Original Dukes of Hazzard toy ads

Google is an amazing thing.  While googling one of my favorite searches, myself, I stumbled across Google's archive of newspapers.  You can search thousands of old newspapers from all over the country.  After reading old articles about me, my dad, and my grandfather, I am Larry III after all, I started searching for mentions of my other favorite thing, the Dukes.  TV listings were all over the place.  And there were quite a few good articles about the show and cast.  Fitting in perfectly with the theme of this website, I found these old toy advertisements.  These are originals from the early eighties.  It is so cool to see these items treated as just some new toys and not highly sought after collectibles.  Let's take a look.

Super Buy doesn't begin to describe getting this playset for less than seven bucks.  This playset has become super rare.  I love that they describe the General Lee as "Dukes car."  I thought my family was the only ones to do that.  A friend of mine found an un-opened case of these playsets labeled Dukes, but when he opened it, it was all Barbie western sets.  Bummer.  

It is crazy to think about how the prices have escalated over the past twenty-five to thirty years.  This car, mint in package, goes for at least $25, and can go up to $40---at least ten times the original price. Great investment back then.  "Crashes apart when it hits most anything."  I wonder what they hit with it that didn't cause it to crash apart.  

These cars are pretty common and not nearly as rare as the finger racers.  You could buy a loose General wrist racer car for close to $3.50.  So not everything skyrocketed in price.  Mint on card goes for more though.  I like how bad the pictures are. You can barely make out Daisy.  

Our Pal, Uncle Jesse, will love this one.  The Dukes of Hazzard Barnbuster is a favorite to many Dukes fans.  Now we know how much it originally sold for, and how much you could get it for on sale.  I was never able to make "The Dukes stunt car" do a wheelie on one rear wheel.  It lists a lot of accessories, so I wonder what the "more" was.

I never set up any of my Dukes slot car sets.  I used to have other ones when I was a kid, and the car never stayed on the track too long.  I can't imagine the jump working at all.  Has anyone ever landed the jump on the track and got the cars to keep going?  "Zany" is a pretty cool word to use to describe the show.  This set was $40 new, and the new sets are over $100.  I guess that's about right.  You could probably get this set for around $65 to $100 now, depending on the condition.

The Radio Controlled General was kind of a disappointing toy.  It couldn't turn, just go forward and backward.

Everybody loves Dukes of Hazzard Mego figures ---  $4.44 for a General with Bo and Luke is a heck of a bargain.  The figures in the second ad are clearly the 8 inch figures, but are being advertised as the 3 3/4 inch.  Under $3 for the General with figures is outrageous   Someone should have stocked up and waited for ebay to be invented.  I bet someone did.

The Dukes Power Cycle: it has the General Lee look.  The spin out lever could not have lasted too long on those old big wheels.  It was just a piece of plastic that wedged into the spoke.  The steel roll bar is an odd feature. This is an item that can go for more than ten times its original price.  

And talk about your holy grails of Dukes merchandise.  The Tennis Shoes are way up there on the hardest to find items.  I have a shoe box, but no shoes.  They are "as rugged as the General Lee."  Now about the insert to the ad, I wonder if anyone ever showed up to the store expecting a real Charger.  I'm sure they were just handing out Ertl 1/64s, but that is pretty misleading.  Sweet Feet? Grape Feet?  I'm gonna just end this post here.