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1949 Buick Riviera casting 990 - JL, or Racing Chamipons?
Topic Started: May 24 2016, 06:05 PM (1,106 Views)
wall-e
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Station Wagon
I recently bought a 'Racing Champions Mint' '49 Buick Riviera, and I'm a bit confused. It has the JL logo, and '990' cast into the base, but it's sold as a Racing Champions car. I'm not complaining, as it's a nice car, but who are the real "parent's" of this thing?
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accobra64
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Minivan
Posted Image
JL 1949 Buick Riviera casting #990 issued once by JL as part of American Chrome (2008) Release 2 introduced in 2008
Image courtesy of JLCollector.net. Thank you Wyatt
I have this casting in my collection.
In 2008, there were still some nice stuff issued by JL.
Personally, I'm not surprised that it is now marketed by Racing Champions.
Any one remember Tom Zahorsky?

Cheers. Cobra
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Z28HO
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Fullsize
I have several with the RC logo and copyright 1997. No other numbers. Believe it was originally RC, they also did a chopped top version.
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Harvestman
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Captain Slow
It was originally an RC casting, issued in one of the police series.
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carhauler
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There are lots of old (late 1990's) Racing Champions versions of this Buick for sale on Ebay. JL made the chrome version but I don't remember seeing any other releases. The new RC car is better detailed than the original but slightly larger than 1/64.
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Dean-o-mite
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The '49 Buick Riviera started life as a Racing Champions casting, in 1997. When Johnny Lightning became part of RC2, the Riviera was one of many Racing Champions castings that were converted to Johnny Lightning bases, and released in the JL line. Now, things have come full circle, and the casting, updated to the Johnny Lightning base in 2008, is now being released as a Racing Champions, once again.

Original base:
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There were quite a few Racing Champions castings that were released as Johnny Lightnings, including: 1980 Ford Bronco, 1959 Ford F-250, 1949 Buick Riviera chop-top custom, 1987 Buick Grand National, even a Ford Focus SVT.

In what seemed like a final stab at trying something different, Racing Champions was first to release the Riviera in chrome (along with a bunch of other castings), but they flopped and was one of the final nails in the original Racing Champions' coffin. Then, someone at RC2 thought it would be a good idea to try the chrome concept again as JL, and those also bombed, and helped to kill JL as we knew them (those chrome cars were some of the last releases before JL went away...and then came back with the 40th line, with plastic bases).

Here are pictures of some of the original Racing Champions releases of the Riviera.

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Miami / Dade County Police
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Attached to this post:
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Attachments: RC_Riviera_base.jpg (196.05 KB)
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JeepXJLover
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The new releases of this casting are peg warming badly at every Target I have been to. Seen a couple at WM also. I can't see $6.99 for the new ones when I have won auctions for the older ones for $3-4 plus shipping. I still want to find the lighter green, yellow and fire chief versions.
Edited by JeepXJLover, May 24 2016, 11:36 PM.
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carhauler
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Funny; The Buicks were among the first JLs sold out here. We even had a restock in some WMs. The peg warmers I've seen are the Road Runners and Daytonas.
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wall-e
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Thank you all for the info. I saw the car on Wyatt's site, but wasn't aware of the older RC versions. These seem to be moving pretty well in the stores in my area. I got the last one at local WM, and only saw one on the peg at Meier last Sunday. I bought the '60 Impala, there. Yes, $6 isn't cheap, But it saved me the potential troubles on buying one from the secondary market.
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Jordan R
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Midsize
Here's an image with the original RC chrome Buick and the JL version:
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Also of note is the '41 Lincoln Continental in the background. The red and black versions are RC, but the chrome version is a JL, released in the aforementioned American Chrome series.
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carhauler
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Station Wagon
Very nice colors on the old RCs.
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Dragnet_Supporter
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SUV
Nice car in a y lineup when painted right.
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SeberHusky
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Station Wagon
So the lesson learned is, don't paint your cars chrome. lol
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Z28HO
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Fullsize
RC also did one with a chopped top
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Dean-o-mite
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Z28HO
Jun 4 2016, 11:32 PM
RC also did one with a chopped top
And that one was converted to a JL, as well....
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