Johnny Lightning 1971 Mercury Montego MX and 1981 Chevrolet Malibu

Here are a couple of Johnny Lightning two-door American coupes that get little attention from other diecast manufacturers, and don’t look like exciting vehicles to make at first, but their unique stance helps them stand out in the cookie-cutter molds of typical Muscle cars, Camaro’s, Mustang’s, and now Nissan Bluebirds and GTR’s.

1971 Mercury Montego MX

There are Montego’s and the high-end Cyclone Spoiler modes out there, but Johnny Lightning has even done some stock versions of the Montego MX.  Unfortunately, some of them are pegwarmers to this date until I ran across the Hot Rod Power Tour version of this beautiful deep blue Montego MX.  The Montego is the two-door large coupe that is related to the Ford Torino and the Mercury Comet line, offering basic coupe, convertible, sedan, wagon, and the high-performance Cyclone Spoiler.  For 1971 the Mercury line used aircraft for inspiration where the long hood with peak fenders is joined by a gunsight front grille design, while the taillights go for a tri-lamp design.  The interior has a dashboard that wraps around the driver and all controls, including the gauge cluster, wraps around the steering column.  For the MX trim, which is lower than the Cyclone Spoiler but higher than other trims, it is powered by a 390 CID V8 and through a 3-speed automatic transmission.  The next generations of the Montego went more for a comforted ride including a name return in 2006 to replace the Mercury Sable sedan, then a few years later the Sable name returns on the freshened Montego sedan.

This Johnny Lightning version is based on a custom one used in the Hot Rod Power Tour, which is a gathering for all gearheads to take their cars on a road trip and hit up certain race tracks across the country.  The original car modeled is finished in metallic orange, but this blue is the second color and either way it looks nice and clean on this car, which is what attracted me to this car in the first place.  The front has that peaked nose with gunsight grille, flanked by side fenders that edge forward and quad headlights inside the grille valley while the lower bumper follows the center grille hump and incorporates the turn signals.  From the hood to the sides it is nothing but pure, clean metallic paint save for the side marker lights and Montego badges on the rear fenders, and those 5-spoke mag wheels look really good on this car despite having to use plastic tires instead of rubber ones.  At the rear is detailed taillights, Mercury script between them, chrome bumper with license plate, and Hot Rod Power Tour spanning the upper portion of the rear window.  The metal base has detailed exhaust system along with the engine, transmission, and drivetrain setup, while the hood opens to reveal the V8 motor in blue with fantastic detailing on the intake manifold just ahead of the air cleaner.  The interior has seating for four with front bucket seats, detailed door panels, two-spoke steering wheel, and a floor shifter.  The dashboard has that driver-oriented setup layout, but still retains the Cyclone Spoiler’s auxiliary gauge cutout on the passenger-side of the dashboard since the Montego shares the same tooling as the Cyclone Spoiler.  Sometimes clean and simple is the way to go in order to attract attention and this Montego MX looks pretty darn good in this dark blue.

1981 Chevrolet Malibu

Now it’s time to introduce a rather oddly popular casting for some reason, the 1981 Chevrolet Malibu two-door coupe.  The casting was introduced in 2010 in the Forever 64 line and has made other appearances with the hi-raked Zingers and with police departments.  The casting disappeared after the Forever 64 line went away, but did return again last year as a Zinger.  However, the pure stock castings now go for incredible second-hand prices today making these simple castings tough to get just like the JDM stuff.  I managed to get this silver one at a decent price last year, though not as cheap as the original cost when new.  The Malibu has been the mid-size Chevrolet car line for a few decades and also helped span the successful Chevelle line, but by the time this fourth-generation arrived in 1978 the Chevelle name was gone and the entire line benefitted from downsizing similar to what the Caprice line has experienced.  The new model was a foot shorter and weighted about 1,000 Ib’s less than the previous model, yet still managed to find more interior space and cargo space.  One downside of this reduced size and increased passenger room is the rear doors designed with fixed windows on the sedan and wagon, proving less popular with consumers.  The car was still rear-wheel drive and would stay that way until the front-wheel drive Celebrity arrived in 1983.  This model also served as police fleet vehicles when the Nova was discontinued and helped continue the El Camino model line until 1987 (by 1983 the Malibu was reduced to the sedan and pickup Camino as it moved to the G-body platform shared with the Monte Carlo).  The interior has a similar layout with the Monte Carlo and offers plenty of passenger room and cargo room in the trunk, while the engine is the same 305 CID V8 motor as used in past models, though the only V8 offered in this generation alongside two V6 engines and mated to a three-speed automatic transmission.

No one knows why this casting suddenly became popular, but from what I can tell it does have some nice details.  This silver version looks sharp with the black rear roof section and sits on rallye wheels on rubber tires, though the way the body moves on the wheels looks a bit sloppy.  The front has smooth headlights with inner signal lights in orange, smooth front bumper, and almost smooth black grille.  On the sides it is smooth and clean again, but look close and you can seem some crisp detailing to the sharp character lines, especially on the edge of the hood, while the rear has detailed rectangular taillights and inner reverse lamps along a smooth rear bumper.  To find more details look inside and you’ll see more, as on the plastic base that shows off the drivetrain, exhaust system, front lower A-arm suspension, and live rear axle with traction links.  The hood opens up to show off the V8 motor with detailed plumbing that crowds the engine compartment, resovoirs, large air cleaner, and drive belt accessories.  The interior has seating for four with detailed seat patterns, door panels, and center console with the dashboard containing the two-spoke steering wheel behind the square gauge pod and the center stack controls for the radio and HVAC controls, again similar to the Monte Carlo’s layout.  It’s not that exciting, nor memorable, but this Johnny Lightning Malibu casting is very nicely done and this plus being the only two-door Malibu coupe in diecast would explain the sudden popularity of this casting.

Update 1/9/19:Much to collector's delight the Malibu has been revived for a few releases in 2018, and one of them that caught my attention is this hobby exclusive release in all-black with black steel wheels and chrome dog dish caps that make it look like an undercover cop car.  Yes Malibu's were used as police cars in the late 1970's and early 1980's and while most were sedans there were a few wagons and even a two-door coupe like this one, so yup this is pretty accurate and very neat!