Greenlight Collectibles Hazzard County Sheriff 1977 Plymouth Fury 1/18

Good news, Good News!  Rosco P. Coltrane has a new 1/18 scale patrol car to chase the 1/18 General Lee!  Greenlight Collectibles is a new name in Hazzard County, but they have an impressive line-up of Hollywood diecast replicas and they added Rosco's 1977 Plymouth Fury Hazzard County Sheriff Patrol Car to their lineup.  The Plymouth Fury and Dodge Monaco were very similar cars and were interchanged during the production of the Dukes of Hazzard. 

Greenlight Collectibles has an extensive list of Hollywood replicas that include titles such as The Walking Dead, the Fast and the Furious, A-Team, National Lampoon's Vacation, Supernatural, Smokey and the Bandit, The Terminator, Hunter, Starsky and Hutch, and Lost.  They've used this particular Plymouth Fury/Dodge Monaco casting in many different lines and I have to believe they created it with the intention of releasing the most popular version of the car, Rosco's police car.  If you want to be THE name in Hollywood replicas, you have to have THE license that's at the top of Hollywood cars, the Dukes of Hazzard.

This car is a part of Greenlight's Artisan Collection.  I don't have any experience with Greenlight as this is their first Hazzard car, but it seems like the Artisan Collection is the cream of their crop and includes many of their Hollywood cars.  Buckle up for safety, and let's take a look at Rosco's new car.

The first thing you might notice on the box is the lack of Dukes of Hazzard logos.  This car does not appear to be licensed by Warner Bros. and is not a piece of official Dukes of Hazzard merchandise.  I reached out to Greenlight before this car was released to discuss the car, but I never heard back.  I'm not sure if Greenlight released this car without Warner Bros. knowledge or approval or if they tried to get the license and were denied.  WB has been slowly releasing Dukes products lately so maybe they let Greenlight release this car to test the waters for future Dukes products.  I have no actual information as to the reasoning behind this car being unlicensed because I have not spoken to anyone at Greenlight.  If anyone at Greenlight would like to discuss this car, I'd love to talk.  

The front of the box features a picture of the product, the large cursive "Fury" and a country road scene.  Again, no Dukes of Hazzard logos or WB legal information.

The side of the box features the Fury design and another country road scene as well as a house that looks like it would fit more on the set of Gone with the Wind than in Hazzard County.

The top of the box is all green with the Artisan Collection logo.

The bottom of the box features Greenlight Collectible's legal information as well as legal information about Plymouth.  We are used to seeing legal information about Dukes and Warner Bros. here, but there is none.  It is mentioned that this is a limited edition.

Moving on the the actual car, this thing is a beauty.  We finally have a 1/18 representation of Rosco's patrol car that is accurate to what we see on the show.  I can see 1/18 scale Rosco P. Coltrane flying this car into a 1/18 scale pond trying to chase the 1/18 scale Duke Boys in 1/18 scale Hazzard County.

All the characteristics of Rosco's Patrol car are there; the Sheriff decals on the fenders and the badge decal on the doors. 

The hood and trunk do not open as they do on previous Rosoc cars from Ertl/Johnny Lightning/Auto World.

The front end is the most memorable feature of the car and Greenlight nailed it.  This is definitely Rosco's car.  This is what Bo and Luke saw all the time in their rear view mirror.  The front license plate is blank.  On the show there is a rebel flag, but we didn't really expect Greenlight to add that detail.

The back plate is also blank.  Greenlight didn't add the 83522 plate that Rosco's car wears or the 83502 seen on Enos and Cletus's car.

If Greenlight wanted to just make this a car police car that is inspired by the Dukes of Hazzard, they could not have included the Hazzard County decal below the badge on the doors.  That still would have made Dukes fans happy and maybe stayed off of WB's radar, but this is 100% a Dukes of Hazzard car with the decal's inclusion.

The steering wheel doesn't move the wheels like previous Rosco 1/18 cars.  There is a little detail to the instrument panel and petals.

A CB radio unit is present in the car.  That is a nice little touch.

