Jeweled Johnny Lightning Originals!

Let’s go back to the beginning of the millennium, when society was still at least partially sane, and take a look at some of the very first “New” Thunderjet 500’s released by Playing Mantis under the Johnny Lightning name. This was before Playing Mantis sold off the Johnny Lightning brand and its founders used the proceeds to start Auto World, taking the slot car concept with them. Back in these early years, the chassis were updated versions of the original Aurora design, very slightly larger and with plastic instead of copper gears, but they still had no traction magnets. The wheels were based on the second Aurora “Tuff Ones” design, and although the copper pickups and electrodes were replaced with nickel plated diecast metal, the design was familiar to all those who grew up with Aurora in the golden age of T-Jets…which was the point, of course!

Prior to this, Playing Mantis had released a series of slot car bodies mounted on chassis with pullback motors; I can only assume this was before they got the rights to build the chassis, or perhaps they were in development. I have bought several of these over the last 2 years as well, however at this point all of them have been mounted on AW Ultra G’s are part of my racing fleets. My understanding is that the full racers on their new chassis hit the market sometime around 2000, which is about when these examples date from.

I have just acquired a lot of 4 pristine, unused, unopened cars from JL Release 1 (the Corvette Grand Sport in white and the ’70 Chevelle in “dark moss”), Release 2 (the yellow ’41 Willys), and Release 9 (the lime green ’70 Challenger T/A). In this early era these cars came in these cool little plastic “jewel cases.” These would later be cheapened and replaced with the crummy clamshells, but for a short time the special first editions continued to be released in these cool reusable cases.

So, why did I acquire these?

Well, to be completely honest, the price was right! It wasn’t until after I bought them that I started developing plans for them. As of now, I know that one of these is going to “get built:” since I now have two 1970 Plymouth ‘Cudas in the Drag City Muscle Car Fleet, the yellow ’70 Challenger needs a companion, and so here it is. As for the rest? Well, I believe I will also be using the yellow Willys, but there is a question about which fleet it will join. The others will stay in the cases for now; I already have the white Grand Sport with blue stripes, and since I have a pair of awesome ’70 SS Chevelles already, this one will stay on the shelf for now as well.

I have not, as yet, built another of the ones I acquired back in July, the bright blue ’70 Mustang Boss 429, but I have plans for that one too. As to how these turn out-what they look like after being finished and how they perform on the track-time will tell, but you know it will all be recorded right here at Thunderjet Heaven!

It is cool to have a couple of these that I plan to keep in the original packages, though, as a reminder of the early days of the T-jet “rebirth.” Someday I expect these “interim” models, which were made for only a few short years, will be sought after by the kids who remember them from their own childhoods…that is, if there were any kids who raced slot cars in the early 2000’s!