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Johnny Lightning's Thunderjet 500 slot cars

Published: May 23, 2002

Playing Mantis, under the brand of Johnny Lightning, has been producing quality diecast for years. Known for their all metal construction, and multi-piece, often rubber tires, Johnny Lightning diecast is preferred by collectors as being the benchmark of quality small scale diecast. Within the last couple years, Playing Mantis released a line of pull-back cars with replica bodies of Thunder Jet and ThunderJet 500 slot cars. Questions started flying about whether Playing Mantis would introduce it's own line of slot cars.

Recently, that question was answered with the announcement of Johnny Lightning's own ThunderJet 500's to be released. Probably the most anticipated HO release in many years, we eagerly, impatiently waited for the release of these little gems. Now that they are here, do we accept them as collectibles, or scrutinize them as slot cars? Because they are called "slot cars" on the package, I'll take a look at them as such.

The packaging is very attractive, and is very much like the older AFX packaging. Included in the package is an extra guide pin, but nothing else. Even the older AFX cars had an instruction sheet with parts breakdown, but maybe Playing Mantis feels that after all the years we know how to assemble these cars in our sleep. The cars are tied down to the base of the box with a wire tie.

The finish of these cars is flawless. Typical of Johnny Lightning diecast, the cars feature many painted details such as door handles, hood pins, grilles, and head and tail lights. Though some of the bodies are mere caricatures of the cars they represent, others look very close to prototypical. Remember that these are intended to be reproductions of the original T-Jets, or at least reproduce the "feel" of the original T-Jets. Many look like they could have come right out of the '60's.

But the real test of a slot car is how it will perform on the track. Keeping in mind that the original T-Jets, or more closely, the Tuff Ones which the chassis are modeled after, didn't perform like a Super G+, so we must compare them to the era that they represent. Using very little, if any, magnetic downforce, these cars aren't supposed to be curve hugging rockets. The packaging claims that they "Handle just like a real car", with "realistic drift action". Anticipation was high.

After lubricating each, what I found was that the cars suffered from several flaws, some that could be fixed easily, others would take more work. One of the biggest, and easiest to fix, was the rear tires needed truing badly. By holding the car under power with the rear wheels raised, then lowering down on some sandpaper, you can true the tires easily, and greatly improve performance.

Requiring a bit more imagination, or ordering parts from an outside source, was the fact that the guide pin was far too short. On my Tomy track the guide could have been a full 1/8 inch longer. The cars jump out of the slot with the crack of the throttle, or the slightest bump on any given corner. Part of this problem could be helped by using softer pick-up springs, but the guide being too short is probably the biggest problem here. I'm gonna discuss two possible fixes that don't require buying new, longer pin guides.

Method #1
The first way to lengthen the guide pin requires sacrificing the extra guide pin that is included with the T-Jets. As shown in the picture at right, trim off the knob on the top of the guide, and bevel the area where the pin is at (yes, the pin will be removed). I did this with a combination of trimming with a knife, and sanding with fine sandpaper.

What we are creating is an insert that will go between the guide and the chassis. You'll find the plastic is quite soft, so trimming and sanding is quite easy. The next set we need to do is cut a section out of the insert to accommodate the knob on the back of the guide. Again, this is done easily with an X-Acto knife. Test fit the insert to the back of the guide and make sure you've made the cut-out big enough, and that the holes line up.

Reassemble as shown in the picture at right, by placing the insert, wedge forward, between the guide and the chassis. What this does is allow the front of the guide to be closer to the chassis, but the guide pin will hang down enough to really be effective.

One thing I discovered with this method is that the screw will hang down a bit too far causing it to rub on the track. This can be fixed by sanding or grinding the head of the screw flat, but still leaving though of the head for a screwdriver to work.

I found this method worked very well. The guide pin does angle a bit forward when complete, but not so much so that performance is effected.

Method #2
The second method requires less work, and if done right leaves you with your spare guide pin intact. Though it requires less work overall, it is a bit more tricky. What I did was by using a soldering iron, I heated up the back of the guide pin and bent it as shown.

You may have to trim a bit of the plastic out of the screw hole when finished, but that is an easy matter. I found this method the fastest to incorporate, but the pin depth is slightly less than with method #1.

Another easy fix that really helps these little guys is adding a bit of modeling clay under the front of the body. This helps compensate for the overly stiff springs, and helps keep the front end and guide where they belong. Some of the bodies do not offer much free space under the body, so using the clay must be kept to a minimum in those models.

So what makes the Johnny Lightning ThunderJet 500's tick? The chassis is a rather soft plastic, compared to the AFX or older cars. At a quick glance, the chassis components look like old Aurora parts, but upon closer inspection it's evident that Playing Mantis spent little time in the quality control department on this project.

On several of the cars I inspected, the gears didn't even line up. It was necessary to bend the retaining clip down to force the gears in line. The main gears are plastic, and are not very sharp. The rear gear even has round teeth.

Another problem I had was on one of the twelve cars I received, the chassis was actually warped. So badly in fact that the car wouldn't even make a circuit on my track even after making the above modifications. Only three tires would touch the track at any given time, and this was rather disappointing.

The difference in performance in each car was quite surprising. Some of the cars would really get up and go, while others would only keep a moderate pace, and one that I had would hardly go at all, and as it continued around the track would gradually slow until it came to a slow crawl. I noticed that the motor was getting extremely hot, but I could find no binding what-so-ever. I haven't figured out the answer to this problem as of the time of this writing.

White Lightnings?
If you're not familiar with the term "White Lightning", it's probably because you haven't been involved in the diecast world in recent years. A White Lightning is an insert, much like a chase card to trading card collectors. Randomly inserted into cases, a White Lightning is produced in far more limited numbers than the standard releases. Johnny Lightning invented the White Lightning in 1994 with their diecast line. Since then, several other diecast companies have adopted the insert idea into their lines of diecast cars. Now we are introduced to the concept with slot cars.

The Johnny Lightning ThunderJet 500 White Lightning's are limited to only 500 each. In this release there are two different ones; a Willys, and a Corvette Grand Sport. Both feature not only white bodies, but white tires and rims, and a white box as well. Already commanding hefty prices on the secondary market, good luck finding one.

Many argue that the White Lightning, or "insert" concept leads to hurting the collector, and only helps those that pull them from the cases to sell for massive profit, while other argue that it promotes the hobby, getting the consumer to look at the product.

Whatever the argument may be for inserts, they are new here in slot car land. Get used to them, we'll probably be seeing more of them.

I'd like to make a request of Playing Mantis. Your slot cars state "HO Scale Racer" and "Adult Collectible". Let's lose the "Adult Collectible" phrase and focus on the "HO Scale Racer" part.

Let's make these cars the coolest cars on the track by making them smoother, quieter, faster, and handle better. Let's make them run right out of the box. You got the bodies right, but as any racer knows, it's what's under the hood that counts.

Overall, after all the fixes and tweaks, I really love these little cars. I want to see them stick around for a good long time, and I want to be able to race them. They look great, and are a blast to drive. As a newcomer into the slot car arena, I can overlook the faults and give Playing Mantis a hearty thumbs up, but with reservations. I want to see the product improved with the next release. I want to see some, if not all of the problems fixed. There is certainly room in the hobby for another HO slot car manufacturer, but make your mark by making fine slot cars, not adult collectibles. We have diecast for that. Slot car people want to race. Give us race cars.

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