Johnny Lightning to be exact! Last week I won a really nice lot of scrap cars, 10 Topper Johnny Lightnings in one lot and two redlines in another. The JL models looked like someone had started a restoration job, but abandoned it. Most of the paint was gone and almost all had been opened up and hastily epoxeyed together. Some were quite far gone and missing wheels and engines, but the four best ones were fairly recoverable. There were plastic parts missing, such and exhaust vents and a white spoiler, but nothing too drastic, so I raided the parts bun and got out the spray paints! Whereas Redlines need to be stripped right back and have the metal polished to a mirror finish, in order to get the right effect, JL's tended towards ordinary metal flake or pearlescent finish, so a little undercoat and some colour was all that was needed.
The Stilletto
The Wasp
The Vulture
The Whistler
Topper was keen to compete with Hot Wheels runaway success, so some of the designs are a little exotic, but I don't think they are anywhere near as good.
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| The Baja |
The Baja above is one I have yet to re-work, but shows the lack of attention to detail on the line. A standard canopy shape is used and is seen again on the oddly boxy Slingshot below. I think the Topper designers were used to making toys, rather than designing cars and have just used basic streamlined forms and planted engines and chomework on them for effect.
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| The Slingshot |
Johnny Lightning cars were reissued recently by Playing Mantis toys and have found increased popularity once more, as they focus more on famous film cars and existing models. Here is one of the reissued range of exotics, The Nucleon.
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| The Nucleon |
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