FLOAT 100 · Memorabilia · No. 87
Back to the Future Part II Hoverboard
It never hovered and is mostly styrofoam, but the pink Mattel board Marty McFly rode away from Griff's gang convinced a generation that hoverboards were real, and one of the rare holographic originals sold for about five times its high estimate.
- Year
- 1989
- Maker
- Universal Pictures
- By price in memorabilia
- 88 of 100
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Create a free account- Film
- Back to the Future Part II, Universal, released November 22, 1989; directed by Robert Zemeckis
- Object
- Production-used lenticular Mattel hoverboard carried by Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly
- Construction
- Lightweight styrofoam, holographic 3D graphic on both sides, vac-formed silver hover pads
- Size
- 8 x 73 x 20 cm (3 x 28.5 x 8 in.)
- Signed
- On the hover pads by Michael J. Fox and Thomas F. Wilson; Wilson inscribed 'Biff Tannen! Back to the Future 2 (and) 3'
- Sold
- $501,200 at auction in London, November 2021
- Estimate
- £60,000-80,000 in the catalog, reported as $80,000-$100,000
- Rarity
- The expensive hologram version was replaced by printed boards partway through production
October 21, 2015
Back to the Future Part II sends Marty McFly to Hill Valley on October 21, 2015. Director Robert Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale built the sequel after the first film's success and shot it back to back with Part III, starting February 20, 1989, on a $40 million budget. It opened on November 22, 1989, the day before Thanksgiving, and earned $333 million worldwide, the third-highest gross of the year.
The film's most wanted gadget is a pink Mattel hoverboard that Marty grabs to escape Griff Tannen, played by Thomas F. Wilson, and his gang in the town square. The board turns up again in Part III.
Zemeckis made it worse for parents. In a behind-the-scenes clip he claimed hoverboards were real: 'They've been around for years. It's just that parent groups have not let the toy manufacturers make them.' Toy stores fielded genuine requests.
How the boards were made
The production needed many boards for different jobs. Fox carried lightweight styrofoam boards in walking and handling shots. For flying sequences, where an actor or stunt performer had to stand on the board while hanging from wires, the crew built solid wooden boards.
The first boards were lenticular, with a holographic 3D graphic on both the top and the bottom. That process proved so expensive across the number of boards required that it was replaced partway through production by a high-resolution printed finish, which makes the lenticular boards the rarer type.
Each board carried a green foot pad, a fuzzy pink foot strap, two silver hover pads underneath and hand-applied Mattel logo stickers and yellow 'Hoverboard' lettering.
From the town square to a record
This board, a lenticular foam example in very good production-used condition, came to auction in London in November 2021 as lot 24 of a film and TV memorabilia sale, scheduled for live bidding on November 9. Fox and Wilson had signed it discreetly on the hover pads, and Wilson added 'Biff Tannen! Back to the Future 2 (and) 3.'
The catalog estimate was £60,000 to £80,000, reported in dollars as $80,000 to $100,000. An unidentified buyer paid $501,200. It was the top lot in a sale that also included the Wilson volleyball from Cast Away, which brought more than $385,000, Russell Crowe's Gladiator helmet, a Return of the Jedi X-wing miniature and Will Ferrell's Elf costume.
Earlier hoverboards had sold for far less: one for around $30,000 in 2014, another for about $100,000 in 2018, according to reports at the time of the 2021 sale.
Telling one board from another
Because so many boards were made, and because replicas and cast-signed reproductions are common, the details matter. This one is foam, not wood; lenticular, not printed; and complete with both vac-formed hover pads, the foot pad and the foot strap. The signatures are on the hover pads, with Wilson's inscription naming both sequels.
Other screen-used boards have their own stories. A 2022 sale offered a foam board with a printed photo finish, a repaired crack in one hover pad and an $80,000-$120,000 estimate. And on December 7, 2024, the solid wooden 'flying' board used by Fox and his stunt double, Charlie Croughwell, sold in Dallas for $237,500. Croughwell had asked Bob Gale on the last day of production in 1989 if he could keep it, and pledged half the proceeds to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
Still waiting
The real thing has been slow to arrive. Mattel released a hoverboard toy in 2012 that did not hover. In the mid-2010s the company Hendo built a working magnetic prototype, which only functions over specially prepared conductive surfaces such as copper or aluminum.
Hoverboards became a pop culture phenomenon soon after the film's release, and the pink board in Marty's hands is still the picture most people have of one.
The numbers
- Release
- November 22, 1989
- Budget
- $40 million
- Worldwide gross
- $333 million, third-highest of 1989
- Filming began
- February 20, 1989
- Future date in film
- October 21, 2015
Timeline
Filming of Back to the Future Part II begins, back to back with Part III.
The production switches from lenticular holographic boards to cheaper printed boards.
Back to the Future Part II opens in theaters.
Mattel sells a hoverboard toy that does not hover.
Another screen-used hoverboard sells for around $30,000.
The date Marty arrives in the future.
Another hoverboard sells for about $100,000.
This Fox- and Wilson-signed lenticular board goes up as lot 24 at auction in London and sells for $501,200.
A different printed-finish foam board is sold at auction.
The wooden 'flying' board kept by stunt double Charlie Croughwell sells in Dallas for $237,500.
The world in 1989
George H. W. Bush is sworn in as the 41st president.
The Exxon Valdez runs aground and spills oil in Prince William Sound, Alaska.
Seinfeld premieres.
Nintendo's Game Boy is released in North America.
The Loma Prieta earthquake shakes the San Francisco Bay Area.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 9, 2021 | $80,000 | Estimate, not a saleLow estimate as reported in dollars; catalog estimate £60,000. |
| Nov 9, 2021 | $100,000 | Estimate, not a saleHigh estimate as reported in dollars; catalog estimate £80,000. |
| Nov 9, 2021 | $501,200 | Sold at auctionSold at auction in London to an unidentified buyer. |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, Back to the Future Part II Hoverboard is number 88 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (87 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Zemeckis told audiences hoverboards were real and that parent groups had kept them off shelves.
- The holographic board design was dropped mid-production because it cost too much.
- Fox carried foam boards; wooden boards were used when someone had to stand on one in the air.
- Thomas F. Wilson, who played the villain chasing Marty, also signed this board.
- Mattel's real 2012 hoverboard toy did not hover.
- Fox's stunt double kept the wooden flying board for 35 years before selling it for charity.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026