Johnny Lightning Dodge Little Red Wagon 1997

The original Little Red Wagon started out in 1965. It was a Dodge A-100 truck that was for exhibition racing. It turned out had handling problems as the front wheels would not stay on the ground during a run. Chrysler sold the car/truck to Bill Golden who turned it into a wheelstander. There were many imitators using the same type of truck. Johnny Lightning made models of all of them as all the needed was different paint and decals. There were a couple that put a twist on it. The Back-up Pick-up went backend first and the Chuckwagon had two engines. There were also others like the Fugitive and Hemi Under Glass based on different cars but most were based on trucks like these. The current owner also owns the Hemi Under Glass.

As to the model it was released by Johnny Lightning as part of the Show Stoppers series in 1997. This was the Playing Mantis version of Johnny Lightning. The original Johnny Lightning was made by Topper around 1969. The quality was not quite so nice as Hot Wheels and Matchbox and Topper soon goes away. In the 1990s Playing Mantis brings back a lot of old toys including Johnny Lightning. They remade the originals and then started making new models for adult collectors with great detail more than Matchbox and Hot Wheels. Johnny Lightning is now made by Round 2 which is the same owner but new company.

Now back to the model again it is 1:64 scale just a couple inches long. It comes with a stand to put in wheelstanding position. The last photo is a photo print I have. As you can see the model is a faithful reproduction.