JOHNNY LIGHTNING

'Johnny Lightning' was a brand of model cars originally produced by Topper Toys, similar to the hugely successful Mattel Hot Wheels die cast racing cars. They were not quite as successful, one major reason was that the styling, casting and finish was not as of high quality as the Hot Wheels. Their claim to fame is that they were extremely fast compared to other brands of die-cast cars. Their most important technology was to mold in a small hook under the front axle so that they could be propelled by a lever-driven catapult, far faster than could be obtained by either gravity, or battery powered "supercharger" devices.
An important publicity victory over Mattel was sponsoring 5 Parnelli Jones cars including Al Unser in the 1970 and 1971 Indy 500 races. Unser was able to capture those victories in his blue lightning bolt Johnny Lightning Special. After the initial 500 victory, sales of the Johnny Lightning cars increased dramatically. From initially having sales falling far behind that of Mattel to selling one Johnny Lightning to every 3 Hot Wheels car.
By the end of 1971 Topper Toys was forced to close due to business fraud which brought an end to the Johnny Lightning cars.

Tom Lowe and his Playing Mantis company started producing reproductions of the original cars in 1994, about the same time that Hot Wheels introduced the "Vintage" line of cars that were reproductions of original 1960s designs. Sales were moderately successful, interest soon faded as most collectors weren't that passionate about the cars even when they were new. They also revived the "Sizzlers" name with electric cars similar to the original Mattel cars. Currently, they sell a line of 1/64 scale "premium" die cast cars with more detail and are usually themed.
Nowadays they achieve good following by collectors. JL makes cars which haven't been done before, or a quite rare, like a Citroën DS. Also they make a lot film-inspired cars, like the Ghostbusters Cadillac, the James Bond Aston Martin's etc.
In 2005, Playing Mantis was bought by RC2 Corporation and Playing Mantis disappeared. Johnny Lightning products are now produced and distributed by the RC2 corporation in Chicago. RC2 was previously known as Racing Champions and produced NASCAR die cast models. Carrying over from the Playing Mantis era was Mac Ragan who was responsible for many of the popular models. Ragan wrote the definative guide to Johnny Lightning cars in the Johnny Lightning Tomart Guide. Also in 2005 RC2 brought in a popular automotive and die cast designer, Eric Tscherne of Hot Wheels and Jada Toys fame.
In 2006, JL launched a new line of vehicles under the JL Full Throttle mark. They partnered with world renouned automotive designer Chip Foose replicating many of his award winnong designs like Impression and a number of famous designs from the US Television show: Overhaulin. They also sponsored the build of Foose's Hemisfear dream car replicating it in die cast and debuting both the real car and scale models at 2006's SEMA show. This line is often attributed to Tscherne.
Johnny Lightning received a major overhaul of its image in 2007. A new clamshell style package hit stores in January with the release of the new Johnny Retro series. A new logo treament was also introduced and the logo and package design were products of a partnership with Design Force and directed by Tscherne. A large price increase coincided with the new package leaving many collectors upset with RC2's management and decision making associated with the beloved Johnny Lightning brand.

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See also

See also

★ Jada Toys

★ Hot Wheels

★ Matchbox

★ Diecast Collector Magazine

★ Chip Foose