The complete Johnny Lightning Dukes of Hazzard line: Series 4

I sort of got away from the Johnny Lightning line recently.  We'll pick up where we left off with Series 4.

I've said it before on this blog, I hate "the Beginning" movie.  I wish it didn't exist.  There was an old line of clothing from 2003 by Hang Ten that ripped off the Dukes.  Their models did a better job as Bo, Luke, and Daisy than the ones in this movie.  

Well, ok, they are both equally bad.  

But, like it or not, "the Beginning" happened and we have to live with it.  The first car in this series has the General from this movie and, therefore, the package reflects the design similar to the 2005 movie as well as the DVD for this movie.

All of the other cars in the series are from the show and feature the design we are used too.  The package is similar to series 3.  

The "add in" with this series are small cardboard boxes that, I guess, the cars are supposed to fit into.  They feature different pictures and art on each side.  "The Beginning" one has artwork from that movie and the other five are all the same except they have the name of each individual car on them.  Most of the cars in the series do not fit into the boxes.  

I don't like "the Beginning," but this is a great General Lee.  If you don't count the package, this is the perfect representation of the 2005 movie General Lee.  In the Cooter's garage escape scene and the trip to Atlanta, this is how the General looked.  The Atlanta chase scene and beyond scuffed up the General horrendously.  What makes this version different than the General we got in Series 3 is also the main difference between the movie and TV Generals, the white letters on the tires.  There are other differences, like the passenger side- view mirror, the interior, and the font on the General Lee text, but those details are too fine to be reflected in 1/64 scale.  To me, this is the movie car.  And they did a great job on it.
 

The second car in the series is the second Zinger in the line.  Daisy's Road Runner got the exaggerated hot rod treatment this time.

Everyone's favorite two-part episode is represented in this series.  Carnival Of Thrills was the season premiere of season 3.  The most memorable part of the episode is the fist fight between Bo and Luke.  Only a woman could come between the Duke Boys.  There were several stunt cars shown at the Carnival.  One of them was this Chevy Vega.  This is another out-of-the-box car that you would never expect in diecast.  Another tip of the hat to you, Johnny Lightning.

They got a lot out of the police cars in this line.  This one is the State Police car.  It doesn't specifically say Georgia, but no one ever really did.

Series 2 had Boss Hogg's Grey Ghost Camaro from the episode "Days of Shine and Roses."  Boss raced against Uncle Jesse's Black Tillie II.  It's a rough black Mustang.  The original Black Tillie was a '40s hot rod.  It is mentioned several times that Jesse loved black race cars, the first time being all the way back in episode 5 "High Octane."

This #44 Buick National race car is also from a two-part episode.  "Undercover Dukes" found Bo and Luke working for the U. S. Government to infiltrate and racketeering organization,  run by a race team owner named Carver.  The boys drive his car on the circuit.

Another indication that JL did their homework are the racing decals on this car.  The zXz, wesco, and safety belt insignias are straight from the episode.  An addition is the Hazzard County sign which is always welcome.  I thought that mine was defective because one head light is was painted and one wasn't, but it is the same in the screenshot from the episode.  Another slam dunk by JL.

NEW Dukes of Hazzard Action Figure are coming!

Oh man this is exciting!  Figures Toy Company has announced they are making new Dukes action figures.  Series 1 will feature Bo, Luke, Rosco, and Boss Hogg.  Series 2 will include Daisy, Uncle Jesse, Cooter, Enos and Cletus.  It also says Series 2 will have "& more."  Who ever else will be in series two is a mystery.  Who else could it be?

Figures Toy Company makes the retro action figures for lines like KISS, Happy Days, and they have some new Batman figures coming out.  They are similar to the classic Mego figures.  They have fabric clothes and highly poseable bodies.  Their website says the Dukes will come in 8 inch and 12 inch.  I am trying to get more info and will have it all here.  I can't wait.

Figures Toy Co. Dukes of Hazzard Action Figures Series 1

Dukes of Hazzard Fan Fair in Nashville June 8 - Swap Meet

The Dukes Fan Fair is coming up and I am super excited for it.  The entire living cast will be there.  And it will be held at Cooter's Place Nashville.  I haven't been to the Nashville location.  The last time I was in Nashville, I was with Cooter, but this Cooter's Place wasn't open yet.  I can't wait to be in the presence of so many Dukes collectibles!  Cooter's Place has some very exciting thing happening on Twitter to promote the event. I hear rumors about contest with exclusive prizes.  Join in on the fun by following @CootersPlace on Twitter.

