In 2003 Johnny Lightning released 4 vehicles from the Simpsons in an official Simpsons release. Chief Wiggum's police cruiser (white), Marge's station wagon, Homer's pink car and the school bus. Those 4 vehicles were brilliant recreations of the drawn vehicles from the popular TV show. Of all the cartoon vehicles released by Johnny Lightning and other manufacturers, these 4 easily most closely represented the actual ones that appear week to week on their TV show. So it was inevitable that these vehicles became much sort after possessions for both fans of The Simpsons and movie/tv die-cast vehicle collectors.
Johnny Lightning cashed in on this success by releasing 4 more vehicles. Unfortunately they didn't go with completely different vehicles such as say Snake's Hot Rod or Mr Burns' Limo and instead just added something to the existing castings. With Marge's car they simply added a few spots of mud to the lower door and sides, with Homer's they attached parking tickets over the windshield (probably to resemble the episode where the family went to Manhattan and Homer needed to use the bathroom in the World Trade Centre). With the school bus they simply painted on a banner saying school charter. A new paint job was again what they did here with Wiggum's police Cruiser giving it the LA black and white cruiser look. However unlike with the other vehicles this actually changed it to a different car from the show as sometimes Wiggum uses the white vehicle and sometimes, usually when Springfield needs to resemble a bigger city this one is used. That's made this one a very sought after vehicle and the hardest to find of the second release vehicles, which were released as part of the fifth release of Hollywood on Wheels.
For a lot of collectors, other than hardcore variation collectors or huge fans of the Simpsons who collect every piece of memorabilia they can find, this is the only vehicle if you already own the initial 4 that you'll probably bother with, unless the others are a really cheap price as these can no longer be found in department stores. --James N Simpson Shop here
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