Halloween 2013 - The Terminator

If you have been paying attention, you know that I love Halloween.  Check out a few of my past costumes. This year's costume is a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101, better known as the Terminator!

I found this great facial prosthetic online.  And basically everything else came from the basement, oddly enough.  The red eye lights up.  Not a bad Arnold Schwarzenegger, if I do say so myself.

The leather jacket and pants, boots and even the Nerf guns we painted were already here.  This costume came together great.  The bike belongs to my dad.  

The inspiration for this one goes to Natalie.  We were discussing different ideas, and she came up with the Terminator.  My mom put a lot of work into it, as she always does.  I couldn't have done it without them.

I went to a couple parties Saturday night, but not to any bars with contests.  I am doing that on Halloween night.  The costume was a huge hit everywhere I went.  Here I am with Chad's MC Hammer.

Yo!  Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad is a big costume combination this year.

Here is Kendra, she'll show up again later.

Sons of Anarchy and Dexter are other popular costumes.  I like picking something that I'm pretty sure no one else will be.  Or, as was the case last year with my Hollywood Hogan and in 2008 with my Joker nurse, I have the best version anyone will see.

At one point in the night, Kendra snuck up beside Chad while I was talking to him and blasted this trumpet in his ear.  It was hilarious.  I made them re-enact the scene for my camera.

I am going out again in costume this Thursday night, hope I win some contests!  Hasta la vista, Baby!

Merry Christmas Hazzard Style in 2014 - Hallmark Unveils a General Lee Ornament

Woohoo!! Another Dukes of Hazzard product announcement!  For the Christmas season NEXT YEAR, Hallmark will have a General Lee for us to hang on our trees.  The ornament was announced at the New York Comic Con last week (that Jeff attended but didn't make it to the Hallmark Booth.)  I have been hoping Hallmark would treat us Dukes fans.  The last few years, they released DeLoreans, Batmobiles, Ecto-1, KITT, and they even have the Family Truckster from Vacation available this year.  When we stumbled upon the extremely hard to find Hallmark Dukes of Hazzard Birthday Card earlier this year, I had hope that the General Lee would find its way to the Hallmark pegs.  Our wishes were answered.

The wheels and 01s looks very accurate.  Professor McGonagoll doesn't look too happy.

The barn busting motif seems to be a clever way to hide the flag.  At least they aren't plain old taking it off. This is only a prototype, but there is a little red, white, and blue visible up there.  The push bar looks great too.

I can't wait to get several of these cars.  Many Hallmark ornaments have light and sound features.  Even the Family Truckster plays "Holiday Road."  The theme, or more likely the Dixie Horn would be a great addition to this piece.  Time will tell.  The ornaments usually get released around early fall for the following Christmas season.  This time next year, we will be on the watch for this bad boy.

New Dukes Stuff - 10/23/2013

Got some new Dukes stuff, so let's dive in. 

I recently met two local Dukes fans that live pretty close by.  We met through my pal Jeremy of Pop Culture Connection.  The mother and daughter duo have been fans of the Dukes for a long time and I really enjoyed meeting with them and sharing stories.  We talked about different trips to Dukes events and meeting cast members.  It was great getting to know them and I look forward to meeting with them again.  They sold me a few nice items.  The first one is this unique poster.  I bought it already framed.  It is a nice fold out poster that may have come in a school magazine.  It is different from most as it is a school themed poster.  Maybe this hung in a classroom in 1981.  I wish I'd been in that classroom.

I also bought this View Master reel set.  I really have to figure out which ones I have and don't have.

My new friends went to Dukesfest 2005 in Nashville.  This is a Dukesfest I didn't attend because of CMT and the fact that I had just lost the huge CMT Dukes fan contest.  My new friends said they had a blast. They picked up this copy of the Loafer celebrating Dukesfest.  The loafer is described as Northeast Tennessee's only Arts & Entertainment weekly magazine.  It has a few Dukes related articles including one about Ben's loathing of the Dukes movie.  Good memories.

EDIT: Our good friend, Jim Wilson reminded me that Dukesfest 2005 was in Bristol, not Nashville.  Whoops.

Speaking of the Dukes movie.  I picked up yet another copy of it.

This is the same release of both the movie and the horrid prequel that I already have, but it was really cheap and had a different cardboard slip cover than I have seen before.

The back of the slip cover and the DVD box are basically the same.  Wonder why this cover didn't come on most of the releases.

