We got a new General Lee on the market! I love getting new unexpected Dukes items. This great little car comes from Germany's historic Schuco company in their much loved Piccolo line. It is quite small measuring in at 1/90 scale and has excellent detail. Let's take a look at the newest Dukes collectible out there.
The Piccolo line dates back to 1957 and is very popular in Europe with many fans here in the U.S. The trademark of the line is the solid body with it's unexpected weight. Let me tell you, this little bugger is heavy. I was really surprised when I took it out of the box by how heavy it is. The wheels are the only separate pieces to the construction with the exception of the push bar.
All of the characteristics of the General Lee are well represented. Schuco put the detail into the 01s, the General Lee text, and also the flag. This is a very good representation of our favorite flying orange clunker car.
The wheels don't have any detail to them, but they fit in line with the wheels on other Piccolo cars.
The 1/90 scale is new to Dukes of Hazzard cars. It measures in at just over two and a half inches. This is a popular scale in Europe and the Piccolo line has been following this scale since its inception in the '50s.
The push bar is nicely replicated on the Piccolo General Lee. The painted on windshields and windows achieve the illusion that the Gen'ral is driving on a sunny day, like most days seemed to be in Hazzard. We would just have to warn Bo and Luke that the windows are rolled up before they try to get in through them.
The bottom of the solid body has the Shuco Piccolo logo and also says Dodge Charger on it. Looking through Shoco's current catalog, I don't see any other Chargers, but I'm guessing there will be a non-Generalized version released in the future. If they put the work in to create a great Charger mold, you start out on top with the best Charger ever, the Gen'ral, then you continue to utilize it by making others in various colors. It just makes sense. Shuco has been releasing several different Herbie the Love Bug cars in the Piccolo line and other scales for many years. Hopefully this isn't the only General Lee that Shuco graces us with.
The General comes in a standard Schuco Piccolo box that any other car in the line would also come in. There are no mentions of the Dukes of Hazzard anywhere on the box. The large display window shows you exactly what goodness is inside.
The back of the box has a warning about small parts in several different languages that takes up the most real estate. There are two stickers on the back. One sticker shows that this particular car is a limited edition limited to only one thousand pieces and the other sticker has the barcode information and the title "Piccolo Dodge Charger General Lee." There is no mention of the Dukes or Warner Bros. anywhere on the box.
This car is the fourth Dukes of Hazzard car to come from Europe in the past several years. Each car showed exquisite detail and craftsmanship. The other cars are the Neo 1/43 Hazzard County Police Car, the Matrix 1/43 "JDH" 1970 Cadillac De Ville, and this year's Pioneer 1/32 General Lee slot car. Keep them coming my European friends!
You know I had to pull out a few other cars and do a few of my patented scale photos. Here we have a Johnny Lightning 1/64 in the back and a Racing Champion 1/144 in the front. The new Shuco Piccolo General fits right about exactly in the middle though it weighs about three times as much the other two cars combined.
Even though it is almost completely a solid piece, the Piccolo has about as much detail as the other two cars. It is definitely a great addition to the collection.
The color is more reddish orange on par with most other replicas. The 1/64 JL is standing out in this picture as being more plain orange. Behind the 1/64 JL are the 1/25 Auto World Snap-It model kit and the 1/18 Light and Sound General Lee from Malibu International that came out in 2005 (I never did a blog post on that car...looks like it's time for one).
I didn't know this car was on the way. Several fellow Dukes of Hazzard enthusiasts (crazy collectors like me) alerted me of its existence and I want to thank them for that. I'm not sure if there are many dealers that sell this car in the U.S. and I had to get mine from dealers across the pond. Given that it is limited to 1000, I wouldn't wait too long to pick one up as any limited edition tends to go up in value. I picked up a few and already added one to my main display that doesn't see too many additions lately. It's that nice. I don't think Shuco usually releases variants or chase cars, so hopefully we won't be going crazy looking for different color versions. Fingers crossed on that one. Hop online and find one of these bad boys. It's a great new Dukes of Hazzard item, and those are few and far between these days.
