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.

M2 Machines: Two from Detroit Muscle Release 33

To many of you, it may seem like I'm a huge muscle car addict. Most of my posts bleed red, white, and blue. I'm really not. I'm a die-hard tuner fan at heart. My top 10 list of favorite cars ever would probably be 90% Japanese. When I was younger, I was all about exotics. Muscle cars were never on my radar until the past year or so. A large part of that is because of this hobby. No, scratch that. 100% of that is because of diecast. I started seriously collecting them less than a year ago. It started with M2. Then, I fell in love with Auto World. Recently, I've been overdosing on Greenlight. Throw in a little bit of Johnny Lightning, Racing Champions, and what have you, and I'm now a fan of good ol' classic American muscle.

Of course, living in the U.S.A. means I get exposed to these all the time. Not necessarily when it comes to 1:1's, but definitely in 1:64's. All of the premium diecast brands we get here specialize in American muscle. No surprise, really. And I have no problem with it at all. The great thing about this hobby is it allowed me to gain an appreciation for all makes and models, regardless of country of origin.

Today, we come full circle and feature the brand that got me started on all this: M2 Machines. Two neat pieces from the Detroit Muscle line, Release 33. Two castings that I already have, but disguised in new colorways, one pink and one orange. As much as I knock on M2 for having such a limited selection of castings, they always knock it out of the park with inventive designs and colorways. That's called making the most of what you've got.

This is the 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442. I should note that I'm a sucker for anything pink. This one isn't hot pink or bright pink. It's a more toned-down metallic lavender type of pink. And it looks so, so fabulous. Throw in some stock wheels, simple striping, and spoiler delete and it's one of the classiest and cleanest 442's you'll ever see.

And then there's this 1970 Ford Torino Cobra SCJ Twister Special. A mouthful to say, but a sight to behold. I love collecting diecast that have trim-line designations. Small variations make a huge difference to me. The fact that this one is specifically the Twister Special really sweetened the deal.

Even if you couldn't care less about muscle cars, I'm sure these caught your attention. If you haven't already, get out there and take a good look at something you don't normally collect. You just might fall for it!

Greenlight's GL Muscle Series 14

I've been on a tear recently. After a brief dry spell from the holiday season, it seems stores have started to put out fresh new product on the pegs. Great for me, because I just found these three beauties the other night. They are from Greenlight, and they're from the GL Muscle series, which focuses on American sports cars, past and present.

The trio you see here are the '69 Chevrolet Yenko COPO Chevelle, '70 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442, and '71 Plymouth HEMI Cuda. The three others from this series are the '66 Shelby GT-350H, '11 Mopar Dodge Charger, and '12 Mopar Chrysler 300. All of them are stunners and are worth picking up, depending on your tastes. Today, I have these three to show you guys.

Priced at $6.99 each, they come in clamshell blisters with a collectible "trading" card, for those of you who are into that sort of thing. Me? I open them, keep the cars and toss everything else away. Which allows me to give them their much-deserved DLM treatment, like so:

We'll start with the HEMI Cuda because it's my favorite classic muscle car. This one comes in Violet, which is absolutely a great color. The HEMI vinyling is done in flat black and can be hard to see. I personally would've done it in white instead, but hey, who am I to complain?

Next, we have the Olds 442 in Custom Blue.

The color is the first thing that strikes you. White and yellow stripes finish off the look very well. And then you realize the 442 is a gorgeous car to begin with, so your hands will be itching to grab this one immediately. This particular example is based off the Goodyear Grabber vehicle, designed for off-road racing. That's what the trading card says. I honestly have no clue; I just know it looks pretty darn nice.

 

Last is the Yenko Chevelle in Daytona Yellow.

I saved the best one for last. This is my personal favorite of the three. I know Greenlight has released this model many times, but I've never found one until now. Now I understand why this one has a hard time staying on the pegs. If you're like me and you don't know a thing about classic cars, you might have only heard of Yenko from that one Fast & Furious movie with the Camaro. You don't have to know what it is to appreciate it. Killer looks.

Try as I might, I couldn't get the hood to open, so I don't have a photo for that. Nonetheless, I hope what you see here has convinced you to go out and look for some of these. The price tag is a bit on the steep side, but they're completely worth it.

Until next time!