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Johnny Lightning 5 Car Value Pack Collection

These Johnny Lightning 5 Car Value Packs came out in 2000.  Each Value Pack had a different assortment of cars.  I collected the ones that had the Spoiler type cars in them.  There were 9 Spoiler cars, and I was able to get them all by buying the 4 different packs below.


This set has the Dodge Challenger (#3),  Ford Mustang (#4), the Dodge Demon (#8), and the AMC Rebel Machine (#9).  Also included in this pack is a blue Corvette Mako Shark.


This set has the Ford Torino (#6), and Shelby Mustang (#7).  Also included in this pack:  a green 40s Willys, an orange Dodge Ram pickup and a blue Firebird Trans Am.


This box has the Ford Mustang Mach 1 (#1), Pontiac GTO (#2), and another AMC Rebel Machine (#9).  The other cars are a burgundy Chevelle SS and a Dan Fink Speed Wagon.


Finally, this set has the another Pontiac GTO (#2) and the Dodge Charger (#5) to complete numbered cars.  There's also a yellow Dodge Charge funny car,  a green Dodge Superbee , and burgundy Chevy Corvette.


Here's the same box set as the previous one, but with an error car.   The Dodge Charger  is missing the number 5 on it.


Here's a closeup of the Dodge Charger.

Johnny Lightning Pony Power Garage Box sets

After Johnny Lightning was sold to Tomy, it was only a matter of time before the brand declined in quality and offerings.  Towards the end of 2011, two box sets were my last purchases of Johnny Lightning die-cast.  It wasn't long afterwards that production stopped entirely.


I found these Pony Power Garage sets on ebay.  Each box set included two cars, a collector card, a pair of ramps, a car cover, two sets of rubber wheels and rims, and a tool shelf.   The extra tires and rims are nice for guys like me who like to switch out the wheels.  The ramps and tool chest make nice diorama pieces.   Not sure if I'd ever use the car cover, though.


In this box set, it comes with a yellow 1970 Dodge Challenger and a gold 1965 Ford Mustang fastback.  The Challenger is adorned with Rallye rims and Goodyear tires.  The Mustang has chrome mag rims on rubber whitewall tires.  Both cars sport opening hoods for easy access to the engine compartment.


Here's the second set with the same accessories but different collector card and cars.


This set includes a blue 1970 Plymouth Barracuda and a black 1969 Chevy Camaro.  Both vehicles have rubber tires, chrome rims and feature opening hoods.    With the purchase of these box sets,  my collecting of Johnny Lightning die-cast came to a close after eleven years.  

Johnny Lightning Volkswagen Samba Van Collection

I was pleasantly surprised when Johnny Lightning came out with this new VW Samba Van casting back in 2002.  Because it was a new model, it was really hard to find on the shelves.  I remember finding the first issue, only to realize that it came on a generic Canadian card, and not the regular issue card found in the U.S.



Here is the generic Canadian card that says Classic Car instead of Volkswagen.   Luckily it still came with the collector card identifying the vehicle as a 1965 23 Window Samba bus.


The van itself comes in a two tone paint job, white w/dark red.  The wheels are one piece molded plastic wheel and rim.  It has a tan coloured tonneau cover over the roof.


Around this item, there was an on-line retailer that sold Johnny Lightnings called CollectorNetUSA.com.  I ended up buying quite a few Johnny Lightning die-cast from them and remember getting this special edition version made expressly for them.  


The VW bus was the exact same casting as the regular one, except that it had redline wheels instead of the blackwalls.  Not sure if you can see the difference in the close-up shots between this model and the top one.


The second release of the Volkswagen series featured the 1966 version of the VW bus in green and white, again with collector card.  As you can see, I splurged on this model when I found it at a local die-cast shop.


This model looks particularly sharp with the whitewall wheels.


This blue and white model was featured in Volkswagen release 3.  


 This 1966 model reverted back to the blackwall wheels but sported a blue roof cover.


For the series 4, this VW bus was painted white and tan.


