1971 Cheerios TV commercial - "Johnny Lightning".

[Boris777Z]

The Splittin Image was way nicer.

[dumbbo1]

I distinctly remember this car. When I was a little kid, I stole one from someone. Oops..my bad!

[hotwheelsrawesoms1]

johnny lightning suck!!

[darkwhitedirewolf]

I wonder what that goes for today?

[MRJACKSON19581]

All the fighting and suing that went on between Mattel and Topper back then

Topper did this commercial ..They went and did advertising the Johnny Lightning car using a Mattel Hot Wheels orange track to race this car on? ..*sigh

[swman112]

hey thomas - i got mine in the mail. it seemed i waited forever, checked the mail everyday but it finally came - but i was a die hard hot wheels fan and tricked my parents by buying cherios to see what a johnny lightning was all about. I remember it had a slot underneath so it could be used with one of their race sets

[FlashFireSix]

Lol its racing on a hot wheels track that isnt mentioned "accidently"

[PeterMayer]

Johnny Lightnings...please...I knew one friend that had those...one! I remember thinking "big deal..ugly ass cars.."

[abjqrs]

know? friend that the car looks like a double vision of hot wheels the only thing it changes is the engine I hope your answer

[wave60]

Yes it's true that Johnny Lightnings were faster than Hot Wheels when they first came out in 1969. However, when Hot Wheels came out with the cap wheels and spring bar suspension in 1970, they were faster. Heavy cars like the Noodlehead were particulary fast

[rockyPants4000]

@wave60 Nope. There were still a coulple of JL's that were MANY ounces heavier (JL purposely made massively heavy cars just to beat HW) than any Hot Wheel made, and they had the light wire axles as well.

But they were ugly, so I never bothered with them. But pure gravity racers always crushed with JLs. In the few "professional" races that were held, JL's were never beaten.

[rockyPants4000]

Just for future generations' reference:

Johnny Lightnings were the "heavyweight" champions of gravity-powered mini car racing. All of the models had thick metal bodies that were not as finely detailed as Hot Wheels, or Matchbox, but they were very heavy. The JL cars were mainly "fantasy" designs, with few real world car replicas, until later decades under different management.

So they were kind of ugly, but could beat all of the other mini cars quite handily.

[lhn64gen]

rockyPants4000 is on the money with his sharing. I will add that the Johnny Lightning cars had a beautiful gleam to them as well as a coolness in temperature that approached ice, making them feel good to the hand.They were proven faster than Mattel's Sizzler line. To put it into better perspective (I'll give it my best shot), The Johnny Lightning cars were to boys as the GRX was to Speed Racer. The present day JL cars do not cut it..

[lhn64gen]

To add: If you wanted detail cars you either bought Corgi cars or Matchbox cars

[Charlatan2807]

@rockyPants4000

Sorry rocky their titles of more faster and finely detailed is taked off by the Tiger Wheels...

A chinese production from Puerto Rico ^^

[sparkey989]

@rockyPants4000 Not really, they were slow.

[rockyPants4000]

@sparkey989 It depends on which model you're talking about, and if you maintained them. Hot Wheels and Johnny Lightnings both had light wire axles, unlike Matchbox and others that had thicker rod axles (until the Matchbox "Superfasts" came out.)

So most kids bent these axles during regular play, and slowed these cars down.

But if you "tuned" the axles with aligning tools and adding silicone or graphite, a heavier JL would crush any Hot Wheel.

[thomas196x2000]

Funny, I remember this. I sent away for mine and NEVER got it. It turns out that 1971 is the year Topper went out of business. I wonder how many people did NOT get this car.

[SgtRock57]

How they weren't sued I don't know. That car looks almost like Splittin Image by Hot Wheels.

[MLOENTAL]

COOL