Along with the stars, cars, concerts and all the other fun, there will be a new aspect to the event.  They are hosting a swap meet at Fan Fair.  This kind of thing is right up my alley.  You can buy and sell car parts and Dukes items.  And yours truly, the Dukes Collector, is involved with the planning of the event.  We had to set up some rules on what can be sold so nothing interferes with the merchandise that Cooter's Place and the other stars will have for sale.  So anyone is welcome to sell any Golden Era (it's catching on) only items and any car parts.  No Silver or Modern Era, homemade items, or T-Shirts are allowed to be sold.  The rules will be enforced and anyone breaking them will be asked to leave the event.  I will definitely be scouring the area to buy as much as I can.  Perhaps we can call this area of the event DukesBay.  Man, I come up with some good ones.  If you have any questions or would like to set up at the event, you can email me at lafre@atlanticbb.net.  This is going to be a great event!

Jackpot! I know have all three 1/18 White Lightnings - 1/18 Double Zero WL

Sure is good to have friends in this hobby.

I was able to nab the last remaining 1/18 Dukes of Hazzard White Lightning from Johnny Lightning.  This is the WL version of the Double Zero.  And the best part, I got it for the price of a standard 1/18.

Like the Rosco Patrol Car and Cooter's Camaro, the Double Zero (I refuse to call it the incorrect name of "Cooter's Ford Mustang")  has white tires and gold rims.  I am not aware of any other Johnny Lightning Dukes cars in the pipeline.  Auto World is making a Daiy's Plymouth, but they usually don't make chase variants.  I'm surprised JL hasn't released a WL 1/18 General Lee.  I'm hoping one comes along one of these days.

The complete Johnny Lightning Dukes of Hazzard line: Series 3

Our look at the Johnny Lightning Dukes of Hazzard line continues with series 3.

Released in later 2007, the package design did not differ much from Series 2.  It kept the standard Modern Era design.

This series is also limited to 10,000 and has stickers this time, where the last two sets had magnets

.  

The first car in the series is Molly Hargrove's Plymouth Road Runner.  It appeared in the episode "Bird's Gotta Fly."  In that episode, Daisy is offered a spot on the NASCAR circuit to race her old friend Molly's car.  The episode is different from the normal episodes because it involves Daisy struggling with the idea of leaving the farm.  She races the car once, but in the end decides Hazzard is her home and she can't leave.

I am not sure what the actual sponsor's decals said in the episode, but the fact the JL added Cooter's Garage to the car maket is one of those little additions that make this line great.  It is weird that this car has no windshield.

Number 2 in this series is the General Lee.  By Series 3, they nailed the General.  This is the best representation of the "flying orange clunker car" in 1/64 scale.  The wheels are right, the push bar is there.  This is the car we've been looking for.  In future series, they just made different versions, and they did not top this one.  

Uncle Jesse finally got some 1/64 love in this series.  His white pickup, which was a staple of the series, had never been made in 1/64 before.  It did appear in the 1/144 line.  On the show, Jesse was a Ford man.  His truck differed from time to time being a '74 to '77 F150.  This one is a Chevy.  At least it's white.  I really don't know why the interior is blue.

Enos' also got his first vehicle in this series.  And it's not a standard police car (yet).  This is the race car he drove against the General in the season 1 episode Luke's Love Story.  Perhaps Enos is a Hines Ward fan, like us all, and chose the number 86 for that reason.  For every series of this line, I bought un-opened cases so I had a shot at finding a White Lightning.  This is the only one I got.  I'm not complaining, because I've talked to other collectors who did the same and didn't get a single one.

JL started making surrounding County's patrol cars.  The first was The Finchburg County Sheriff's car.  This is from the episode Baa, Baa White Sheep where we discover Boss Jefferson Davis Hogg had a good twin who wore all black named Abraham Lincoln Hogg.  Love the Dukes.

The famous Double Zero also made its debut in this series.  By now we all know that this car never actually appeared on the show.  It was in the 1997 reunion movie.  It is billed as the only car to ever beat the General in an overland race.  It had been released previously in 1/64 by Ertl/Racing Champions as well as 1/18 scale.  The past 1/64s ranged from pretty good to laughable.  This one is great.  This car is another effort by JL to right the wrongs of diecast past.  This is the best 00 Mustang in this scale.

The stickers that came with each car are, again, not car specific.  But they are very nice additions to the collection.

As I mentioned before, the White Lightning versions of these cars go for unreasonably high prices.  I simply can't afford to collect them.  The previous WL versions of the General in Series 1 and 2 were just the same car with white tires.  I guess they decided to mix it up and Series 3 saw an all white General. I had to get this one.  It is so cool to see the General Lee done like this.  Early auctions and reports called this the Ghost of the General Lee, but it quickly became clear that it was a WL.  The Ghost was yet to come.  See you soon for Series 4.