This is a cool Golden Era wallet.  I got it on ebay where the market was totally flooded with them recently. A single seller must have found a case of them or something cause there have been so many on there.  I waited it out and got it for about half the price of what the first few went for.  Glad I didn't jump on one right away
Both the wallet and package are in perfect condition.  There is nothing on the back of the package.

The wallet is made by Adam Joseph Industries, Inc. which seems also to have made wallets, stamps, and other toys with the Star Wars license.  That's all I could find online.

And finally we have this gem.  New item alert!  This is the brand new Dukes of Hazzard coffee mug.  Shown here is the front and back.  I am not a coffee drinker, but I did buy an extra to actually use.  I've already used it, and it was the best chocolate cookies and milk I ever had.

Made by Silver Buffalo, the same company that made the mysterious Dukes of Hazzard Pint Glasses, this item is actually available for purchase.  In that post about the pint glasses, I shared a prototype picture of this mug.  It only changed slightly as the Dukes logo is bigger and the General Lee text is smaller.  I'm glad this item made it through to production.  It is inexpensive online, so every Dukes fan out there should get one. They make great gifts.

New Info on the upcoming Hazzard County Pursuit Police Car from Auto World

Good news, good news!!  I have some insider information from Auto World that I can share about a new 1/18 Rosco car that will be called the Hazzard County Pursuit Police Car.  I love it, I love it, keew keew keew.  This will be the third 1/18 version of Rosco, Enos, and Cletus's car.  With so many versions of the General Lee available, I welcome different Hazzard Police cars.  Here are the details I have:

• The new release is being marketed as a Hazzard County Pursuit Police Car.
• The car will be a 1975 Dodge Monaco, where as the other releases were 1974s.
• It will have the correct foil looking finish for the Hazzard County markings.
• It will come with the side molding.
• The car will include a very accurate Aerodynic light bar, that should include the proper red, blue and amber sections with the side clearance lights as well.
• It will have a highly detailed interior with carpet, headliner, and proper finishes.
• It will include the correct Hazzard County license plate.
• The car will have the correct police special wheels and hubcaps.
• I was told the car will have the level of detail expected for a new AW release.

Auto World is very excited about this release and so am I.  There are no pictures to share yet, but I will post them as soon as I get them.  

I'm gone!

Another Holy Grail: The Dukes of Hazzard Sidewalk Bicycle

It's been a good few weeks as far as Holy Grails go.  Here is another super rare Dukes item that I just added to the collection:  The 1982 Dukes of Hazzard Sidewalk Bicycle from Hedstrom. 

The bike shows a little wear, but is generally in great condition.  (It took all I had not to write out -in General Lee condition- there.)  The name Sidewalk Bike means, I guess, that it is meant to be used on the sidewalk, not the road.  It could have had training wheels attached, but they did not come with the bike.

If the 01s didn't give it away, the plate on the front told the world this bike's rider is fan of the Dukes of Hazzard.

The makers of the bikes, trikes, big wheels, and pedal cars just couldn't get the 01s down during the golden era.  On all of these ride-ons, the font is wrong, and the numbers are blue, not black.  Weird.

The General Lee font, on the other hand, is surprisingly close to being correct.  Again, weird.

The plate has the standard WB copyright information on it.  Unlike a majority of the Golden Era merchandise, this item was released in '82, not '81.  I was released in '81.

The bike is made by Hedstrom.  I couldn't find out online if this is the same company that is today called Hedstrom and was founded in 1913 as Eagle  Rubber from Ohio specializing in bouncy balls and such, or if the company is related to the co-founder of Indian Motocycles, whose last name is Hedstrom.  Maybe the company was just named after him.

Movie Bo Duke likes the connection to Indian Motocycles.

Not all the stickers are perfect, but they still look good.

A coaster brake is the name of the type of brake that stops the bicycle by pushing the pedal backwards.

It is a little smaller than the modern Wal-Mart version of the DK General Lee BMX bike.  I like how much bigger the 01s are on the sidewalk bike, but I guess you would need giant plastic plates on the newer one to achieve this, and they would probably get in the way.  These two bikes look great displayed together.  It is really cool that these two items were released thirty years apart.  It's a complete circle of Dukes of Hazzard collecting.

New Images and Details on Auto World's 1/18 Daisy's Plymouth

A friend on the inside sent me over these pics of the new 1/18 that Auto World is releasing soon.  Daisy's yellow Plymouth is finally coming our way.  Auto World acknowledges that the black stripes are incorrect on this pre-production sample and they are working to correct the issue.  No release date is set, but hopefully it should be soon.  

