I got a nice little haul of Dukes merchandise to share with the world. Let's dive in.
This is a licensed Dukes of Hazzard mirror. I was told that it was given out at carnivals as a prize. This sounds like a plausible story, as I remember winning similar mirrors when I was a kid (but after Dukes had its heyday.) The mirror is made with quality and the frame is sturdy. It could have been sold in stores as it might be too nice to be a free prize. There are no markings on the back.
The print of the General Lee is nicely done. I have seen a few damaged ones here and there, and I am glad that mine is in great shape. The Dukes Collector taking the picture sure looks bright eyed.
Next is an advertising poster for Knight Rider. I picked up a copy of this poster a few years ago, this is an original. It compares KITT to "The Competition" which is a General Lee with two zeros instead of the 01. This is obviously biased toward KITT. It's fun to look back and see how much Knight Rider was influenced by Dukes.
The back of the poster has a very nice photo of Michael Knight and KITT. This is a great piece.
Along with the poster came this photo of race car legend Johnny Rutherford holding a slightly different version of the poster. Rutherford was involved with the initial promotion of Knight Rider, but didn't have anything to do with the show. This is a fun addition.
This is a strange item. It is an unpressed Dukes lap tray. It is basically a piece of metal with a Dukes image on it. I bought it on ebay and the seller told me she lived near the Ohioart factory and these kind of items were common in the area. It is very interesting. Maybe it was damaged before it was pressed. It's cut away and smaller than the standard tray.
The back has a little surface rust on it. It is lined with what looks like medical tape. Maybe the edges are sharp.
Of the four trays produced, the one with the rebel flags is the rarest. Here it is beside a standard (non-rebel flag) tray. You can see that quite a bit of the metal is cut away, especially from the sides.
This is a Dukes shirt I got on ebay very cheap. It is new with tags. I haven't seen this image used on a shirt before.
The tag is from Wal-Mart. I haven't seen this particular shirt at any Wal-Mart. My guess is that it is newer, but I can't be certain. It does use the movie Z logo. This one is a mystery to me. Anyone know any specifics as to when this was released?
Finally I have this Dukes of Hazzard belt. It comes with a sad story.
I was searching ebay for Dukes stuff (imagine that) and I came across a very peculiar belt. It was listed as a Dukes of Hazzard belt but had a picture of two white horses above the rebel flag. It took me a few seconds to realize that the horse picture was cut and pasted over Bo and Luke. I then noticed that that horse picture looked like a photo copy and was probably easy to remove. The belts are a little rare and I don't have one, so I thought I should jump on it. I contacted the seller to see how hard it would be to remove the horses and let the Duke Boys see the light of day. She told me she didn't know it wasn't supposed to look like that and she would check and get back to me. A few days went by and then the listing disappeared. It didn't have a "buy it now" price and didn't reach the end date so I contacted her again to see what happened. She told me she tried a little too hard to get the horses off and the entire picture came off. I felt bad that I started all this. The belt still had Dukes markings on the inside so I offered to buy it. We came to an agreeable price and now I have a defaced Dukes of Hazzard belt in my collection.
There used to be a picture of Bo and Luke there. More recently a picture of some southern horses. Now it is just a sticky mess.
The inside of the belt is marked with the Dukes logo and 1980 WB.
I could take the damaged buckle off and put one of the three original buckles on the belt.
The buckle is the same as the others on the back.
It has the same WB sticker as the General Lee buckle. If I do take the buckle off and replace it, the back could be displayed to show the WB information. I'm glad the seller didn't throw it away after it was damaged. It has a home here in my Dukes Collection.
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