I'm not totally thrilled with the light bar.  It looks mostly correct but is in no way as detailed as Auto World's light bar, which was their selling point.  The light bar has pegs on the bottom that are placed into holes on the roof.  It does not fit snug and falls out of place when the car is moved.  I feel like it could have been a little tighter in the holes and not fallen out so easily.  It might get damaged if you're not careful.

The antenna also isn't my favorite part.  It is just a chrome rod that goes in a hole on the hood.  It doesn't fit snug and could easily be lost.

When placed in the car it leans to the side and looks crooked.  But we all know Rosco was a reckless driver and might have bent it when he was in hot pursuit!

I would definitely recommend this car to fellow Dukes Collectors.  It's the best representation of Rosco's car in 1/18 scale.  It may not have all the details of previous releases, but it is the most accurate.  Maybe even get two because wherever Rosco went, Enos wasn't far behind.

Let's compare it to the former title holder of "best 1/18 Rosco car" Auto World's Hazzard County 1975 Dodge Monaco Police Car.  If only looking at the box, I would have to go with AW's release because of the Dukes of Hazzard material shown.  The Greenlight car doesn't match the theme.

But when comparing the actual cars, the Greenlight wins.  The AW car has opening hood and trunk, steerable wheels, and a super detailed light bar, but it is not the model car we associate with Rosco and the Hazzard County Sheriff Department.  Greenlight's car looks like the car we know from the Dukes of Hazzard.  There is a new king in town.  Greenlight's Hazzard County 1977 Plymouth Fury is the new title holder of "best 1/18 Rosco car."  Long live the king.

Greenlight's car is a darker than AW's.  It's almost off-white compared to the super bright white of  the AW.  The front end of Greenlight's car definitely says Rosco P. Coltrane. 

The badge decal is also more detailed on the Greennlight car, on the bottom.  It is brighter and shows off more of the intricacies of the design.

Auto Word's coupe de gras is their light bar.  They made it incredibly detailed and the Greenlight car can't compete with that.

Not being as detailed as the Auto World car is reflected in the price of the Greenlight.  The Greenlight car retails for much less than the Auto World.

I wanted to include this fun picture.  I took off the Greenlight light bar and placed the AW car on top for the above picture comparing the badge decals.  This shot reminds me of the times Enos followed the General Lee off a jump and landed on Rosco's car and he just kept on following them Dukes Boys.  I love it, I love it! Kew Kew Kew!

Speaking of the General Lee.  I had to bring out the reigning king of all 1/18 Dukes of Hazzard diecasts, Auto World's Silver Screen Machine 1/18 General Lee.  Since Greenlight's Hazzard County 1977 Plymouth Fury was recently crowned as king of the 1/18 Rosco cars I had to have a royal summit between the two.

These two cars look perfect together.  They would look better with the General Lee flying over Rosco's car but I wasn't in the mood for action photography and I didn't really feel like launching the AW Gen'ral through the air.

Rosco's car hasn't been accurately represented throughout all the eras of Dukes Collecting.  When the show was on the air, Ertl released a Rosco car in 1/64 that was a Pontiac Bonneville.  That same car was rereleased in both the silver and modern eras.  In Johnny Lightning's huge Dukes of Hazzard 1/64 line, Rosco's car was an incorrect earlier model Monaco.  It wasn't until after the line ended that JL released a correct Dodge Monaco Rosco car, shown on the top left above.  The first accurate diecast Rosco car came in the 1997 Racing Champions 1/144 line, one of my favorite toy lines in all of the Dukes toys.  Another accurate Rosco car came from an unusual place, the Netherlands.  A company from the Netherlands, called Neo Scale Models,  produced an incredibly accurate 1/43 car in 2013.  The car, that has become quite rare is one of the best representations of Rosco's car, and is in no way licensed or authorized.  I got these three cars out to compare them to the new release from Greenlight.

You know I love these scale pictures.  1/18, 1/43, 1/64, and 1/144.  Rosco would be proud.

The Neo 1/43 is similar in color to the Greenlight.  The AW 1/64 is a little brighter and the 1/144 is super bright white.  Finally the second most prominent car in Hazzard,  Rosco P. Coltrane's patrol car, is accurately represented in the most popular scales.  

