After the Johnny Lightning brand was resurrected back in 2016, they have been consistent with the Street Freaks mixes, with at least 3 Zingers releases each year, in either 2 or 4 colorways each. I’ve been on a mission to get all of the Zingers for a little while now, going back to the original run of the Street Freaks series. Well, I finally was able to complete the set of the 2017 Corvairs!
For the Zingers line, JL gives them all custom names. In the pic above, clockwise from top left: ‘Vair Power, Horsepower & Thrust, 1/4 Mile Runway and Back To The Grind.
The Corvair ended up having 4 colors in 2017. At first glance, the three that aren’t white appear to be the same color. But they are actually different: black interior and yellow stripe ‘Vair Power is a metallic blueish-gray, red interior and blue stripe Horsepower & Thrust is metallic silver, and blue interior and white stripe 1/4 Mile Runway is flat gray. This is something I didn’t notice until I had them all in hand.
That flat gray piece was the hardest one to come by and the last piece to the puzzle for me. I’ve only seen it pop up on eBay a few times in the last year.
These Zingers releases almost always have some custom paint. I absolutely love the nose art deco used for the Corvairs. I’ve always enjoyed this art style on airplanes and when applied to vehicles.
Now, there’s still one more Zingers Corvair to track down: the double engine release from a 2007 Zingers 5 pack. Not a whole lot to say about these cars, this is just one of my favorite Zingers sets since the 2016 return. I just wanted to show them off, hah!
Nice set coming together! Were pro stock Corvairs a thing? The Hot Wheels Vairy 8 has some beefy tires in back, and these guys are monsters! It’s an interesting car, I just wouldn’t have thought of it for drag racing.
I’m sure someone made drag car Corvairs. I know Yenko had done some special order ones (Yenko Stinger I think they were called) that were tuned for road course racing.
You know.. when I first started seeing these on the shelves, I thought they were really goofy.. but over time these over the top exaggerated little things kind of grow on you.
The only places I see these are in Walmart & they eventually begin to sell out over time. It seems Zingers aren’t stocked enough in WM’s & sometimes it just takes forever to for them to keep up with new inventory. Sad!
But once in a while, I might stumble upon a White Lightning version & then I’d end up just putting it up for sale on Evilbay. My real passion for chase models are $uper Treasure Hunts so those are keepers, but as I reflect back now… I wished I at least kept one of them because of how rare they really are (I know.. I’m kicking my own butt now!!!).
This was my thought at first. Thought the Zingers were stupid originally. Grew to like them over time, haha.
The Street Freaks cases are definitely limited to only a few thousand each, so I’d guess most stores maybe get one of each mix, so once they hit they’re gone, they’re gone.