Catherine Bach and Tom Wopat at the Pittsburgh World of Wheels Car Show

I spent Saturday with two of my cousins!  Daisy and Luke Duke came to Pittsburgh as the World of Wheels Car show welcomed Catherine Bach and Tom Wopat.  It was a great event!

Our buddies from the Northeast Ohio Dukes brought along an array of Hazzard vehicles including this beautiful General Lee.

A great Rosco Patrol Car...

That included Flash.

 And not one, but two different Daisy vehicles.  The Road Runner and Dixie Jeep were perfect to surround Catherine for pictures.

The crowd started early and was steady the whole show.  Some people were waiting before we got there to set up.  There were solid lines for the entire four hours the Dukes signed and both lines had to be cut off.  There is is a lot of love for the Dukes of Hazzard in the Steel City.

Jacklyn and Skylar from Cooter's Place in Nashville brought a whole bunch of great Cooter's merchandise.  Needless to say, it was a hit.  I helped sell before Catherine and Tom arrived.  I love the chance to be surrounded by Dukes stuff while talking to tons of Dukes fans.  It's basically my dream come true.

You may remember this colorful fan who dressed up like Boss Hogg when John and Tom visited the comic show in Pittsburgh in 2015.  He one-upped himself by going full Daisy Duke this time.  Wow.

A really fun part of the day for me was meeting Brady Synowsky.  He is pictured here with him mother and Steve Rohan from local radio station BOBFM.  Brady is a huge Dukes of Hazzard fan from the area.  He won a radio contest to have a private meet and greet with Catherine.  I get to meet a lot of fellow Dukes fans, but Brady stands out.  He really knows his Dukes is quite the Dukes trivia buff.  I challenged him with what I thought were some tough ones and he didn't disappoint.  We talked about the upcoming Hazzard Homecoming: Cooter's Last Stand event in July and I think he and his family are going to come down to Luray for it.  I hope they do, I look forward to talking Dukes with Brady again, that's for sure.

Steve Rohan has one of those perfect for radio voices.  I've been listening to him for years and it was fun actually talking to him.  Thanks for supporting the Dukes Steve and BOBFM!

Brady had a blast meeting Catherine before anyone else.  Good for you Brady, hopefully this is only the beginning of your Dukes journey.

My job was to greet fans at the front of Tom's line and talk autographs and pictures.  I loved it.  I got to talk to just about everyone who was there.  Did I mention I love talking Dukes?

Jeff's job was to take pictures for everyone as they met Tom.  He was thrilled about it.

I got to talk to a lot of people about what they were getting autographed.  This fellow fan had this beautiful jumpin' Gen'ral poster signed by several of the Dukes and he was excited to get it signed by Luke Duke.

I had to capture that moment.

It was a lot of fun working with Tom.  I've been around him several times, and interviewed him, but never spent hours with him.  He gave each fan a good amount of time and made them feel welcome.  He listened to each of their stories and shared a lot of his.  It was definitely not a "keep the line moving" kind of event.

Tom signed pictures, toys, posters, Charger parts, all kind of stuff.  He had his music available too and it was fun talking to fans about it and introducing them to the musical side of the Dukes.  A lot of people enjoyed the chance to hear Bo and Luke sing Christmas songs.

Right behind us, Ray and his crew at Northeast Ohio Dukes let fans take pictures in their General.  Fans even got to get in through the window!  It was a great addition having NEOD there.

Jeff had a blast.

Pittsburgh's Dukes fans really enjoyed Tom and Catherine coming to town.  I think we should make this a more regular thing.  

Here's a great shot of Miss Alma, Catherine, Skylar, and Jacklyn.  The women of Hazzard County put a lot of effort into these events and we're so glad they do.  Thank you very much ladies.

I brought a Terrible Towel for Catherine and Tom.  Even though Catherine was pushing for us, we didn't make it into the Superbowl.  Next year!

Another great adventure with my heroes.  The next time I see Tom will probably be at the grand opening of Cooter's Place in Luray, VA in May.  (I know it's already open, but not the museum and other fun stuff)

Catherine and Tom are appearing at several World of Wheels shows around the country.  Ben is also making a few stops.  If they come to a show near you, there's no reason not to go see them.  The show is run by great people and everyone has a good time.  I'm really glad the Pittsburgh World of Wheels invited Catherine Bach and Tom Wopat to town.  It was a blast!

Deka Dukes of Hazzard Dinnerware - Mugs, Cups, Bowls, and Plates

The Deka Dukes of Hazzard Dinnerware pieces are popular Dukes golden era collectibles.  A few of these items were a staple of my childhood.  I've mentioned before how my grandparents would buy all the Dukes stuff they would see when I was younger. These pieces must have been for sale quite a while after they were produced.  The bowl, mug, and tumbler were plentiful around my house.

Once I started collecting, I added more pieces to the set and picked up several extras.  Here is most of the ones I have, but there are at lease two more bowls, four mugs, four 11 oz. tumblers and two 6 oz. tumblers in my main display.  Let's just say I got a lot of Deka Dukes pieces.

Deka Plastics Inc. was based in Elizabeth, NJ and was in operation from 1960 to the early '90s.  They seemed to have the monopoly on licensed dinnerware throughout the '70s and '80s.  Along with Dukes, they produced similar items for Star Wars, Smurfs, E.T., Star Trek, Incredible Hulk, Care Bears, Pac-Man, Flintstones, Garfield, and more.  They basically made cups and plates for everything popular.

