New Dukes Stuff - 8/7/2013 - Dukes Playset

Slow goings here at Dukes Collector HQ.  But that's the way summer goes.  The new items I have to share are some nice ones.

First off is a promotional shirt from the '05 movie.  I really don't know much about Rhino Linings involvement, or maybe I forgot.  But they had something to do with the movie, and released a shirt to celebrate.  It uses an image that was on all kinds of promo material for the movie.

The back has an alright 01 on it.  It isn't perfect and is blue, not black.  Apparently there was a General Lee tour.  There were a lot of Dukes things going on in the Summer of 2005.  I guess I was oblivious to some.  I was sure a huge part of others.  This is a cool shirt to add to the collection.

Sheila Forsythe was in charge of the Dukes Family Festival in Hagerstown, MD in June.  She did a great job and it was a  fun event.  I helped spread the word a little and she took very good care of me while there. She sent me a letter of thanks and a poster from the event.  This was a very nice gesture and I am proud to add it to the collection.  Thanks Sheila!

I have been hunting for this Dukes of Hazzard Playset still in the box for some time.  It is a staple piece for any Dukes collection, and it should be in mine.  I finally found it a good price.

As labeled, it contains and official (Boss Hogg) Dukes hat, a plastic General Lee, a Dukes belt with buckle, a CB unit, and a photo.  It also comes with an ID card and a CB talk reference card.

The set is made by HG.  They made puzzles and playsets for many popular licences in the '70s and '80s including CHiPS, Godzilla, Superfriends, Voltron, Barbie, and others.

I already have this set in its mail-away form.  It shares the same box with the Barbie set.

Here is everything in and out of the box.  The mail-away seems to come with a couple more items.  This plastic rebel flag isn't in the packaged set, and there are also plastic handcuffs that I didn't include in the picture.

The General Lee in the set is a pretty nice toy.  It looks much more like it should compared to the Mego version.  But, oddly enough, just like the above pictured shirt, it has blue 01s.

It doesn't have a push bar, but it is a very nice General.

The CB Talk reference card is interesting.  I've never heard of a "Plain Brown Wrapper" or an "Egg Beater."

Now let's talk about this picture.  First it's obvious that these are all prototype items.  The General looks horrible.  The logos on the belt and CB are very different than the items we got.  The same goes for the hat. But what is up with the kid's shirt?  I can't even explain.  What are they going for here?  I don't remember any shirt like that on the show.  Very odd choice.  This kid looks like he is around five years old.  This set came out around '81 so the picture was taken around '80 or so.  The kid was a perfect age to really love the Dukes.  I wonder if he still does.  Wouldn't it be cool to know you were on a Dukes item?  I would love to talk to this guy.  He'd be in his mid to late 30s now.  Let's find him.

Dukes Family Festival pictures from Hagerstown, MD

Another great Dukes event wrapped up this past weekend.  And I was there to take all kinds of pics.

Hagerstown, MD became Hazardtown for an event that included five cast members, loads of General Lees, a ton of Dukes fans, and an all around great time.

Sure the lines were long, but not that long.  Everyone could get each cast member's autograph and still have time to take in the other attractions.

Ben signed for a lot of Dukes fans.  It is becoming increasingly more difficult to get Ol' Cooter's autograph at bigger events.  These fans were happy.

James Best, with his lovely wife Dorothy, greeted fans like only Rosco can.  Kew kew kew.

Cletus and Enos also signed autographs for the fans.  Maybe someone asked Sonny to pose like Superman.  He nailed it.

Daisy also greeted her devoted fans at the event.

This guy cut animals out of wood with his chainsaw for quite sometime.  Notice he had ear protection on.  Unfortunately, all of us around him did not.

The wrestling was fun and a lot of fans enjoyed it.

There were a bunch of cars there.  Dukes and non-Dukes alike.

Here's a General Lee and a Torino from "One Armed Bandits."  It's not from Starsky and Hutch. I don't see a police light on top.

I had a set of Dukes cornhole boards once --- similar to these.  Wish mine had matching cars though.

Very cool idea.  If you're going to trailer your General, might as well paint up the truck to match.

This is just a great picture.

More tribute trucks than I've ever seen.

Uncle Jesse is rolling on 20s.

Man, I gotta get myself a General Lee golf cart.

We saw this awesome General Lee pedal car last year at Hazzard Homecoming.  Now it has an equally awesome gas pump to go with it.

This is the Bill family.  They live close to me.  I met several people from around here.  It was great to have a Dukes event so close to home.

These guys were there as well.

Not many people picked up on the fact that this is a movie Bo costume.  But some did.  And I like those people.

This impressive Dukes diaper belongs to fellow DukesCollector Craig Larson, as well as the wee little Dukes fan.  I've talked to Craig on email since the beginning of DukesCollector.com and it was great to actually meet him and his family in person.  They had a very long drive to the event.  I'm really glad they came.

There were monster trucks there promoting an upcoming Monster Jam.  Those things are really big.

Dave and Melissa DeWitt had the mobile museum there and it was, of course, a huge hit once again.

Dave was like a celebrity, even getting interviewed by the event announcer.  I hung out with Dave, his wife, and his wonderful group of friends for a majority of the event.  They are great people and I think I made some real friends.  I'm excited to hang out with these guys in the future.

"Silly" Billy Lambing is a Dukes celebrity.  He was on the reality show "Beauty and the Geek" way back when reality TV was real.  It was a lot of fun catching up with Bill and swapping Dukes stories.  Unfortunately, Bill couldn't stay too long at the show, but we'll get together again soon and have more fun, I'm sure.

The stunt show didn't go as planned.

The General Lee did do some cool burn outs, but unfortunately the engine seized and it wasn't able to make the jump.

But the Carnival of Thrills cars did not disappoint!  They "skied" this car around the entire track.  It even made the turns on two wheels.  It was very impressive.  One of the carnival cars did make the jump, but I was talking Dukes with Craig and missed it.  It got some good ewws and ahhs though.

And what Dukes event is complete without a concert by Cooter's Garage Band?  They performed another awesome show.  And I'm loving Google's new auto-animation feature.

The crew at the Hagerstown Speedway, led by Ms. Sheila Forsythe, did an excellant job planning Dukes Family Festival.  It was a great success and a lot of fun.  I heard many fans say they hope the Dukes come back to Hagerstown next year.  I would love to see that happen.