Friday, October 12, 2012

The Danbury Mint General Lee


The Danbury Mint General Lee is a very special Dukes of Hazzard collectible.  The Danbury Mint is "the world leader in the design and development of fine collectibles including Christmas Ornaments, Fine Jewelry, Coins, and Sports Commemoratives."  They produce extremely highly detailed diecast cars.  In 2007 they decided to tackle our favorite car, the General Lee.  They did their research and proved that they have a great deal of respect for the Dukes and its star car.  They had quite a marketing push for the release which included direct mail advertisements.  The following letter from the direct mail package shows their love for the project.
  

Here is the order form.  The original price for the General was $140.  Too bad you can't use this order form any more.  The General quickly sold out.  It was retired after the first run.  It goes for double to nearly triple the original price on eBay now.


I also scanned the brochure they sent.  It is worth reading as it talks about all of the details they put into the car.



The General Lee came with a Certificate of Title.



Now that I got all the paperwork out of the way, let's get to the important part: the pictures!


















Until Ertl released the General in their Authentics line, and Auto World improved upon that with their Silver Screen Machines work of art (my reveiw here) Danbury Mint was the only "highly detailed" player in the General Lee game.  Some people complain about the 01s not being perfect, the General Lee text being too small, or the license plate being wrong, but as long as its not way off, I'm happy with it.  Danbury Mint did an excellent job on this diecast.  It would make a great centerpiece for any Dukes collection.  It was worth the hefty original price, and I could justify paying the eBay prices it goes for these days.  The Danbury Mint General Lee is one of the nicest replicas of our favorite car ever released.

2 comments:

  1. finally i got the location (and the time) to comment on your sweet DM’s General Lee... i can see is extremely detailed (as you can expect from Danbury), they work hard in the realism and quality, i guess that’s why these models disappear so fast despite their high price !!!... apart from the inconsistencies you mentioned (01 size, General Lee lettering size and the plate) i feel that this Charger looks a bit too short even considering that this is a medium size Muscle Car (not as big as the Challenger)... maybe is just my impression... the rest is astonishing !!!... =)

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  2. I have one of these beautiful cars and I'm hurting for money because I moved to Kentucky and wanted to know who or where I could sell mine at?

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