It's time once again for one of everyone's favorite "New Dukes Stuff" articles! This one is a doozy. I considered maybe splitting it up into two posts so I had another blog in the chamber, but just like at my third birthday party, I want to get to the toys now! (My mom tells me I opened everything as soon as the guests arrived, but then cried after cake when there was nothing to open.)
Right off the bat is a unique item. This is a giant Nike gym bag. Oh yeah, it just happens to have a Dukes of Hazzard logo embroidered on top.
This gym bag was given to crew members that worked on the Dukes of Hazzard movie. This is a great piece. It is very big and quite useful. I happened to take it to the
toy show I went to recently with John and Tom. It proved to be the perfect bag for the occasion. I probably won't use it too often, but if a Dukes trip calls for a duffel bag, I've got one ready.
The logo is the same pattern as the
Columbia Crew Coat I have. That one was all red and this one has red and yellow. This is a unique and rare item that I'm very happy to add to the collection.
Next up is a pair of odd little items. These are Dukes marbles. I picked these up at the recent toy show from Toy Seller Extraordinaire Jeremy of
Pop Culture Connection. Jeff bought me one of these before and I featured it on a
really early blog post back in 2012. I don't know where these odd little balls come from. I see them on ebay from time to time. They aren't licensed. Someone must have just printed a bunch of these up once and they spread around. Weird.
Also from Jeremy is this Dukes slide puzzle. He had it in pile of old toys and I bet him that if I could complete the puzzle fast I could have it for half price. I didn't get the last line done, but I still got it cheap. I have several of these, but I like items like this for trading purposes.
I also have several versions of the Dukes of Hazzard Card Game from the makers of Uno. But when I saw this one at the toy show, I had to get it. This one is in shrink wrap, where my other new in package versions are on a bubble card.
The other versions don't show the back of the box because of the bubble card. Still wondering why the General Lee doesn't have its own card.
The original price for this set was $4.99. Seems expensive for 1981.
Next is the Chipmunks Go Hollywood album. I also already have this piece, but it is in pretty bad shape. I don't see it on ebay often, so I jumped on this one.
The back of my
previous album had quite a bit of damage to it. This one is nearly perfect.
Of course the reason I have this in my Dukes of Hazzad collection is because the annoying little singers cover Waylon's Good Ol' Boys. You can listen to it on my
big record blog post. I wish the General Lee made it on the front cover, but it still looks good on the back.
Next up is a children's belt still on the package.
Even though it is slightly damaged, I really like the package. $5 seems more appropriate in 1981 dollars for this item over the card game.
The star of the belt is the General Lee. This tiny little buckle shows the Gen'ral in mid flight.
I bought these odd Dukes T-Shirts from a fellow collector. I'm not sure what to make of them. They are still in their original packaging. I don't think I've ever seen them before.
The seller said they are from 2005. For the most part, all of the merchandise released that year was under the movie banner. These are obviously show products. The first one has a tag calling it the "Duke's Sublimation tee" which isn't all that accurate. I would love to see what the shirt actually looks like, but I'm not taking it out of the package. It seems to be that really thin soft material. I love that material.
It has a Dukes tag on it. The design seems to be a road map behind Bo and Luke. I wonder why I've never seen another. Maybe these a prototypes.
The other shirt says "Cooter's Body Shop" and also has Dukes tags.
This tag doesn't help unravel the mystery either.
The shirt has decorative jewels around the logo and on the General. I've never seen anything with "Cooter's Body Shop" on it.
Below the logo, and on the other side of the fold, is the phrase, "We'll work on your body for ya!" which I'm not sure is supposed to be suggestive like American Eagle or Abercrombie shirts, or just an innocent pseudo-slogan. I just can't figure these shirts out.
This one also seems thin and soft. I love the printed tags on these. I gotta find these shirts out of the package.
Back to the recent toy show. I found this Gay Toys General Lee rip-off. It is modeled after a 1971 Charger but still has a counterfeit uniform on. Warner Bros. sued Gay Toys during the heyday of Dukes merchandise over this car. I could see why. I bet a lot of confused grandparents bought this car for their grandchildren in the early '80s.
This one is pretty beat up, but it still looks great.
It looks more like a '71 Charger than the licensed Mego General looks like a '69. Seeing as they got sued anyway, it is a shame Gay Toys didn't go for all the gusto and just make a '69 Charger.
This car is a little bigger than modern 1/18 Generals.
Gay Toys made a quality product in 1981. They also made a
Dixie Jeep that is better than
Mego's Dixie, which added to the lawsuit, I'm sure.
Man, it seems I bought a bunch of stuff I already had. But this one is slightly different too.
I also picked up this Golden Era Procision Remote Control General Lee at the toy show.
It is in nearly perfect shape.
The reason I bought it though, besides it being a Dukes item at a toy show which it seems I try to buy nearly all of, is because the control is different than any other I've seen before. I have one that I had since I was little (maybe I got it at said birthday party) and I have one in the package. They both have a lever that makes the car go, This control has a button. Weird. I'll have to do some more research on this particular item.
Some things work out very nicely. I bought the 12" by 15" cast photo a few months ago and featured it on the last "
New Dukes Stuff" post. A Dukes fan out there read the post and contacted me about this similar picture. A deal was made and now I have this one in the collection. This picture is from the same series and is the same size. Obviously, it features the General Lee flying through the air.
I can't figure out what is hanging out of the passenger side of the Gen'ral. Probably a camera, but it sure looks weird. Any thoughts?
The picture has the same trademark info as the other one. Man, 1981 was a great year.
It seems this one may have had the National Picture and Frame sticker on it, like the
promo posters I have, but unlike the cast picture. I think there are two more of these pictures out there that I don't have. I need to complete this mini-collection.
The last piece in today's adventure is very special. This is the TV Graphic newspaper insert from the Pittsburgh Press. It is in perfect condition. The insert features a familiar shot of our three favorite cousins. What is most interesting about this TV listing guide is the date.
It's from the Sunday, January 21, 1979 issue of the Pittsburgh Press. That's right, the week the show premiered. Wow! Not only is this a thirty-six year old newspaper insert that happens to detail the premiere of our favorite show, it's from a local newspaper that doesn't exist anymore. I told you this one was special.
The cover spells the title wrong. I guess people have been making that mistake since before the show premiered.
The article on the inside front cover is very interesting. If you've taken all this time to read everything I've written here, you really should click on the picture to expand it and read the article. It's an interview with Sorrell about the show. Not once in the article is the General Lee mentioned. Something I didn't realize that I found very insightful was all of the Georgia episodes were filmed before the show premiered. After the show had a strong debut, they moved to Hollywood. I guess I thought they were filming week by week. I love learning new things about the Dukes.
You find a lot of fun things in old newspapers. Here is an ad for Waynesburg College, where
Jeff currently teaches.
This one is funny, an ad telling you that renting a TV is better than owning. Things have really changed in thirty-six years.
This ad for "Roast of the Super Heroes" really makes me want to find this on youtube. Seems like a very timely program for today.
Some things never change.
The Dukes was listed on Friday, the 26th and 9 pm.
It's a shame the listing is at the bottom and was cut in half. It's fun to know what other shows were on at the same time.
I find it very intriguing that there was a short lived show called "Hello Larry" that was on at the same time as the Dukes. I discovered this some time ago. The universe knew I would eventually search for the original Dukes listings and planted this little greeting for me. Hello universe!
Dallas was on after the Dukes. They made quite the powerhouse for CBS for many years to come.
This TV Graphic from the Pittsburgh Press is such a great piece. Many thanks to my friend Bill for finding it for me. This one is special.
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