# johnny lightning and american line???



## wyatt641 (Jan 14, 2012)

not to be or sound unedgeamakated.....can someone please school me on the differences between the johnny lightning and american line t jet bodies.
i see the american line bodies with chassis on e bay from midwest hobbies and i do not know the history or differences..thanks for all the help as i become a more informed slotter..after 52 yrs i am still learning more..:wave::thumbsup:


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## JordanZ870 (Nov 25, 2004)

Johnny Lightning was diecast in the 70's.

Then Tom Lowe (Playing Mantis) Brought 
Johnny Lightning back and bodies on pull-back chassis
for us slotards, both in afx Snappy and aurora Tjet.
(Tom Lowe sold Playing Mantis but came back
bigger and better under Round 2 and resurrected
the Autoworld name. Thats the brief history)

American Line has been the side door sales
for the producers of Afx (I think?) 

Can anyone else jump in here?


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## Marty (Oct 20, 1999)

I thought REH has a truck load of JL bodies and repackaged them as AL.

Marty
Marysville, OH


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

I have spoken with midwest hobbies about the misrepresentation.
AM was/is the side door retail for REH.
who, exactly is responsible for the packaging faux pas has not been determined.
in some cases the bodies are packaged with original Aurora chassis, probably procured through AM at some time, and advertised as an Aurora kit.
having had no luck convincing these people to be honest in their advertising, I have elected to not buy from them. 
your mileage may vary.


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## joeslotcar (Mar 12, 2003)

*JL and AML*

American Line bodies were sold by REH and are repros of old Marx HO bodies from the 60's. They are a '63 Corvette, '62 Tbird, Rolls Royce, Harvey, Willard.
Here is the REH price list:
http://www.slotcars.org/reh/reh1.html

A list and photos of Johnny Lightning bodies and slot cars can be found here:
http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/Bodies.html 

-Joe


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## old blue (May 4, 2007)

Duplicate. Sorry.


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## old blue (May 4, 2007)

All honesty issues aside, these AML kits are an easy way to get ahold of NOS tjet motors at my local hobby shop. I love them. It is the closest thing to buying new Aurora tjets today. I still get the feeling of staring through the glass case at some good replica bodies and NOS chassis with brass gears and everything.

My two cents,
Old Blue


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

American Line is for all intents and purposes the "brand" name used by REH for their products. These products could be nothing more than packaged original Aurora parts which they bought in bulk when Aurora went out of business.

As mentioned above, the AML bodies are repros of Marx bodies on NOS Aurora chassis. There are only five different models. I would guess these were made well over 20 (even 30) years ago. 

The JL bodies and cars were produced starting in the very late 1990s. They have no original Aurora parts.

Joe


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## slotcardan (Jun 9, 2012)

American line bought out Aurora stock that was manufactured but not distributed when aurora plastics went under.
Aurora Slot car intellectual property was separate from the manufactured property and that was separate from the mold making property.

basically keeping it simple... using only aurora slot car division, because they had literally 100s of divisions in 4 countries.
so the slot car business goes under.

American line which was another name way back, comes in an bids on the manufactured floor products.
Aurora plastics holds on to the intellectual rights, patents designs.
another company comes in and buys some molds and casts for AFX and sells them to tomy. Tomy doesn't want some of them and sells them to somebody else. a 4th company buys out the Tjet stuff. much later on. playing mantis comes back gets the rights to johnny lighting revives the sizzlers product line. eventually buys the molds for the early AFX and Tjets from other sources. this was in the 1990s.

the intellectual stuff got sold back in 1987 to Tyco.

i mean thats just simplied but all the major slot car makes and there property has changed hands soo many times its almost impossible to keep up....

but American line is still selling offf NOS Aurora stock from the early 1980s. that goes to show you first how much stock there was to keep a company running for over 25 years and also how UN-interested the public is in HO scale. 

Sad thing is there is more NOS available now then when the stuff was new and popular and being sold at toy stores and hobby shops.

now JL was making reproductions of bodies, in fact many people made reproductions because before AW started mass production again of bodies many bodies were not available at different times.
you had fads come an Go one big one was the Corvette GT bodies somebody won a few races with them and suddenly repops flooded the market then the Datsun bodies, etc , etc.


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## partspig (Mar 12, 2003)

This thread has so much misinformation in it, it is enough to make you sick! American Line is owned by REH Distributing. They use that "line" to repackage other companies products. For example, PVT tires, Marx bodies, Aurora products, Riggen products, Cox products and many others, all repackaged and sold under the "American Line" brand name. Now it seems they (REH) are doing the same with the Johnny Lightning pullback cars. Don't be fooled into thinking that they are rare or something. LOL Have a good day! pig


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