This article is part of #Future, a new Uproxx section that covers where the world is headed and how things have changed since 1989. Powered by Toyota.
The Back to the Future series inspired children in different ways. Some kids were captivated by the amazing power of science while others were entranced by the guitar-shredding, bully-punching, hover-boarding badassedness of Marty McFly. For me, it was the decadent possibilities of having my own pizza hydrator in the kitchen.
For two automotive-minded ’80s kids, the inspiration was something entirely different… the truck. The truck. Because although there were other trucks in the Back to the Future trilogy — trucks that dumped manure on Biff, then dumped manure on Biff yet again, and a wheelbarrow that dumped even more manure on Biff’s great-grandfather (which isn’t a truck, exactly, but I really wanted to post another clip of the great Tom Wilson getting spackled with cow poop) — everyone knows there is only one real truck in the Back to the Future series.
The 1985 Toyota SR5 Xtra Cab 4X4.
While other car-loving kids focused on the DeLorean (and its flying and horse-drawn variations), Craig Taguchi fell in love with the SR5 4X4.
Meanwhile, James George was so inspired by the truck and the original Back to the Future movie that he watched it over and over until his parents thought “there was something wrong with [him].”
Many cinematic childhood dreams are snuffed out far too soon by the realities of adulthood — but James and Craig’s visions of driving that 1985 Toyota 4X4 recently came true for two very important reasons:
1. They both entered the automotive industry.
2. They picked the company that made “the truck.”
Because when Craig and James grew from truck-loving boys into truck-loving men, they both got jobs at Toyota. And when James (now a vehicle marketing manager) was working on the release of the 2016 Toyota Tacoma, his friend and colleague Craig (now a product communications manager) had the idea of commemorating the launch of the all-new Tacoma and the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future by recreating the truck of their dreams… the iconic SR5 4X4. James and Craig presented the idea to their bosses at Toyota, who liked it so much that they gave them a truck. Not the original 4X4 from Back to the Future (because that truck ended up being owned by a gang in Mexico until it was seized by Federales), but the next best thing: Toyota provided James and Craig with the time, resources, and (presumably) ample high-fives required to modify a 2016 Toyota Tacoma into an exact replica of the SR5 4X4 from Back to the Future.
Once they started on the project, excitement spread through the company. As Craig tells it:
After the shots of the first truck came out, I feel like the energy in the office was just Back to the Future all day, all the time. [James and I] discussed that maybe one truck just wasn’t gonna do it. And on October 21 when we debut this, it needs to be in more places than one. More meetings happened, and before we knew it, we had the resources to build a total of three trucks. The energy was just on fire within the building. And here we are with three trucks ready to deploy on the 21st, and hopefully get people as pumped up as James and I were on that first phone call.
Over the past year, James and Craig worked closely with vehicle modification specialist Scott Kanemura and ad agency Saatchi LA to turn the 2016 Toyota Tacoma into the iconic 4X4 from the Back to the Future series. Some of the steps were small (installing the iconic row of KC lights), while other details were painstakingly labor intensive (filing down the engraved logo on the tailgate so they could paint the classic Toyota logo on the back).
As you can see, the work they put in was clearly worth the effort.
Besides fulfilling a childhood dream, there were a few other very important reasons why James and Craig made this truck.
1. To give Tacoma fans Instagram fodder.
James: Tacoma is one of those rare breeds in our lineup where it’s a star of many of our customer’s social media channels. When you look at Instagram, you’ll see not only the owner of the truck, but right next to that person is their truck… it’s like a family member.
Craig: For our owners to be this passionate about one of our Toyota products, it just gives us energy to make each truck in the future come out even better.
And in case any of you were wondering, I Instagrammed the hell out of that truck.
2. To inspire Tacoma owners to modify their own trucks.
James: One of the intentions of this project was to, number one, create something that’s just cool. Craig and I just wanted to do something cool. And there’s [another] element in that where we’re essentially creating a blueprint for customers. To show what their truck could look like if they wanted to customize it. That’s really the essence of how we want to inspire other people… Accessories are very much a part of Tacoma’s DNA. Once we paint the vision of what the ultimate truck can look like [with the Back to the Future recreation]… we want people to customize their truck in a way that inspires creativity [and] makes the truck their own.
And last, but just as importantly…
3. Because it is awesome.
I mean, come on! Just look at that thing! They made the freaking truck from Back to the Future!
I am not a car guy, but even I felt the buzz of excitement of this project. Surely, part of that came from the infectious enthusiasm of James and Craig, but I think there was something bigger at work. It was the truck. There’s just something special about this 4X4.
I re-watched Back to the Future II recently, and I was struck by a line in the beginning of the film. Let me set the scene: Marty is about to kiss Jennifer (who looks like a completely different person, but let’s just blame that on space-time anomalies), but then Doc Brown drives up in his DeLorean (now with trash-fusion technology), and he’s wearing futuristic clothes, and he’s gesticulating more wildly than usual, and he begs Marty to join him on another time-traveling adventure. And after all that, Marty can only say:
“But we were gonna take the new truck for a spin.”
I never thought about that moment during the many times I watched the movie previously. And if I did think about it, I probably just wrote it off as a line of cheesy dialogue. But after I spent the day with James and Craig and the truck, I think I finally understand what Marty meant when he said that. Because even though Marty had just returned from the past, and had altered the course of his family’s destiny, and thwarted the romantic advances of his mother, and invented rock and roll, and Doc Brown was promising him even more interdimensional hijinks, all Marty could think about was driving his truck.
All the wonders of space and time and pizza hydrators lay before him, and Marty just wanted to “take the new truck for a spin.”
This truck (both the original and the recreation) is special. And it might not be a time machine like Doc Brown’s DeLorean, but for James George and Craig Taguchi, this modified Toyota Tacoma has done the same thing: It has transported them back to their childhoods. Not to the actual moment in time, but to the feeling they had when they first saw that truck.
**The three recreations of the 1985 Toyota SR5 Xtra Cab 4X4 from the Back to the Future series will be displayed in Los Angeles, New York, and Dallas on October 21, 2015.**
