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Diecast Customs Galleries: Johnny Lightning Customs

The JL brand began life as "kid stuff", and featured weaker-looking radical-custom castings on faster, heavier chassis' that would clean the clocks of most Hot Wheels on a gravity-racing track. When a new firm - Playing Mantis - picked up the old trademark in the 1990s, they took Topper's idea in a whole new direction, producing a range of true adult collectibles that in most respects outpointed almost everything Mattel was making for the adult market. Thank you, Learning Curve, for picking up the ball and keeping the Johnny Lightning brand alive. I adore your work, and I've been grateful for the availability of inexpensive JL's as my prime source for custom wheel sets for my favorite Hot Wheels and Matchbox'. Some of them needed a few tweaks to become truly worthy of inclusion in an adult diecast collection. Some of these castings were unspeakably ugly. Some of them ended up as peg-warmers...and that meant they were prime candidates to become donor cars for custom Hot Wheels and Matchbox. Here's a glimpse at a few unusual JL treatments, and a handful of leftover JL carcasses given new life (and in some cases, new value as adult collectibles) with Hot Wheels and Matchbox axle sets.

Playing Mantis pre-2000 There seems to be a dividing line at about year 2000 in Johnny Lightning production. Prior to that point, they had produced a large inventory of adult collectibles, but a significant percentage of those pieces seemed to lack a certain something...a design excellence, authentic proportions...whatever it was, after this point it becomes difficult to find a new Johnny Lightning casting which isn't an exceptionally accurate copy of the vehicle it is intended to represent.
Playing Mantis post-2000	1313 Customs '64 Buick Riviera (unknown series) 2004 "Clue" Cars Cadillac Escalade (blue) 2004 'Clue' Cars 2004 Dodge Viper (green) 2004 "Clue" Cars 1948 Tucker Torpedo (lilac) 2005 Fast & the Furious Nissan 350Z (blue) Monopoly 70th Ann. 1965 Ford Mustang (brnz chrm) Monopoly '78 Dodge Little Red Express Truck (blk chrm) Monopoly 70th Ann. '99 Chrysler PT Cruiser Roadster Calendar Cars 1995 Ford Mustang (yellow) 200x Chevrolet High Performance 1978 Corvette 200x Chevrolet High Performance '57 Corvette 200x Chevy Thunder #26 1969 Impala SS Convtbl (2) 200x Chevy Thunder '59 Impala (beige) 200x Chevy Thunder #26 1969 Impala SS Convtbl (1) 2004 Classic Gold 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo (yellow) 2004 Classic Gold 2002 Aston Martin Vanquish 2005 Classic Plastic 1984 Ford Mustang Cobra Muscle Cars USA 1966 Pontiac GTO (white) Poker Cars (red chip) 1961 Ford Thunderbird Convertible Poker Cars (red chip) 2002 Pontiac Firebird WS6 (purple) Poker Cars (red chip) 2002 Pontiac Firebird WS6 (#2) Poker Cars (red chip) Nissan 350Z Poker Cars (red chip) 1998 Dodge Viper RT/10 (#1) Poker Cars (red chip) 1998 Dodge Viper RT/10 (#2) Poker Cars (red chip) 2004 Chevrolet SSR Poker Cars (red chip) 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible Project-in-Progress 1984 Hurst Oldsmobile 442 (1) Project-in-Progress 1984 Hurst Oldsmobile 442 (2) Project-in-Progress 1984 Hurst Oldsmobile 442 (3) Project-in-Progress 1984 Hurst Oldsmobile 442 (4) Wal-Mart 5-pack 1960 Ford Station Wagon Wal-Mart 5-pack 1974 Dodge Monaco Taxi Wal-Mart 5-pack 1971 Buick Riviera
Learning Curve After a dozen-plus years and literally thousands of wonderful diecasts for adult collectors, Playing Mantis simply couldn't find their way to profitability and sold the brand to Learning Curve, the same people who own Muscle Machines and other premium-diecast brands. Quality has taken a hit - gone, for instance, are the all-metal bodies that were a trademark of JLs under Playing Mantis - but the superb body molds are still there and still being used to produce some wonderful premium 1/64 diecasts. Not at nearly the same rate or percentage of success as during the Playing Mantis days, mind you, but the brand hasn't left us yet..
"Spoilered" We all know what a Spoiler is...a blown muscle car with an open engine bay. Zingers are Spoilers on steroids...jacked-up muscle cars with monstrous top-fueler tires and supercharged 800-cubic-inch engines. Here's a selection of customs, some made from "welding" Spoiler bodies to Zinger chassis'...or vice versa, and a few made by modifying already-spoiled "brat-rods". Cars in these styles are among the most prized and popular among adult collectors, and no matter how many variations I make on these, I never have as many as I'd like to have.	Zingers! #50 '72 Corvette T-Top Zingers! #60 '56 Ford Thunderbird 'Spoilered' Zingers! #55 '71 Dodge Challenger Spoilers! #8 '76 Chevy Camaro (n/a) Spoilers! #8 '76 Chevy Camaro Zingers! #73 Pontiac Grand Am Zingers! '64 Buick Riviera 2009 Lightning Rods 1970 Ford Mustang Boss Zingers! #52 '62 Chevy Bel Air Zingers! #54 '72 Hurst Oldsmobile 442 Spoilers! '56 T-Bird
"Zingered"	1313 Customs Corvette Stingray Convertible Spoilers! '56 T-Bird American Glory 1962 Bel Air 1313 Customs '64 Buick Riviera (yellow w'red tribal) "Zinger"

Rating system:

Ratings represent my personal assessments of a piece's value as an adult collectible out of a maximum five stars.
Examples:
: In my opinion, this was a 2-1/2-star piece out-of-the-box; customizing improved it by a full star.
: I loved it in its stock appearance, customizing was a mistake that cost it a star.
: Customizing didn't improve the piece...fortunately, it didn't hurt it either.
These ratings are provided as guidelines for selecting suitable candidate cars and appearances for do-it-yourself customizing. They are not to meant to indicate in any way that a given piece has any real or meaningful value relative to any other piece or to the original piece on which the custom was based. They are provided as suggested guidelines only.