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Johnny's been to the Gathering twice now but only set up and sold his first trip in. Johnny is a general toy authority and I don't think he would claim to be a "MATCHBOX" Toys expert to the degree that many of the people here within the forum would be. I can't imagine that he would intentionally endorse a toy he knew to be restored, modified or faked. As Bill said, he and his colleague were both nice guys selling rather ordinary variations. Johnny would know enough to recognize the gray wheels on the 25C tanker as rare but certainly not to the degree of subtle casting variations like Dick was talking about on the green 11a tanker.
While I was in Las Vegas for dental conference, Lynn and I went over and visited both Johnny's toy shop and the pawn shop as well. The pawn shop is really kind of dumpy but Johnny's store was just packed full of fun treasures of all sorts.

Greg is correct. Johnny is on the up and up as we had some great discussions. He had heard of the Gathering and called me to inquire. I invited him and he joined us the past 2 years. He may not be here this year due to Comic Con on the same weekend I believe. I visited with him and asked him about the collection. He only got a small part (about 25%) I bought many really nice and genuine models and interesting packaging from him. I did not see any fakes in his lots. He also picked up a nice larger model (Tonka-Buddy L) collection while here. Hope he comes back soon.