|
Contact Agent
Homepage: http://www.johnnylightning.com
Info: Johnny Lightnings were originally produced by Topper Toys, owned by Henry Orenstein, from 1969 to 1971. But charges of business fraud forced Orenstein out of business.
23 years later, Thomas E. Lowe, a businessman who as a kid remembers the toy cars that beat Hot Wheels on their own track, purchased the Johnny Lightnings license to reproduce several of the original designs in a commemorative series under the new company name of Playing Mantis. The series has proven itself so popular with collectors that ten color variations, limited to 10,000 each, have been issued during 1994, and indicated as series A through J.
In 1995, Playing Mantis made a major departure from its original direction by creating all-new models called Muscle Machines, relying on the popularity of the brand name and the passion for American muscle cars. Each model/color variation is produced in limited quantities of approximately 20,000.
Since then, the Johnny Lightning product line has continued to expand to include hundreds of new models and dozens of new series. In 2004, Tom Lowe sold Playing Mantis to RC2. He remains as chief consultant for the Playing Mantis division.
|
)
)
