From the Playing Mantis Vault: Finding Vintage Johnny Lightning's in 2016, Part 1

Old news here, but word on the streets is that a gigantic stash of vintage Johnny Lightning releases has been making its way to Toys"R"Us stores across the U.S.

I thought this was a myth myself. I thought I would never be able to find them in the wild. Living in Southern California, it's anything but easy to find the hottest releases, and I immediately assumed that they would get gobbled up by collectors, hoarders, and scalpers alike. I mean, who doesn't love a little old school? Little did I know I would actually have success finding them. Not once, not twice, not three times, but on four separate occasions.

And so the story begins like this:

Back in February, Johnny Lightning announced that they would be shipping these old releases to various Toys"R"Us stores across the nation. These are purported to be cars from Tom Lowe's personal collection. He's the owner of Johnny Lightning and all of its associated brands, such as Racing Champions and Auto World, all of which by the way make amazing models. With Johnny Lightning making a comeback in 2016, what better way to generate interest, hype, and excitement in the brand than to hide some gems here and there?

They are gems indeed. Johnny Lightning has quickly risen to become one of my favorite diecast companies. Despite some of these being 15, maybe 20 years old, the castings and their level of detail are still on par with the current crop of premium diecast brands today. They're a bit smaller than true 1/64 scale and some of them only have plastic tires, but they're certainly charming. They hit the fine balance between being a toy car and being a faithful replica.

I found the three of these back in mid-February. Walking towards the pegs, I saw a bunch of bright red packaging that took me aback. I gasped. I started mumbling to myself. No, not the kind of mumbling that scalpers do when they encounter potential threats in the form of other collectors. I'm talking about the kind of mumbling that I don't want to mention on here because of its expletive-laden content. That's how shocked I was. It's all true!

There were a good half-dozen or so hanging on the pegs at the time. I grabbed a few and headed towards the price scanner.

Seven bucks apiece. Wow.

Talk about a price hike. I remember Johnny Lightning's selling for $4-5 each right before they went out of business. Furthermore, Walmart had the ones that were only $2 a pop. Bottom line: These are quite expensive, but I figured I'd take the hit for now and see how I like them. End result? I like them. A lot. If I went back for fourths, that must mean I like them, right?

Those you will see in the coming days. Today, it's these three: an Olds 442, a Dodge Coronet, and a Chevy SSR.