posted 10-12-2008 08:00 PM                  

We took both the Dart & Prowler and I think it is the 1st time I have had both out together

Last minute before putting them up for the night was take a few pictures

and then i thought about a picture of my 1st car

my guess is I took this picture in 1975 of my 1967 Barracuda

Same house 2008 with my 1967 Dart sitting close to the same place

posted 10-12-2008 08:16 PM                  

quote:

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Originally posted by WildCat:
Yesterday the kids of the coolest car guy neighbor had his 70th B day party

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posted 10-12-2008 10:54 PM                  

http://www.prowleronline.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001913.html

Here is the full version.

Jim,
I'm surprised they are still in the stores. But alot of people do not know Hobby Lobby carries diecast.
No, I do not work for Playing Mantis (AKA) Johnny Lightning.
As in the other post I made early last year. I was in the right place at the right time.
I feel my car does stand out and it is a favorite with people of all ages. No, the photo's on the site do not do the car justice, I started to replace the pictures but I was not doing something right. Most say when they see the pictures they don't like it but when they see the car they chance their mind. Too much detail to show in my unprofessional pictures.
I was at a show in South Bend, IN, home to Playing Mantis. They had a display with George Barris there to promote their products and the 1951 Studebaker he had designed for 2000. It all started with Mrs. Barris coming over and asking all kinds of questions. Now I was trying to get the car waxed in time for the opening of the show. This little old lady was asking, what kind of wax are you using, who painted this, how much did it cost? and then telling me she wanted one but her husband wanted to get her a Bentley. At this time I didn't know who she was, but noticed the cars of the stars shirt she had on. As I talked to her more and waxed less, I found out who she was. She was so impressed with the car, I Guess, she brought George back over to look at the car.

Later I went to the Johnny Lightning booth to see what they had. They had a box set with a Prowler in it. I didn't buy it but told Sue about it. She went later and bought it and ask if George Barris would sign it, He reconized her, got out a couple of pictures of cars he did and signed them, mentioning our Prowler.

So I go back to the booth this time to give the PM people a hard time because they put the wrong year on some of the packages. I told them they needed me to work for them to tell them what they had.

In joking with one of the ladies, I told her,
"They need to make MY car into a diecast".
The girl asked, "What do you have?"
I told her a Prowler.
She said, "Well we have a mold of that" and wanted to know what color it was. She then got Jeff Klink's attention.
You could see my car in the distance from where we were. I said "I have a YELLOW Prowler, that one over there."
They had already seen it and when I said that and they looked, Jeff said "Yes we would be interested"

He came over and looked at it. Asked if I had some pictures they could have of it. I told him I had some that needed developed in the camara bag and would go to 1 hour photo to get developed.

Jeff didn't have any business cards with him. He left to go to the office and I went to Walmart. While I was gone he returned and gave Sue a `69 Pro Street Camaro they had done. It was a guy that we had met 2 weeks before at a different show. This got me thinking that HEY THIS MIGHT HAPPEN.

My goal when I got the car and done the paint was to GET IT IN A MAGAZINE. I had a photo shoot of it the summer before but nothing. Then the chance to get a diecast. I WAS EXCITED!

I took copies of the pictures I had and gave to Jeff.

Later in the year I was in contact with Jeff a few times. I took 3 more rolls of film and 2 floppies of detail photo's. Gave the paint codes for all the paint. Then a LONG delay and no contact. So I contacted them and was told, JEFF NO LONGER WORKS HERE I was not happy). But the lady on the phone said, YES it is still planned to be released.

It took a few more months, and getting tired of people asking if they are going to do it, I started to tell everyone that the guy didn't work there anymore and I didn't know if they were going to do it at all. I recieved the pictures back with out as much as a note as to what they were doing. I didn't even tell Sue at this time I knew they were going to make it. After the time she had told me it would be released and it wasn't I waited a few more weeks then called her. I didn't hear back from her but I did get a note from UPS that they tried to deliver a package from Playing Mantis o Feb. 13th 2001. Now they were to deliver this after 3 on valentines day. I had not gotten Sue a card or present. I thought the UPS guy normally comes between 3 & 4 so no big deal. I'll get that then go get card before Sue gets home at 5:20. The UPS guy gets to the house at 5:05, I didn't have time to go to the store. I made Sue a card and put one of the diecast in a bag for her present. WAS SHE EVER SUPRISED

That is how it got made. There was 15,000 cars made, of that less than 1% were white lightnings, white interior and wheels. I have seen them on ebay all over the world. I have signed over 200 of them. I have stopped #'ing the cars because it was too hard to keep track of.

I have not made it into a National magazine, I still hope that it might make it, and after my trip to Carlisle, it could be possible. I did receive the 1st place for the Prowler Group in the show field.

Thanks for asking. I guess this is part of my 15 minutes

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Larry & Sue Mayes

posted 10-13-2008 09:50 AM                  

A quick fun car to drive...

mine was yellow!

(The only other yellow car I've ever owned!)

posted 10-13-2008 11:56 AM                  

quote:

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Originally posted by katmat:
Didn't know that Tangle up in Blue was that old!LOL

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Not Taco Bell

Last year he had 20 cars, he is down to just 8

His 49 Ford and 73 Firebird with 58.1 miles are the 2 not in the picture