Hazzard Hot Rods 2013 - Cooter's Camaro and Double Zero

The Duke Boys might have a little trouble dealing with these two bad boys.  I felt creative and wanted these pictures online.  My photoshop skills aren't too bad.  I really think Ben should do a new Camaro up like that.  He could drive to signing events in style.  I was thinking about doing a new Challenger in the General's uniform, but we've seen that before and it looks close but just not right.

New Dukes Stuff - 4/1/2013 - Different Versions of Dukes Items

My latest acquisitions of Dukes of Hazzard vestiges include items that are new to the assemblage, but I have similar versions of each specimen.  Thank you thesaurus.com.

This beat up little Dukes book by Barbara Clayman has been read hundreds of times by students in South Ripley Elementary School in Versailles, Indiana.  I have never seen this book before and it may only  have been  published for school libraries.

 
It was published by Creative Education.  It must have been in the library systems recently enough to have been bar-coded.

The back cover includes the record of the book being checked out from 1984 to 1991.  Google tells me that this is the only book by Barbara Clayman.

It includes stories and pictures about the show.

It is the same kind of book as Roger Elwood's Dukes of Hazzard Scrapbook.

This is a Dukes cereal bowl.

It only has the artwork on the inside, and the rest is plain white.  It would be a lot of fun to eat a bowl of cereal from this not knowing what kind of bowl it was and to discover the General Lee once you finished,  though that will never happen with this particular bowl.

It is similar to the standard Dukes bowl that we all have.  This one is part of a set with a mug.  I probably have five of those bowls in the collection.

There are several different Dukes toy guitars.  They come in two shapes, the folk guitar and the electric guitar.  I didn't have an electric version until now.  This one is excellent shape and all of the stickers look great.

My original folk guitar was a staple of my childhood.  I played with that thing all the time.  You'd think I would be somewhat musically inclined because of it.  I'm not.  At all.  When I got this new one, I was  surprised by how much smaller it was than the folk version.  

The guitars share the same artwork, though only the electric has the 01 sticker.  There are different color variations to both guitars.  I have both folk guitars which come in orange and white.  With the addition of the white electric, I just need the black electric and I will have them all.  

This is an odd item that I didn't know existed.  It is the Ben Cooper Bo Duke costume, but it comes on a cardboard hanger rather that the standard box.  I am guessing this was released after the the show's popularity declined.  It seems like a discount version of the costume.

Somewhere along the way, it was offered for only fifty cents.  It's funny to think about items like this that were sold at retail, resold at a huge discount, put away for years and years and then reresold on ebay for way more than original retail.  The Ben Cooper logo is on the hang tag.

I thought I had all of the versions of this costume before I found this one.  The super hero box is a generic Ben Cooper box that the costume came in first.  They later released it in a franchise specific rebel flag box.  Of course we all remember Bo wearing a shirt that had a sort of rebel flag, the words "The Dukes of Hazzard," and a picture of his car on it.  He wore that all the time!  It's strange that they did not release a Luke costume.  The mask on the new one is a little flat and it looks more like He-Man than John Schneider.

This is an item I am very excited about, but no one seems to share my excitement.  It is the Dukes movie on VHS.  On December 6, 2005 when the movie was released on home video, I was at Wal-Mart at midnight. I bought every version they had.  I bought the unrated DVD in widescreen and fullscreen, I bought the rated version in fullscreen (weird that it didn't come in widescreen), I bought the PSP UMD version, and I bought the HD-DVD version.  I  never owned a PSP rr an HD-DVD player, I just wanted every version of it.  I'm still confused why it was never released on Blu-ray.  But that day in Wal-Mart, there was no VHS version. DVD had taken over by then and I thought Warner Brothers bypassed the format for this release.

In the eight years since the movie came out (WOW it's been eight years!) I have never come across it in VHS.  And believe me, I've looked.  I happened across this copy on ebay for three bucks including shipping.  I couldn't "buy it now" fast enough.  The slip cover and tape are in great shape.

It is a rental from Hollywood Video.  Maybe the VHS version was only released to rental places, but who was renting VHS in 2005?  Netflix and the like really did kill the major video rental chains.  Every once in a while you stumble across a Blockbuster and you get an eerie feeling like there is something really illegal going on in the back of that store.  Why is it still open?  I want to dig up a VCR so I can watch this tape.  But I'll probably just watch the DVRed version that has been on my cable box since that last time HBO showed the movie.  No you can't delete it, it's not taking up that much space!!