New Dukes Stuff - 12/20/2017 RC General Lee, Framed Pictures, Ertl Playset, DVDs & VHS

With this post I will finally be caught up with the backlog of new Dukes stuff I neglected to blog about.  Now they are all blogged about and soon to be added to the DukesCollector.com database.  That's a good feeling.  Now I gotta buy more stuff.  (I bought some exciting new stuff I'll blog about soon.)  Let's dive in to this pile of Dukes stuff Scrooge McDuck style!

Usually I like to start with the least impressive items and build to the most.  That's sometimes tough to decide a lot of the time, because all this stuff is great.  But VHS tapes aren't that impressive.  I have so many copies of the Dukes on VHS.  I bought a ton of the commercially released ones back in 2012 for nearly nothing.  Back in the Silver Era of Dukes collectibles when I would buy nearly everything I could find that was new, I passed on VHS tapes of the show at Suncoast in the mall.  They just seemed overpriced at retail.  My patience paid off.  These days I find some interesting VHS copies at great prices.  This is a three-tape set.

It contains three episodes, High Octane, To Catch A Duke, and Officer Daisy Duke.  All great episodes.

They are packaged together in a nice bundle.  This set came out in 2002 and probably retailed for around $20.  College Larry couldn't afford to buy the set then and still take Natalie to the Olive Garden after going to Century III mall on a Friday night.  Appraiser Larry paid a third of the retail price on ebay.  Patience!

The set features not-at-all episode specific artwork on each tape.  The middle tape, which we can see an artwork preview of on the wrapping a few pictures up, featured a poorly done photoshop job of Daisy in a Hazzard County deputy outfit.  At least they tried on that one.

This three pack is a fun addition to the home video wing of the Dukes collection.

Continuing with the home video theme are a few more foreign releases of the 2005 movie.  You may remember I wrote a whole post about foreign releases a while back.

First up is a French-Canadian copy of the movie.  It features the standard artwork that came on the American version of the DVD but also has the title in French.  Sherif Fais Moi Pier translates into Sheriff Do I Fear, which is what the French know the Dukes by.  I talked about that a few times before, it's odd.

The back of the box features everything in English and French.  It states the the disc is not for sale or rental outside of Canada or the U.S. so I didn't break any rules with this one.  Can't be certain about the next two.

I tracked down another UMD version of the movie.  This one is from Germany.  UMD was a format that had a shorter lifespan than Beta.  In the mid-2000s movies were released on this tiny disc format that could only be viewed on Playstation Portable devices.  Sony must have shelled out a lot to the other studios to support the medium.  It lasted right up until streaming over the internet to all portable devices became a thing.  The German version comes in a grey outlined box, like the British version.  The American version has a black outline.

Ein Duke Kommt Selten Allein translates from German to A Duke Seldom Comes Alone.  That might be weirder than the French translation.  The back has all the information in German including an official German Dukes website, eindukekommtseltenallein.de.  That site is still active, but links to what seems to be a German DVD retailer.  I wonder what wonders that website once held.

Next up is an Asian release of the movie.  It has the black background artwork that is officially known as the foreign poster.  The front only has Asian writing on the side.

I believe it is copy from Taiwan.  I only say that because the website address that is in English ends in .TW.  Nearly everything else is not in English.  I love getting foreign releases. Dukes is loved all over the world.

The final addition to today's home video collection is heavy.  Like a few pounds.  It is all seven individual seasons packaged together to make the complete series.

All seven seasons are shrink wrapped together.  This release predates the 2015 box set and was probably sold at discount shopping clubs like Sam's Club or Costco.  I picked it up on ebay.

All the seasons seem to be the same as the versions you can buy individually, with the exception of season 1.

Season 1 is in a plastic clam shell case, not the fold-out cardboard case that it was originally released in.  I have seen this plastic case season 1 for sale recently on its own.

The set is about the same size as the complete box set.  Just not as flashy.

I sure own a lot of copies of the show on different mediums.  You can see in this picture that the shrink wrapped set is a little wider than the box set.  Let's move on to some non home video Dukes items.

It's always nice to add another Gordy item to the collection.  This is the Dukes license plate.  You can attach it to you bike or hang it on your door or wall.  The package is near perfect and is unpunched (it has the little insert still attached where you would hang it on a peg.  That's a big deal to collectors for some reason.)

I've had an open Gordy license plate for some time.  I'm glad I have a carded version too.  There are so many different Gordy Dukes items. I wonder if I'll ever get them all?

The plate features the Gen'ral and Rosco's patrol car about to have a mid air collision.  The sun is hitting the patrol car in just a way, bouncing off the General, that it makes the patrol car look orange.  That was the Gordy product designer's original intention as obviously they wouldn't carelessly release a product with such a blatant design flaw as having the Hazzard County patrol car be the same color as the General Lee, obviously.

Next up is a boxed 1980 Radio Controlled General Lee from Pro Cision.  I got this item earlier in the year and just never blogged about it.  The box is nearly mint.

The box is quite big and there is a lot of styrofoam inside.  The design is quite simple, all black with a picture of the product and the simple Dukes logo.

