Tomart's Price Guide to Johnny Lightning Vehicles [Paperback]

Mac Ragan (Author), Chris Hall (Photographer)

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Tomart Publications (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0914293508
• ISBN-13: 978-0914293507
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #526,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for Johnny Lightning collectors, March 26, 2002

By 

Gerry Bowman (LaPorte, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tomart's Price Guide to Johnny Lightning Vehicles (Paperback)

This book is an excellent resource for all Johnny Lightning collectors, experienced and novice. It provides much information on the history of JL and many of the nuances of collecting, manufacturing, etc. There are great color photos of many cars. Price ranges are also included as well as how to rate the condition of the cars. The only drawback I can see is there is little to no info on many of the newer cars/sets. The index is also somewhat difficult to follow, especially if you don't know what year the car was manufactured. Perhaps this will be included in the next edition? Overall, I highly recommend this book to anybody interested in Johnny Lightning collecting!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very Out of Date, November 1, 2008

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Tomart's Price Guide to Johnny Lightning Vehicles (Paperback)

Well we've nearly reached the year 2009 and the latest republished version of this you get hasn't been updated since 2001, which I'm pretty sure is its original date. Even if you're buying this for vehicles manufactured in or before 2001, it still isn't a comprehensive guide, although granted there are more vehicles listed here than you will find in any other book on Johnny Lightning. However you will find more vehicles than this through a simple Google search or on the good Johnny Lightning collector sites (look at not buy sites) such as at JLcollectordotcom. This book is really only of use for collectors who don't understand how to use or don't have regular access to the Internet. So maybe a gift for an elderly relative or something.

The guide does have pictures of most vehicles listed and does contain most vehicles manufactured on or before 2001. Only a small number of listings don't have an accompanying image such as those in the various 2001 value packs for example. So it does make an interesting flip through read to see what you might be interested in collecting, but like I said the websites have more listings. To be honest if I was writing this in 2001 I would rate it higher but nearly eight years later, it's pretty out of date. Not just with missing the newer cars, but the prices as well. E-bay and other online sites have drastically altered the supply and demand ratio.

Also this guide lists two prices, loose and in blister packs. What it doesn't do is differentiate between the same vehicles with different blister pack card backings or which come with a variety of accessories to choose from. For example the Buffy series vehicles was released with different actors from the series behind the same car. The same car with Sarah Michelle Gellar on the packaging sells for a lot more than the other actor imaged ones. Yet the collector reading this manual would have no idea of this. Another example is the Ghostbusters ambulances, there is a big difference in price between the 10th anniversary exact same vehicles red backing card and the blue one.

Also the loose price doesn't indicate if it comes with the bonus item such as the token with Monopoly cars. A lot of sellers may well have lost the packaging but a lot of loose cars still come with the bonus items, but some don't. There are also no images of the bonus items in this guide.

If they ever release an updated version, I'd give it a look but I'd rely mostly on the various websites to learn about everything that's out there.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not much for vintage Johnny Lightning collectors., April 24, 2006

By 

lighten_up_already2 "lighten_up_already2" (Kirkland, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tomart's Price Guide to Johnny Lightning Vehicles (Paperback)

This is a slick and attractive book, and I suppose great if you're into collecting the modern Playing Mantis Johnny Lightning cars, but there's precious little here on the original vintage JL cars: only two pages of photographs. At least you get a picture of each of the original cars.

So, my three star rating probably reflects my disappointment both in the descriptions I read here as well as the book it self. It's almost useless to me as a vintage JL collector.