Instead of the one piece wheels featured in the three previous releases, this model sported two piece wheels with chrome rim inserts.  Definitely gives a sportier appearance.

Johnny Lightning 50s Chevy Corvette Collection

Here's my entire collection of Johnny Lightning 50s Corvettes. All five of them.


I think this was the last time that the 50s Corvette was released by Johnny Lightning.  It was in the Auction Insanity series which was released in 2005.  The car is packaged on cardboard with a plastic blister.  It comes with a bonus auction paddle.


This classic corvette is a hardtop painted in creamy white with red accents.  Tires are rubber with chrome wheel covers.


The chassis is black metal with silver exhaust pipes.



The next four corvettes are from the Rebel Rod series issued in 2002.   With each Rebel Rods series, the car came in different colours:  R1 was white, R2 was blue, R3  was green and R4 was yellow.  The cars also had two wheel variations, one with plastic tires and the other with rubber tires.  I only obtained three of the four colours and most with the rubber tire option.  A notable bonus with the Rebel Rod series is the racing decal sheet that is included with each car.


Here's the Rebel Rods Series 3 Corvette.  The engine blower is exposed.  The car depicted here has the plastic wheel option.



Here's the other variation of the same car.


Instead of mag wheels on plastic tires, this one has rubber tires with Hoosier lettering.  



The Series 4 version comes on a card with different design, whereas Series 1 thru 3 came with the Nova card art.  I don't have the plastic tire version of this model.


Not sure which version is more rare, rubber vs. plastic tire.  The rubber is mounted on 6 spoke chrome wheels.  I like this colour scheme the best I think.



For series 2, I only have the rubber tire version as well.


This one has 5 spoke wheels adorned with Hoosier rubber.


Here's the group shot of my Classic Corvette collection.

Johnny Lightning Funny Car Collection

While I normally post pictures of my loose (non-packaged) Johnny Lightning cars, there are a lot more in my collection that are still in package.   In fact, I would say the ratio of loose vs packaged cars I have is about 20% to 80%.   So there's a lot of cars that I have yet to take pictures of.   

It's easy to keep all of my packaged cars in big cardboard boxes, while the loose ones are in some old Plano 48 car cases.  But I ran out of the Plano cases a long time ago, so I don't plan on freeing any more cars unless I can somehow store the loose cars effectively.

Today, we will look at my small collection of packaged funny cars by Johnny Lightning.



Here's a Chevy Vega funny car that was issued in 2003 as part of Johnny Lightning's Hot Rod Magazine series of cars.  With this car you also got a bonus photo card depicting the real Don Schumacher Wonder Wagon on the Hot Rod Magazine cover.   The packaging is a plastic blister attached to cardboard.


Here's a closer look at the die-cast model.  It's bright yellow with the Wonder Bread sponsorship logos.  The Wheels are Center line steelies on hard plastic tires.   The chassis is chrome metal.



In 2004, Johnny Lightning celebrated it's 10th Anniversary with a release of 22 different cars.   This Dodge Challenger was part of that release. It is based on Roger Lindamood's real life funny car called Color Me Gone.   You also get a silver collector's coin with a picture of this model.  Packaging is plastic bubble on cardboard.


This particular model sports different wheels on front and back and runs on rubber tires imprinted with tenth anniversary lettering.   The metal chassis is painted in black.



Next up in my collection is this Pabst Blue Ribbon Charger.  Part of the Dragsters U.S.A series in 1997. The real life Dodge Charger was driven by Charlie Proites.  Packaging is cardboard hermetically sealed in plastic.


Chrome rims are mounted on rubber tires with Goodyear lettering.  Chassis is chrome metal.  Mine has 01211 as the limited edition number.



This Dodge Demon funny car was also in the 1997 Dragsters U.S.A. line-up.  The real Pure Hell funny car was owned by Richard Guasco.  Packaging of this car is cardboard hermetically sealed in plastic.


Body is purple with yellow flames.  Rubber tires with chrome wheels and chrome chassis.  My model has the limited edition number of 02885.