Greenlight Collectibles has plans to release this car in 1/43 scale in June and I have to believe a 1/64 model isn't far off.  I hope this car's popularity shows WB that we Dukes fans are hungry for more Dukes products.  It seems WB is dipping a toe into the Dukes of Hazzard waters, but I want them to dive in!  Open the Dukes of Hazzard floodgates and give us more!  I would love to see Greenlight's take on the most popular Hollywood car of all time, the General Lee!

There are rumors that Greenlight has plans to produce Uncle Jesse's Pickup as there is a similar truck in their The Walking Dead line.  Hey Greenlight, how about creating Cooter's Tow Truck, Daisy's Dixie Jeep and, of course, Boss Hogg's Caddy.  We could be on the precipice of an entire 1/18 scale Hazzard County.  Bring it on Greenlight!  We are hungry for more Dukes of Hazzard products!

NYCC: The New York Comic Con 2014

Aside from all the wrestling and Hulk Hogan themed madness that made up NYCC for me, I had a blast being at the show.  New York Comic Con should be on every fan's list.  No matter what you love, you'll enjoy this huge comic con.  The numbers released by the event coordinators say nearly 150,000 people attended the show.  That's more than San Diego, crazy.

Having a press pass got me early access, but I didn't get there early enough to enjoy the floor without the crowds.  I did try to check out the awesome Batman 75th anniversary display...

But for some reason this is all the closer I was allowed to get.  I never did make it back during regular hours.  It was always mobbed with people.  Looked cool though.

Seeing everyone in line from the inside kind of made me think of a zombie scene.  I'm locked up inside the CDC and the monsters are trying to get in!  Maybe I watch too much Walking Dead.

Once the doors opened, the mob arrived.  There were a ton of people there.

I searched high and low, and this was the only Dukes I could find.  Not the biggest Dukes presence, but a pretty good price for this particular car.  Last year Hallmark unveiled the General Lee ornament at this event, but unfortunately nothing Dukes was announced this year.

There were some awesome displays at the show, like this huge Voltron.

Here's the mythical Wonder Bread He-Man, still a debated topic in the MOTU world.

This Mega-blocks Hot Wheels is pretty awesome.  Still want to find a lego Gen'ral.

There were great costumes at the show.  These X-Men did a great job.

There was some sort of Ghostbusters rally going on, I couldn't get close enough to hear what they were saying.  Whatever it was, I support them!

There was a huge area of the floor devoted to selling just Sons of Anarchy merchandise.  And people were eating it up. Gotta love the SAMCRO.

 The line for the Hulkster was beside other lines and they were all so big.

She had a great Bat-Girl costume.  The mask really fit her face nicely.  A lot of times the mask doesn't look right.

Kevin Conroy was right next to Hogan.  He is the voice of Batman in everything from the perfect Batman: The Animated Series from the '90s to the recent, also perfect, Arkham video games.  It was really cool hearing him recite classic Batman lines in person.

Next to him was the green Power Ranger.  I was never a fan of the Power Rangers, but he sure has a following.  He had a lot of fun running around his line and talking pictures and videos with his fans.
People in line to meet him sure had a blast.

I stopped these guys cause I noticed the Steelers Superman shirt.  The guy wearing it was surprised I picked up on it.  He was from the Bronx.  He should know the true Steelers fans would never let such a cool shirt slip by unnoticed.

In a recent comic story line, the Joker's face was cut off.  Gross.  There were several costumes devoted to the face-less Joker, but I think this guy was the best.  Great Job disgusting Joker.

A female Marty McFly...awesome.

Though a couple months late on the fad, this guy had a great idea.  We all know what would happen next if a Gremlin took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.  I bet this guy came up with the idea during the challenge's hayday in the late summer and kept thinking "don't fizzle out until after NYCC!"  Sorry it fizzled buddy, but great job nonetheless.

And the award for the most obscure Spider-Man costume goes to this guy!

Funny sign.

Artist Alley was in another portion of the convention center.  It took me a while to find it.  The crowd knew where it was.  It was as packed as the main floor.

Zombie Mario is a cool twist.  I like the bloody handprints and bloody mushroom.

Our pals at the FUBAR booth were busy every time I came by.  They know how to work a con.

These costumes are familiar DC characters with a Blackest Night story line twist.  Excellent job.

