Neo Scale Model's 1/43 Resin Hazzard County Police Car

He-Man has Skelator, Batman has the Joker, Optimus Prime has Megatron.  For every good guy toy to come out, they made an accompanying bad guy.  It was that way for the General and Rosco's car in the Golden Era of Dukes, but lately there have been a lot more General Lees released.  In the new-to-Dukes scale of 1/43, Rosco is winning the race.  

I stumbled across a new Dukes car and it is surprisingly great.  In a recent post about Auto World's upcoming 1/43 resin General Lee, a blog reader commented about this Netherlands made replica and I had to have it.

Neo Scale Models is a European based company that doesn't do much business here in the States.  I don't think I would have known about it if it wasn't for "Muscle Car 1:43" the blog commenter.   I bought the model from Lobster Diecast out of the United Kingdom and saved big on shipping.  It got here really quick too.

There wasn't a picture of the box online and I wondered if the model would come in the standard orange Dukes packaging that nearly every item has come in for the last few years.  It doesn't.

The Neo packaging is all black and I would bet all their cars come in the same box.  Oddly enough, there is no mention of Warner Bros. nor does it say "Dukes of Hazzard" anywhere.

Once you slide the cardboard box off, you see this very nice plexiglas display case.  It is substantial and protects the car nicely.

The case is inscribed Dodge Monaco.  Again, not Rosco's Patrol car or Hazzard County Police.

The car is incredibly nice.  The details are dead on.  The antennas look really good and make the car stand out.  The wheels are very detailed.

The front and back plates are correct and quite detailed.  This is a great, about perfect representation of Rosco's car.

One Dukes reference they didn't leave off is the County Sheriff symbol.  It is spot on for the show.  No question that this is a Dukes car.  Is there?

The light bar looks very correct too.

But surely there is the required WB imagery enscripted on the bottom, right?  Nope.  The only thing underneath is Neo Scale Models, Made in China.  I'm not so sure this beautiful Rosco's Patrol Car model is actually licensed.  I could be way off, and maybe copyright rules are different in the Netherlands, but every licensed item I have, and I have a lot, has some mention of WB on it.  Quite interesting.  Neo makes other Dodge Monaco models.  Maybe they figured they had the best model going and might as well slap some Hazzard on it.  It is odd that they don't make a matching General, but if they don't have the license, maybe that might be more difficult.  

So how does 1/43 scale measure to the familiar 1/64, 1/25, and 1/64 cars that we (at least me) are used to? Glad you asked.  I pulled out every scale of  Rosco car I have.  And it was a lot of fun.

Shown is Johnny Lightning's 1/18, a custom built AMT model in 1/25, the new Neo 1/43, Johnny Lightning's JL2.0 1/64, and Racing Champion's 1/144.  I find it odd and cool that the custom model that ol' Retro Joe built for me all those years ago is nearly the exact color as the new Neo model.  The other three models are all a stark white while these two are off-white, almost light beige.

I like lining up these cars like this, as you can see on my DukesCollector business card with the General as well as the background for this here blog.

Here is the 1/25 model next to the smaller Neo.

This is the larger Neo next to the JL 1/64.

The 1/25 model, the Neo, and the JL 1/64 are all 1978 models of the Dodge Monaco.  The 1/18 and the 1/144 are earlier 1974 or '75 model years.  Both models were used on the show, of course, but the '78 was used more often.

This could be the nicest model yet of Rosco's Hazzard County Patrol Car.  I can't wait to get AW's upcoming General Lee and let it be chased by this Rosco car.