Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Dukes Of Hazzard White Lightnings Galore! 1/18 and 1/64 WL General Lees


I've finally completed my search for all of the recent Johnny Lightning White Lightning Dukes of Hazzard Cars.  A 1/18 General Lee with white wheels, not to be confused with the more widely available all white General Lee, and a three pack of 1/64 cars with white wheels were recently released and they both proved to be hard to acquire.  But I got 'em!


We've been waiting for the 1/18 General with white tires since the JL Rosco car first came out in late 2012. The Rosco car was the the first Dukes WL to also have gold rims.  Before that, the 1/25 Generals in White Lightning and Lightning Strike had the standard silver rims.  After the Mustang and Camaro came out with gold rims as well, the 1/25 special editions were re-released with gold rims and the trend was set.  We all knew it was only a matter of time until we saw the main car in the line join in on the white wheel, gold rim fun. The all white General Lee has turned out to be much more plentiful and widely available than first thought, which is a shame for people who shelled out the big bucks when it first came out.  This version of the General is the truly rare and hard to find version.  The gold rims remind me of the rarest of rare 1/18 General Lee, the mythical Gold General Lee, which you can see on the boarder of this here blog.



The new WL General does not have a front or back plate.  I'm glad it doesn't have the rebel flag on the front (as I've said before, this is a common diecast mistake as the General didn't have that on the show) but I wonder why the CNH-320 is absent?  This box is the same as the prior General Lee release but features a 2013 marking on it and the blue Tomy logo..


This White Lightning set is a little odd to me.  It is a re-release of a three car set that has been released several times in a few different packages.  Each time this set was released it was a part of three different three packs.  They can all be seen in this post about restocking the fleet.  But this time, only this set is available in White Lightning.  Of the three three-packs, I would think this wouldn't be the first used for a special edition for a couple of reasons.  The General Lee is not on the top of the package, the police car used belongs to Enos and has a red light bar, where the standard version of this car that has seen the most releases is Rosco's and has a blue bar.  The set with the General on top and the blue light bar Rosco car also comes with the Double Zero Mustang.  That seems like the more obvious choice to release in a special edition as all of those cars have 1/18 counterparts that also have WL versions.  Perhaps JL will release the other two three-packs in White Lightning in the future but is just taking their time, spreading them out.



Here is the new WL set compared to the latest standard set released in late 2012.



The package is the same as the last one, but it has a 2013 year on it and the new blue Tomy logo with no white border.


In review, this is the current complete collection of Dukes of Hazzard special editions from Johnny Lightning. The collection consists of the new 1/64 three-pack and 1/18 General Lee in White Lightning, the all white General Lee, the White Lightning Double Zero Mustang, the White Lightning Cooter's Camaro, the White Lightning Rosco's Patrol Car, the 1/25 General Lee White Lightning and Lightning Strike with standard silver rims and with newer gold rims.  There has not been another Lightning Strike releases other than the 1/25 General.  This is everything at this point, but who knows what JL has up their white sleeve.  If I find anything new, I'll post it here immediately.

3 comments:

  1. hi Larry, i agree with you about the white General Lee they are way to plentiful to be rare, however the white lightning version with white tyres is much harder to get. i got mine on ebay and have not seen one since. still chasing a gold version, my holy grail.all the best.

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  2. What is the history of the white G.L.& why the color change to Hemi O.? Thanks

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  3. Just different versions by the diecast companies.

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