Johnny Lightning part 3

So after a break of a few years, there are a couple new releases from Johnny Lightning in late Summer 2012,.  These are a little different in that they are plastic, but they still have the opening hood, although with a little less detail under the hood.

The first is a Grey Metallic 1970 SS, the series is called Forever 64 release 23:

and a light yellow 1970 with a white vinyl top in release 24:

And now (Dec 2012) there is a green 1970 with a black top... in release 26 of Forever64.  

There are white lightning versions of these as well with a white bottom and white tires.  Here are a couple:

2nd Gen Montes (1973-77)

I personally don't collect these but here are some reference pictures for ya, if you like the 2nd generation Monte Carlo's.

original redline #7660 1974 Monte, one of the later redlines:

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Same car, packaged as "speedway special":

and Flying Colors:

an orange one:

  and a blue stocker with hood decals:

This car says Flyin' Low, but it was called "Lowdown" and was number 9185:

A "chrome" monte:

Here is a Revell Lowrider of a '77 Monte Carlo (issue #154) released in 2003:

Another Revell Lowrider, issue #147:

This one is a Hot Wheels "Hardnoze", from 2004:

If I run across more, I'll add them...

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Revell Lowriders and others

In 2000, Revell (the plastic model company) made a series of Montes with Lowrider Magazine. These have plastic bases, but they have movable axles like the Hot Wheels did.  And they have an opening trunk, to show the hydraulic pumps and batteries that a lowrider typically has in the trunk. And after the original series, they released even a few more. And in 2002 they made two Collectible Chevy cars, that look like the original Chevrolet cars.
First, in the lowriders, there is a blue model called the "Grim Reaper".  These were numbered as "Issues", I suppose to be like a magazine - for example, this one was Issue #24.  Interestingly, I have also seen this car as Issue #22.

Next..."Cotton Candy"...Issue# 25

And..."Jest Klownin' "...issue #17....note that most of these have a more interesting interior with striped seats.

Then they stopped trying to name them clever names, and this one looks like "Jest Klownin'". but its Purple, and it is Issue 64....

Here is a picture of the opening trunk!

Now its time for a break...because they also released this car another way and called it Issue # 36...and believe it or not, it is a Keychain, and the car is in pieces, and you get to put it together....they even give you a little screwdriver....

And there is one more from this timeframe...a white one with no name, #147...had similar graphics as the previous two, but different colors....

Then some time went by and in 2005, they issued two more Lowriders.  The cards for these included a magazine cover, these also had the movable axles and opening trunk. Here is "Issue 180"....

And a nicely painted white and black one...issue #209...

Well, thats all for the Lowriders, they are pretty nice cars.  Revell also released 2 other Montes in the year 2002, called their Collectible Chevy series.  The card itself was a reprint of an original advertisement. There were Black and Green versions, they are very original looking little Monte's. They do not have an opening trunk.

1:24 cars...Saico

Here are some medium size diecasts in the 1:24 scale, made by Saico.  These are similar in size to the 1/25 plastic model kits.  For some reason, I just haven't gotten interested in these.  They seem to be a little lower quality than the bigger Ertl models, but are defintely affordable.  Sometimes they come in a set of 4, (different colors) and defintely have some great colors.
They produced lines of cars that looked original with rally wheels, cars that had small gold wheels like a lowrider, cars that had large chrome wheels and sat low, and ones that looked pro street with a blower.  Also there are some that have large wire wheels.  Some of the Saico cars had the rear upper taillight extensions chromed.

For now, here's a few examples:

Slot cars

Slot cars....you remember those, right?  Aurora, Tyco, electrically powered through the track.  Zoom, zoom!  Some hobbyists have made molds of a 1971 Monte (perhaps from Lindberg) and you can purchase these resin castings and make your own slot car.  They even sell the wheels and sheets of little decals to make Nascar cars that actually existed.

First there is "MEV Originals", seems they've offered this since 1998 or so?  http://www.tjets.com/index.html
They call these 1/76th scale Aurora T-Jet bodies.

And there is (what appears to be) a very nice kit for Aurora slot car chassis' as well,  from "Road Race Replicas", perhaps new in 2011: 

http://www.ho-slotcars.com/2068.htm

  

I have to make me at least one of those!  These are non-year specific as it seems they have no park lites in the bumper or grille.

Here is a picture is picture of a modified one with cut wheelwells, etc - nice!

And another one I found is Jim's Custom Rod Shop has a 70 Monte.  It is also for a T-Jet chassis.

http://members.tripod.com/jims_customs/id14.html

Here is a picture of the resin casting with which you can do your own finish work or have him make a custom one for you.  However now I don't see this on his site anymore.

And, this one, but I'm not sure about where to get it.   The ad stated Auto World (a hobby store), who does have resin slot car bodies, but they don't have this one that I can find.

There are also some clear bodies that have been made...don't have much information on these but I imagine you can trim and paint these to your liking:

And just because I like it so much, I'll have mention this car again, that someone else made for me of the #12 Allison Monte.  It just goes to show you could take the set of decals that are sold by RRR and put them on a Hot Wheels or Johnny Lightning if you are not interested in slot cars....