Guardians of the Galaxy was, of course, represented well with costumes.  It's hard to make the two foot tall Rocket Racoon look right, but this costume did a decent job.

Several different Catwomen here.

Great job Nightwing and Wonder Woman, not bad Superman.  Guy Garnder, well, ok.

These guys really nailed the cartoon TMNT look.  Ever vigilante Shredder is always ready to pose, even if he's walking down the steps.

I walked up the steps with this dude thinking he was a real cop.  Then I realized he looked just like Shane from the Walking Dead, and thought what a huge coincidence it was that this real cop looked just like a cop from TV.  Then I figured it out.  This guy did a great Shane.  I wonder when this guy figured out he looks like actor Jon Bernthal.  I saw another guy in a mediocre Star Lord costume, but the guy looked just like Chris Pratt.  I guess if you look like an actor, and that actor plays a role that can be costumed, you have to be that character.  Just like why I am prone to dress like Bo Duke.  My southern good looks.

People love dressing up like Deadpool and forming a giant group. It's comman ground at comic cons.

I think these costumes were officially made by either Hasbro or Rovio to promote the newly released Angry Birds Transformers game.  At least that's the quality shown in the costumes.  I just didn't see the usual assistant handing out info or anything you would expect from an official campaign. Regardless, they were amazing costumes and they got me talking about the new game: mission accomplished.

The Beast is just so happy in this picture.

There were a ton of people around this Bumblebee costume.  It was at the Chevy area, yeah Chevrolet rents space on the comic con floor.  I tried to grab a picture as I walked, but it seems it didn't focus.  It was really impressive.

In one of my San Diego Comic Con 2012 posts, I featured several pictures of Khaleesi costumes from Game of Thrones.  I spelled it wrong as Calisi.  Every so often, while checking my blog stats, I find that people are searching for the misspelled Calisi and find their way to my site.  There were some great costumes then, and this one is pretty great too.  Her dragon really makes the costume.  Now maybe people will find their way to this ol' blog no matter how they spell Danerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of Meereen, Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons's name.  

Don't know who this character is, but it sure is cool.

Giant inflatable Teen Titans were outside.

I took the subway back to a friend's apartment each day after the show.  Seeing costumed fans in New York City was awesome, but seeing New Yorkers' reaction to costumed fans was priceless.  This guy had a great simple Batman costume, and the people on the subway loved it.  You heard a lot of "Batmobile broke down?" and stuff like that. I love that this guy stayed in character the whole time.  Thanks subway Batman.

This is a cool promotion for the new season of Community.  It will premiere on Yahoo Screen.  The Franks and Beans family of blogs has some high hopes for Yahoo Screen as it will be the home for the upcoming relaunch of the live action Tick show.  Let's hope Community is a huge success and that leads into great things for the Tick!

The family who loves Gotham together, stays together.

This is a great obscure costume.  It is from one of Jeff's favorites Mystery Science Theater 3000.  I like the direction the guy took with the costume.  Very unique and artistic.

This bat creature was huge and had a a very large wingspan, but by the time I got my camera out he dropped his wings and leaned over.  Just the way it goes sometimes.

Another obligatory huge comic con crowd shot.

Meeting of the light-saber wielding Jedis.

Out in San Diego, one of my greatest discoveries was the Taco Truck parked behind the convention center.  Since then I have been tearing up fish tacos across the country.  So of course the next time I'm at a top tier comic con, I gotta find me some Taco Trucks.  Luckily, I didn't have to search very far as their were several food trucks right outside the main doors.  I went with Korilla BBQ and I'm glad I did.  It is a Korean BBQ truck that offered Kimchi beef tacos.

Kimchi was new to me,  It's a Korean fermented cabbage that was quite tasty.  They loaded me up with some hot sauce and I really enjoyed my lunch.  Another win for comic con taco trucks.

I'm not sure what this costume was supposed to be, but it was sucsussfully creepy.  Maybe it's some kind of slender man thing.

These costumes were good.

If you didn't know, I met Hulk Hogan at the event.  Like you didn't know.  The whole event was huge, overwhelming, and a heck of a lot of fun.  Again, I recommend that anyone who reads this blog make it to NYCC, it's a great time.