of things not least a very distant relative, however Frank Tannen is alive and well when Biff is a boy and should be an immediate relative, quite possibly Biff's uncle?Under the Michael Jackson entry; ''the outlaw fired several shots at his feet, yelling for him to "dance". Misunderstanding the order, Marty began dancing Jackson's signature move, the Moonwalk..'' Once again unless that statement came from a specific source not listed, such as the novelisation (which I will be honest and say I haven't read) then it sounds like an 'Author Assumption'. I don't think Marty was under any misunderstanding I think he knew exactly what Buford meant and we know Marty is aware of Westerns and that he had to come up with something quick (as he always does when in a tight spot).Staying on this particular scene. Would it not be better to have this entry under 'Moonwalk' or 'Squirrel' (the name given to Marty by one of the old timers), neither of which get a mention? Another thing missing from this entry is Marty humming Billie Jean as he Moonwalks, which also doesn't get a mention when 'Beat It' from Part II does.In Jennifer Parker's notes it says; "her planned camping trip with Marty was their first official date, but that seems highly unlikely...'' Well yes and no. To be honest it's in the statement "first 'official' date" they could have had numerous 'unofficial' dates. From the dinner table conversation Marty appears to keep his relationships quiet. I feel Rich Handley is assuming the storybook writer wants "official" to mean 'first and only date so far'. In saying that however when I was 17 I just hung out with my girlfriend more than anything and never had a proper date until months after we met. My point being assumptions either shouldn't exist or at least be clearly marked as 'Author Assumption'.With jigowatt it claims "Emmett Brown's unique pronunciation of the word "gigawatt" " and goes on to say "...misspelled it either inadvertently or for comedic intent." The authors assumption is that it was Brown's unique pronunciation of the word but really its just how actor Lloyd read it. Now I can't give sources for this but I was aware that someone involved in the script misread gigawatt and pronounced it jigowatt which was then written down that way. Also there is no mention in the first film novelisation it is spelt gigawatt then changed to jigowatt for the following books.I feel there is not enough 'see: *relevant page*' or 'see: above' or 'see: below' and instead, we get almost exact duplication of some entries on the same page.I could be wrong but I couldn't see any reference to the 'Spin City' commercial either where Mike takes everybody for a ride to the new start time of the show.No references in the 'JVC' entry that the monitors used for the digital waiters at the Cafe 80s are of JCV brand.Under 'Valvoline' it claims Marty was "hiding on the floor" of Biffs car in Part II. It was the back seat under a blanket.Entry 'amp' does not mention the make 'CRM-114' and instead gives it its own entry but if you didn't know it already you wouldn't know it had a make until you came across it.The book doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it a simple A-Z, is it a guide, or is it a loose chronology? Calling it 'Lexicon' does not excuse its lack of identity. If it is indeed trying to be all three, then it fails in my opinion. At first glance it appears to be set out as though everything can be collected into one, all inclusive cannon of information. However as the creators must have realised that just can't be done and remain coherent. So you get a mishmash of entries that try to accommodate all references about one subject, a character mentioned in the comics, a game and a discarded line in a previous draft script. But then when they can't make something fit, it gets a mention as a footnote after the entry. Or quite simply disregard an established fact because its 'unlikely' to them. Even worse they simply make grand assumptions where no information is available. If you don't know then say so! Rather than being a work of listed known facts it appears to be the author's vision of the Back To The Future universe where it makes perfect sense for Doc Brown to turn up at a Hewy Lewis & The News gig while party goers take a joy ride in the DeLorean and also Doc assist a Budweiser employee murder his father! It's beyond absurd.I found myself having more questions after reading this book than when I started and unfortunately having more fun spotting the mistakes than reading the collected 'facts'. All in all it is an ok effort. However I was expecting more from something so highly priced and 'painstakingly and loving produced'.

My son loves this book. He is a great fan of Back to the Future after all these years. Found the book full of information he enjoyed reading. A must have for a Delorean fan

Das Buch enthält wirklich jede noch so winzige Kleinigkeit aus der Trilogie. Hausnummern, Autokennzeichen u.s.w. sind gelistet, und es gibt einen kleinen Beschrieb, wo diese Vorkommen. Das Buch behandelt dabei nicht nur die Filme, sondern auch die Zeichentrickserie, das Videogame, das Kartenspiel, McDonalds Verpackungen (!) u.s.w.Wenn man nur die Filme kennt - und liebt, gibt es zwar viel Information, die man nicht nachvollziehen kann, ist aber mal etwas anderes. Für Fans.

Bought as a gift.

Acquisto obbligato per i fan di Ritorno al Futuro.Si presenta come una vera e propria enciclopedia: in ordine alfabetico descrive tutto quello che c'è da sapere.In appendice anche una sezione dedicata al merchandasing di Ritorno al Futuro ed altre curiosità.