Most of the pieces used the same series of pictures. Not only were the three cousins and the Gen'ral represented, but a majority of the supporting cast as well.  On the mug we see Rosco P. Coltrane, Boss Hogg, and Uncle Jesse on one side.

Bo, Luke, and Daisy are pictured together in the middle.

And the General Lee is flying high on the other side.  There is also a banner that runs the length of the mug that reads The Dukes of Hazzard and has stars on the opposite side.  During what I call the "dark ages" of the Dukes, when the show wasn't on TV and nothing was being produced, these Deka plates were very prominent around my house and these pictures and this banner were the Dukes of Hazzard to me.

"The lobster claw jump" as I like to call it, with a perfect Dixie horn. Awesome! #DukesofHazzard #GeneralLeeJumps pic.twitter.com/1ITedYEPGX

— Larry Franks (@larryafranks) June 10, 2016

The jump used is one of my favorites, because of my love for these products.  There is a piece of debris over the back passenger side wheel and it always looked to me like the the wheel was shaped like a lobster claw.  I was happy to include it in my series of tweets showing every General Lee jump on Twitter.

I have so many examples of each piece and some have original sales stickers on them.  This item is officially known as the 10 oz. Mug.  All of these pieces are upper rack dishwasher safe.  Not many of mine have actually been in a dishwasher.

Next up are the cups, officially known as tumblers.  They both have the same pictures on them and are basically identical except for their size difference.  All of the same pictures as the mug are on them as well as a new one of Cooter and Daisy.  Just like the mug, the larger of the two cups were plentiful around my house growing up.

The smaller of the two seems to be more rare.  I only have three of them, compared to at least ten of the larger one.  If you can quantify the scarcity of a product by the ratio within my personal collection, then that should tell you how many there are.  I've also compared the numbers that Cooter's has of these two cups and they have many more larger ones than smaller ones.  I've even discussed it with Miss Alma.

I have each with tags on them and I am surprised that the tags are so different.  The smaller one is officially called the 6 oz. Tumbler and the larger one is the 11 0z. Tumbler.  The logos on the two tags are even different.  I wonder why.

The third and final item that I always had around is the bowl.  It just seemed like there were several around all the time.  The bowl shares all the same graphics as the cup and mug.  The cousins are front and center.

There are a few additional stars floating around the red background and the pictures are a little bigger.
 

The lobster claw jump is on the bowl as well.

This is the 20 oz. Bowl.  The tag on this one is similar to the 6 oz. tumbler, but different than the 11 oz. and the mug.

The next few items all found their way to me later on mostly through ebay.  This is the Decorative Compartment Plate.  It still has the sticker and the clear plastic hang tag on the top.  It has the same pictures of Boss, Rosco, Uncle Jesse, and the one with Cooter and Daisy, but different individual pictures of Bo, Luke, Daisy and Gen'ral.  This picture of General Lee is used on the Stories of the Dukes of Hazzard album and casette.

I have three of the compartment plates.  They are good for keeping your mashed potatoes away from your corn and meatloaf.  Maybe fill one whole compartment up with ketchup when eating a grilled cheese sandwich, but what should I put the the third compartment?  More ketchup!  The tag is right, these are for kids of all ages, even 35 year old kids.

Next up is the soup bowl.  I always assumed this was just a deep plate,  It has the same pictures as the compartment plate.

Not a deep plate, but a bowl for soup or nuts.  The 14 oz. Soup Bowl has the same tag as the other bowl and smaller cup, but not the same as the compartment plate and the larger cup.  This tag thing is silly.  Deka sure didn't want anyone using the lower rack when washing their products.  I only have one of these soup or nut bowls.  Nuts?  Really?

The last two items seem to be a little more rare as I don't see them on ebay that often.  I'd say the items I had as a kid, the larger cup, the mug, and the regular (non-nuts) bowl are the most common. This is a plate.  It doesn't have a tag so I don't know the official name.  I bet it's somewhere along the line as Decorative Plate.  It uses the same group shot as the cups, mug, and bowl.  It is the only item to use the rebel flag.  It's a nice plate, but don't expect your corn to stay away from your mashed potatoes when eating on this plate--- there are no rules!

The Deka imprint can be seen on the back.

The final item is another bowl.  This one is probably called the Decorative Cereal Bowl.  It has the smallest decoration on it.  It has yet another different picture of the General Lee in flight and it's only on the bottom.  I only have one each of this bowl and the above plate.  I haven't seen either of them offered on ebay in quite some time.

There is a bigger, somewhat distorted Deak imprint on the back as well.

I think most of these items were sold individually but also in packs.  I have one Bowl and Mug set.

Shrink-wrapped together, the Bowl and Mug came with a nice sticker featuring the Deka Kids.

This particular set was originally sold for $1.29.  That seems like quite a bargain.  I wonder what other Deka items originally sold for.

Well many of mine still have price tags on them.  A few of the cups were a dollar from Target, but K-Mart had them beat at 97 cents.  The bowls were also a dollar.

I once saw a boxed set that included a cup, bowl, and mug on ebay, but I was outbid on it.  That was probably a decade ago.  I'm not sure if there are different sets that include multiple items, or if the Bowl and Mug set and that box set are the only ones.  I think these are all the Deka products that were available, but there could be more.  Does anyone else have any Dukes Deka Dinnerware products that I don't?