Thursday, May 24, 2012

The completed Dukes of Hazzard Bath Set


As promised, this blog is devoted to a particular item I just got in the mail.  It is the Dukes of Hazzard bath mitt.  Now that I have it, I have completed the collection of items that make up the Dukes of Hazzard Bath Set.  It took a long time to gather all of these items together. 



All of these items are more rare than standard Dukes things due to their nature.  If they were used with any frequency, they simply wouldn't last.  The mitt is probably the second rarest of the entire set.  It has great vibrant colors and is very soft.  When I saw it on eBay, I immediately bid and toward the end I upped my highest bid about three times.  No one outbid me.  Weird how that happens sometimes.  It is bigger than I expected.  I can fit my hand in it.  I thought it would be for kid-sized hands.  The mitt, along with all of the other items in the set, have no tags or markings beside the usual 1981 Warner Bros. copyright.  I wonder what company made these.  


I would rank the washcloth and hand towel as tied for the third rarest items in the set.  They both fetch a rather high number when they pop up on eBay, which is not very often.  The General Lee print on the washcloth is the same used on the mitt, mat, and bath towel.  There are also stars all over most of the items.  I added the washcloth to my collection about a year ago.  


The hand towel is a lot bigger than you might think.  It is just about the size of a regular bath towel. It seems to be printed like this so it can hang over a towel rack.  It is the only item to have a different print of the General.  Boss Hogg also makes an appearance on this one along with the three Duke cousins.  I got this from the same seller as the washcloth at the same time.  I don't think I have seen either on eBay since.   


The bath mat is, in my opinion, the rarest of the set.  It is one of the rarest Dukes items out there.  It has a rubber bottom to prevent slipping.  It features the same print of the General along with Bo and Luke in a bubble and Daisy in another.  It doesn't have any stars on it.  I have been doing this whole Dukes of Hazzard on eBay thing for coming up on 14 years now.  I have only seen this one on there.  At first I was outbid on it.  But the highest bidder later sold it to me.  I can't imagine there are too many more of these in the world.  It might be the rarest thing I own.  If an original owner bought it and used it even a few times, it would be susceptible to dry rot, fading, or a number of other fates.  Mine is in great condition, though a little less colorful than the other items.  


The bath towel is probably the least rare of the items.  I originally thought it was a beach towel.  There are two other Dukes beach towels.  One features Bo and Luke and the other has Daisy.  They are both printed portrait where this one is landscape.  After noticing that it has the same print and logo font as everything else in the bath set, I now classify it as a bath towel, and proclaim that there are only two Dukes of Hazzard beach towels.  You're welcome world.  The beach towels have a different logo font as well.  This one is big.  It is the size of a beach towel, but as noted it is not a beach towel.  No stars on this one either.  It pops on on eBay from time to time.  The sellers usually improperly advertise it as a beach towel.  We all know it is not. 


And then we have the famous Dukes of Hazzard General Lee soap.  You know Dukes was huge if they went to the trouble of creating a mold in the shape of a '69 Charger for kids to wash themselves with.  I have about three of these, all in varying conditions.  One is not sealed and it smells quite pleasant.  It has a good amount of detail for being soap.  The flag on the roof is a sticker.  There is an 01 molded on each door, and it really looks like a charger.  I have seen these go for a wide range on eBay.  A few years ago, a store display box with, I think, twelve soaps went on eBay.  It went for an insane amount.  I didn't win it.  Us Dukes Collectors are crazy.    


Given the rarity of these items, I can't imagine too many other people having a complete set like this.  If you do, please comment or contact me through email or something so we can discuss it.  I love the smaller collections within my whole Dukes collection.  And I love completing them even more.  Another example of this is my complete set of all 150 collector cards still sealed on the 1/144 Racing Champions Dukes of Hazzard cars.  I need to write a post about that crazy adventure.  

2 comments:

  1. The wash mitt looks like a ghost, or possibly the Hamburger Helper mascot.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I didn't notice that at all. You're right.

    ReplyDelete