An Interview with Tom Lowe President of Playing Mantis/Johnny Lightning interviewed by Doug Breithaupt TofTC: "Tom, thank you for your willingness to share some e-time with readers of 'Tales of Toy Cars'." TofTC: "With Johnny Lightning's diecast cars and trucks, Playing Mantis has has set new industry benchmarks for product quality and value. To date, the models represented by Johnny Lightning have focused primarily on American vehicles. With the James Bond series cars and models like the Nissan 280ZX or Aston Martin Lagonda, cars from outside the US are joining your line. Will this trend continue in the near future?" Lowe: "Johnny Lightning has focused primarily on American-made cars and our commitment to these cars will continue. At the same time, we are doing more European and Japanese cars, with the James Bond series in particular. In future we plan to move deeper and deeper into Japanese and European cars." TofTC: "Do you plan to offer Johnny Lightning products in new international markets?" Lowe: "We are currently in the UK, Japan, Australia, Canada, Germany and France, although it may not be easy to find our cars in all these countries as distribution can be difficult. With the Bond and new Austin Powers cars we are anticipating additional growth in these markets. We are also working with Corgi in the UK to market the Bond cars under the Corgi label. They are licensed to sell our castings. We may look at other joint ventures of this nature." TofTC: "While collectors are quite pleased with the realistic nature of your diecast vehicles, concern has been expressed about the wheels and tires used at times. Your plastic tires seem designed for miniature racing rather than realism. Solid wing windows have also drawn critics. Are you aware of these concerns? Lowe: "Some people do take our cars out of the package and race them. The plastic wheels are best for racing. Unfortunately in order to make them go fast they need to be bigger than they should appear on the cars. It is always an issue for us to make the cars as realistic as possible. Tires and wheels are some of the most difficult items to get right in 1:64 scale cars. Changes have been made but it takes time time for these changes to hit the stores. If you compare our early cars to the current models you will see great improvements. We have learned how to do much better castings. Take the '69 Firebird from our early Muscle Cars series. We think this was one of the worst we ever did. We call it the 'fatbird' and actually pulled it from production. It is helpful to look back and see how far we have come. The solid wing windows are a matter of cost. With our low volume runs, this was a compromise to help keep costs down. I appreciate hearing about these concerns and I will talk to my staff about them." TofTC: In a recent magazine interview, you were pictured next to an original Batmobile. Can you tell readers if this car features in your plans? Lowe: "DC Comics will not give the rights to reproduce the original Batmobile in 1:64 or 1:43 scale. We can do the car as a George Barris custom but it would not be labeled as a Batmobile or have Batman symbols on the car. I have met with Barris in California to discuss the rights to produce a number of his cars and we may decide to go ahead." TofTC: Your recent Johnny Lightning Red Card cars appear to be in 1:66 scale. While this scale was quite popular in Europe with Schuco, Polistil and Norev, it has not been seen recently. Are you planning to do more of these smaller-scale models? Lowe: "It was not an intentional move. We just wanted to do a smaller scale for kids, in a lower price range, We decided that the smaller scale made that statement. We would like to do more cars that kids and parents can buy at this price range but it is hard to get the shelf space in the stores for these lower-priced cars. Sometimes it's tough to know if a product is more for kids or collectors. We want to provide good products for both markets." TofTC: With so many new diecast vehicles on the market today, opportunities for collectors are better than ever. We seem to be in a new 'golden age' of diecast cars. Outside of Johnny Lightning, what are some of your favorite diecast manufacturers, either present or past? Lowe: "I have a pretty extensive collection of Hot Wheels' early cars up to 1973, I think I have about all of them. Of course I have the Johnny Lightning cars too. I don't really collect diecast cars now. I did more collecting before starting Johnny Lightning. We do buy new products, some to take apart and study. We tear them apart to evaluate quality, construction and manufacturing techniques. I do buy some Franklin Mint cars. Everybody is doing a much better job today. Racing Champions and Hot Wheels are very good. Has Johnny Lightning been a factor in improving the quality of diecast cars, I like to think so." TofTC: Johnny Lightning began by reproducing some of the original Topper cars. Will any more of these Commemorative cars be offered or is the market better for new issue models? Lowe: "Some new Commemorative models will be done in 2002. Not all of the original Topper cars would sell that well. Some are just not that desirable except to a very small number of collectors. We have done 20 Commemorative cars so far and we think 10-15 more might be appropriate. The market has changed since we originally did the Commemorative cars. The second series we produced did not sell that well. We have some original Topper drawings for cars that were never produced and may do some of these" TofTC: Diecast cars are selling on secondary and auction markets for prices that seem down-right silly. Few collectors really think that a toy car should be worth what some investors and speculators are paying. Do you think the market is healthy today? How do you see Johnny Lightning and the diecast car market ten years from now. Lowe: "We are privately held, I own the company and that allows us to make decisions in a way larger public companies cannot. Companies like Mattel, Racing Champions, Maisto and others have to meet next quarter's. financial goals, We have a great staff, excellent designers and manufacturers. We are very well respected by all the major retailers for diecast cars. We will keep making great products at good value. We know that listening to collectors will allow us to be stronger, We have learned a lot since our early days. We have the rights to the Cigar Box and Thunder Jet names and plan to produce new products. We will be here in ten years. Some of our competitors have an excess of products on the market. Some of the collector markets seem to be heavily saturated. How many people want cars with wrestler's names on them? We do fewer cars in each series than for Mattel's Treasure Hunt Hot Wheels but they have a much larger following. How will this be viewed 10 years from now? Which product will be more valuable? We plan to compete by providing more of the products that collectors and kids want." TofTC: Tom, thanks again for taking time from your weekend to share with our readers. I think the success of Playing Mantis and Johnny Lightning reflect your leadership style and from our conversation and it is clear you are committed to improving the diecast car industry. While your job may not always be as fun as it looks from the outside, I include myself among those who would love to find out.

Custom Toronado - Commemorative '67 Pontiac GTO - Muscle Cars SCCA Viper GTS - Racing Machines Monkeemobile - Hollywood on Wheels Johnny Lightning Special - Indy 500 Chrysler Atlantic - Red Card Aston Martin Lagonda - Evel Knievel Mysterion - Frightning Lightnings Jumpin' Jag - Topper Mach 1 - Speed Racer