Rare One-of-Five Johnny Lightning Black With Flames Confirmed!!!!!

Folks, I've been waiting for confirmation of this for a few weeks, but I have now received confirmation of a previously unknown Black With Flames Johnny Lightning. I first heard about this car in an e-mail from someone who was very connected with Playing Mantis and who knows how big a BWF freak I am. The casting was the Tucker Torpedo, and he said he recalled JL did a custom run of just five of these cars back in mid-2003 in conjunction with the "Tucker Automobile Club of America" celebration of the 55th Anniversary of the infamous Tucker, a casting which Playing Mantis apparently did specifically for this occassion (I always wondered why they did a Tucker!).

Our source found reference to five of the Tuckers being done in a Black With Flames motiff, which states that the five castings were presented to the Club Officers in addition to a run of 100 JL Tuckers made for the event in maroon, one of just six original colors Tuckers were available in. We were told that the flame pattern for these five cars was based on an actual 1:1 customized BWF Tucker which appeared in a 1956 issue of Hot Rod magazine! Unfortunately, the photo JL used, as well as photo's of the pre-pro BWF casting, are in the hands of a former "employee" of Playing Mantis" and arenot available to us as yet.

What became of these five JL BWF's is unknown, but we've put out an e-mail to the President of the TACA to see what light they can shed on this and we'll pass along word as soon as we hear back. So all you JL BWF "completists" have a new - and most likely very expensive! -search to undertake.

Happy hunting!!!!!