2014 was the 35th anniversary of the Dukes of Hazzard series. It was a tremendous year that saw the return of the show to television and a bunch of other great stuff. 2015 will see a lot more television show celebration. It is also a year with a different kind of celebration. 2015 marks ten years since the release of the Dukes of Hazzard movie. I know many people don't think the highest of Johnny, Seann, and Jessica's turn behind the wheel of the General Lee, but it holds a very special place in my heart. Throughout the year I will take a look back to 2005 and share my experiences being an extra in the movie and take a look at the large number of collectibles that came out in conjunction with the Gen'ral jumping to the big screen (see what I did there?)
The marketing team for Warner Bros. thankfully differentiated the movie memorabilia from the show by tweaking the classic show logo and adding a Z to the underline. Movie items are easily recognizable because of the logo.
In preparation for the release of the movie, WB launched a sweepstakes with several movie related websites. Winners were chosen from each participating site and received a prize pack. The grand prize winner received the same prizes as well as the Dukes of Hazzard Picnic Basket. The winner then sold it on ebay and I bought it. Let's take a look at the Yee Haw Sweepstakes Grand Prize.
This is a very nice Picnic Basket. It is the same one still sold by Picnic Time Inc. referred to as their Chardonnay Wine Basket. Mine has one addition though.
The Dukes movie "Z" logo is front and center on the basket. It is printed on a piece of high quality leather and fastened to the front.
The basket is approximately 9 inches by 17 inches.
It's just over a foot tall.
It features a very snazzy leather handle and straps.
Inside, the basket is lined with material that looks like it came straight from the Boar's Nest tablecloths.
It sure could carry a whole mess load of Daisy's fried chicken and potato salad. There's even a hidden pocket, though I don't have a funny Dukes reference for what to put in there.
Along with the basket, you get nice wine accessories.
Behind the glasses is the company that made the basket, Picnic Time Inc.'s logo. If you were to buy a new Chardonnay Wine Basket from them today, it would feature their new logo, not this one. Everything else, except the Dukes insignia, seems to be the same.
The wine glasses seem very nice. Picnic Time's website says they are hand blown. Fancy. They came with matching napkins delicately folded and placed inside them. I've never taken the napkins out of the glasses because I knew I couldn't get them back in the same way. This is actually only the third or so time I've had this basket out of the box. Without having it on display, I've just been keeping it to myself since I got it. I'm glad it finally has its time to shine.
Also supplied for your wine drinking pleasure is a stainless steel waiter-style corkscrew with wooden handle.
This thing could open a bottle pretty easily. The glasses and corkscrew all have a special place to be secured in the basket.
The Dukes of Hazzard Picnic Basket is a very special piece of the collection. Only a few sites, like JoBlo.com and Hollywood.com were involved with the contest. I'm not sure if there was just one grand prize given out, or a few. Regardless, there can only be a small number of the Dukes of Hazzard baskets out there, if there is more than just this one. I'm very glad the winner of the contest decided to take this thing to ebay. I fought it out with my fellow collectors and brought home my prize in 2009. It's been in a box ever since. That's a great piece.
The contest had one grand prize and several runner up prizes. The runner up prizes included a prize pack that features some cool items. All of these prizes also went with the picnic basket. First off in the pack was the movie Soundtrack. This is a standard in my collection. I'll devote a post to the soundtrack later this year as a part of the ten year celebration.
The smallest item in the prize pack is Cowboy Boot Bottle Opener Keychain. It's only around three inches tall. It has a tiny Z movie logo on it.
The heel of the boot has a metal strip the gives it its bottle opening ability. This boot keychain is black. I also have a brown one, but couldn't find it for the picture. I have a lot of Dukes stuff, and little things like this sometimes get put inside other things. One of these days I will have it all organized and displayed...one of these days.
Next up is the Dukes of Hazzard Plastic Beer Mug. I've never seen another one of these show up on ebay. Who ever won them must have used them. Mine has a slight imperfection on the R of the the word Boars. It has never had beer or anything else poured into it.
The opposite side has the movie logo. I remember drinking from these types of mugs when I was a kid, but it seems like I haven't really seen them in the past twenty years or so. Weird.
Next up is the Dukes of Hazzard Trucker Hat. It is a very standard trucker hat with the logo slapped on the front. Trucker hats were a big thing about ten yeas ago. Not so much these days.
The company that made it is Hyland Headwear. I talked a little about it in my blog post dedicated to different Dukes hat. I still get tons of emails about that post from people trying to buy my hats.
Sorry gang, they aren't for sale.
The next item in the pack is this Dukes t-shirt which has become one of my favorite t-shirts. I love how soft it is and how great the General looks on it. I have around five of them. Weird to think it was never sold in stores. You could only get this shirt from the contests. I wrote about it in a post about Dukes shirts. It is the only prize pack item that I actually use. I wear one of these shirts to several Dukes events and often on regular days.
It came in the rarer ringer variation as well. I only have one of these. It is equally as soft.
Another shirt in the prize pack was this, "The Boss" shirt. It features a picture of Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg giving the thumbs up. There was another shirt with Sorrell Booke in the center released a few years before this one. I thought it was interesting they redid it for the movie. This is they only one they treated like this.
Below the neck on the back has the movie logo on this shirt.
The prize pack also included the Women's Lettuce Edge Scoop Neck Cap Sleeve Tee. I guess that is as good a name for this shirt as I could have come up with. It comes in two varieties. I Love Bo Duke.
And I Love Luke Duke. The official contest rules state that only one shirt came per prize, so I guess it was random which cousin you got. I have both. These shirts are pretty small. The Bo is a size large and the Luke is a medium. The Duke lover who wears these would have to be smaller than Daisy (Catherine or Jessica) that's for sure.
The logo is on the back of these shirts as well.
They are made by a company called Kavio! which I never heard of. Apparently they are a wholesale provider. Makes sense.
Along with the women's shirt come these short shorts. The rules call them Daisy Duke shorts, but we all know they are Daisy Dukes. The front have the logo on the side.
And the back says Daisy Duke pretty big in the center. I wonder why these were never sold in stores. It seems to me they are the only officially licensed Daisy Dukes ever made. Glad I got 'em. I have two pairs. One for each shirt.
They were also made by Kavio!
All of the items below the picnic basket were given away in the runner up prize pack as well as the grand prize pack with the basket. The grand prize included everything along with the basket and this "Cooter's Gas Pump Mini Clock." I've never seen another pop up online. The mini clock was obviously previously marketed and WB just slapped the logo on it for the contest. It seems like a pretty generic novelty gift. But it has Dukes on it, and I'm glad to have it.
The bottom of the clock has the movie Cooter's Garage logo on it. They also showed signs in the movie that called it Cooter's Rebel Garage. We all know it was the Hazzard Garage, Cooter Davenport Proprietor on the show. I wonder why it says "est. 1968 on it. Maybe in movie lure, Cooter's dad or granddad was also named Cooter and started the garage. Sure, I like that.
The side of the mini clock base has the Z logo on it. This is a unique and strange piece, but very rare. I love unique, strange, and rare.
This is the first in a series of Dukes of Hazzard movie related posts. 2005 was a huge year for me. Let's hope 2015 is even bigger.
Heck of an item, this prize pack. I'm surprised you haven't posted more about it in the past. There are a lot of signature items here.
ReplyDeleteI had to keep something back for the ten year. It's all part of the plan.
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