I love the FCH-630 plate.  Great detail from the show.

This car looks great and I can't wait to get it.  I'll have to stage another race like I did when I got Cooter's Camaro.  This car will have the same amount of detail as Auto World's General Lee.  That thing is amazing, and incredibly popular.  Auto World has a little more Dukes love up their sleeve.  Stay tuned for more....

New Dukes Stuff - 10/3/2013 - Two Holy Grail Items!!

Holy Grail

 noun

: something that you want very much but that is very hard to get or achieve

Thank you http://www.merriam-webster.com.  Besides traveling up and down the east coast these last few weeks with Cooter and looking for Hulk Hogan, I have been buying some great new Dukes items, two of which are extremely hard to find, or Holy Grails.  Let's take a look at the latest haul.  

Holy Grail #1: The Dukes of Hazzard shelf.  Why was this thing created?  They made some crazy things with the Dukes license back then.  Not every show on TV had bath soap, tennis shoes, and baby onesies.  Heck, popular shows that had similar appeal like Knight Rider and A-Team didn't have nearly as many items produced. This shelf boggles my mind.  It's like they thought "we have so many crazy Dukes things on the market, we might as well create a place to put them all."

Or perhaps they thought "In about thirty or so years, some dude is going to obsessively collect all this stuff and he will need a unit to display them."  Little did they know that this item created to have other things put on it will be more sought after than most of the very items it was created to display.  See?  Mind boggling!  I have been chasing one of these for a long time.  They are so rare.  This one isn't in perfect shape, but I'm just happy to have it.  It is made up of three metal shelves and two rails.  The images used on the shelves is the same as the one used on the classic trash can.

They made a Dukes trash can!!!  Man, they put the Dukes on everything!

This is another obscure item.  Over the last few years, 1/64 General Lees started popping up at variety stores and Tractor Supply stores.  I guess this is a shipping package for those cars.

It has a cool little picture of the General Lee and a bar code.  8+ seems a little old to be the minimum for the car.  I know I had them as young as three.  Today's toddlers can handle a General Lee.

Case in point, here's my little cousin Ben, who loves the General Lee I gave him.

It came with this nice RC2 shipping box and the side of the plastic has this Ertl Collectibles display.  I have no idea what the $18.88 means.  No one would try to sell a 1/64 General Lee for 19 bucks, except goofballs on ebay.

Speaking of toddlers and onesies, I got another Dukes onesie.  It's the same one I got back in March but this one is out of the box.  Cool, odd addition to the collection.

I'm not big on buying things that are autographed, but I couldn't pass this item up.  Sorrell Booke passed away before the resurgence of the Dukes.  He would have loved to see how big it became again.  I think this item is so cool because it's a collectible autograph by Boss Hogg.  This has to be extremely rare.

And I got some Dukes slipper socks...two different kinds.  I doubt there are two different A-Team slipper socks.

The first pair has a pretty good picture of Bo and Luke and a horrible General Lee.

The second has an even worse General Lee.  Weird that I bought these from two different sellers in the same week.

This very obscure item popped up with a low buy-it-now and I pounced on it.  It's a Japanese release of John Schneider's Now Or Never album.

I'm not sure if this outer plastic bag is original or if the album was in the sleeve at one time.  I'm not unsealing the bag.  It is in perfect condition and was shipped from Japan.

These are a few store display pieces for the release of the Dukes movie on DVD.  I have one each of these pieces, but got this whole lot for $.99.  Couldn't pass that up.

I think the real gem is these paper instructions explaining how to put these things up.  They have the Dukes and WB logo on them.  I can't imagine many of these survived.  Not bad for less than a dollar.

The second Holy Grail is one of the toughest Dukes items to find.  And I got one in excellent condition.  This is the Dukes of Hazzard Child's Raincoat.  It has this cartoon like version of one of my favorite Dukes pictures on the back.

The front has a small General Lee Dukes logo on the front.  This one could not have ever been worn.  It looks brand new.

The graphics looks perfect.  The zipper and strings are great.  I can't believe I added this to the collection.

Even the tag is swell.  Swellwear made this coat.  A quick google search tells me they also made other kid's raincoats back in the day, but I can't find much on them now.  The tag is in a sort of plastic wrap.  This thing is perfect and certainly a crown jewel of my collection.

I have a couple of other Holy Grails to blog about soon.  Stay tuned!