It still has the original K-Mart price tag attached.  This toy cost nearly $20.  That was a lot for a Dukes toy then.  This was a high end item.

The General is missing the push bar in front.  It never looks right to me without it.

The plain design of the box is carried through on the back as well.  I wonder if anyone at Pro Cision thought the car might sell better if it had a flashier box?

It seems they did as the car was also released in a much more action packed package.  The other design featured a blond dude in a blue shirt and a dark haired guy in a yellow shirt that might resemble Bo and Luke (Coy and Vance more-so, but this car was released before the strike) and a flying General Lee with white 01s.  Hey, at least they added a push bar to the drawing.

The car itself is a fine representation of our favorite car in plastic 1/24 scale.  The control only has two options, forward and reverse.  If you were eluding an imaginary radio controlled Rosco and Enos, you had better hope there were only hills to flatten and no curves to straighten cause this car can't turn.

I prefer the flashier box design, even though the Duke Boys are unrecognizable.  I'm happy to have both versions in the collection.

The back of the other box features other Procision offerings.  They had a Land Cruiser, a motorcycle, racecars, oh, and what's that on the bottom?

Apparently there were plans to release a Radio Controlled Dixie Jeep!  Sadly this was never produced.  That would have been great to add to our non-turning fun.

It seems I spent all of 2017 buying these framed 12" by 15" pictures.  I once thought there were only four different ones but then discovered there are different versions, some with the rebel flag and some with different versions of the same picture.  This is probably my favorite.  It is the famed tree cast shot.  I have one of these with the flag, and now one without.  It is in perfect condition.

It has the Dukes and WB info very small on the bottom.

I picked up a Daisy framed picture earlier this year that had a little discoloration on it.  I can now replace it with this perfect one.  This one does not have the flag and I have yet to see a version with it.  You can bet that if I do find one, I snatch it up.

This one says Daisy Duke besides the usual info.  That now makes seven different 12" by 15'" framed pictures.  I have the flying General Lee with and without the flag, the tree cast shot with and without, Daisy alone, Bo and Luke, and Bo Luke and Daisy.  I wonder which ones I don't have.

The final item in this Money Bin of a blog post is another version of the coveted Ertl Dukes of Hazzard Playset.  I saw this version on ebay and noticed different cars other than the ones I had.

I thought the two I already had were the only two versions, then I noticed this one came with Cooter's pickup, two police cars, Dixie, and the General.  Hmmm, interesting.

Now I have a version with the above mentioned cars, a version with Boss's Caddy, Dixie, Cooter's pcikup, one police car and the Gen'ral, and the Corvette version with the General Lee, two police cars and the Caddy.  So I have three different versions with different cars, but at least the boxes are all the same, right?

Wrong!  This newest to me version has the Ertl logo in yellow!  The other non-Corvette version also has the logo in yellow, but it labels the cars inside.  Under the clear plastic window, the other one has a list of the Hazzard County vehicles you get, and this one does not.  So all three boxes have different printing on them.  They each feature this Dukes loving lad enjoying his time in Hazzard.

The sides of the boxed are a little different too.  The font is smaller on the bottom one.

The top two have yellow Ertl where the bottom has black.  Also the stock no. 1816 is upside down on the middle one.

The writing is slightly moved on the bottom one.

The back of the boxes explains why there are differences.  The top one, with the Gen'ral and one police car, was made in Hong Kong.  The other two were made in the U. S A.  Different production locations lead to different products.  As you can tell by the number of times I typed the word "versions" in this post, I love finding different items like this.  This post went longer than I expected, but I hope you enjoyed it.  Now to add all the items from the last three posts to DukesCollector.com.

New Dukes Stuff - 12/05/2017 Another Crew Jacket, Daisy Beach Towel, Bath Robe

It's getting cold outside, better bundle up with a nice new Dukes of Hazzard Crew Jacket, reminisce about the beach with a Daisy beach towel, and sit by the fireside with a Dukes bath robe, ok, I took it to far, the fireside thing was dumb, I got a few new items, let's look at them.

First we have a child size Dukes of Hazzard bathrobe from the golden era.  This is, obviously, a blue robe, and there is also a red version out there.  The only Dukes marking is the design screen-printed on the pocket.

The robe was crafted in 1982 and features the artwork most recognizable from the Barn Buster playsets from Knockerbocker.  I also have a child size pajama set with this same design on it.  This robe, and several other pieces of children's clothing from the golden era are considerably hard to find and can fetch quite a price.  I keep mentioning that it is a child size robe, and there are child sized pajamas, which may seem obvious and not need to be stated, but if I had a Dukes robe and pajamas that fit me, an adult sized adult, I'm not sure many of you would think it was weird if I wore them, because you know how Dukes-crazy I am.
 

Moving on.  A few years ago, when I wrote about my most prized Dukes possession, the mythical Dukes of Hazzard swimming pool, (it has to be described as mythical each time it's referenced, that's a rule) I included the Dukes beach towels in the post.  I stated there are only two different towels.  I said many people think there are three beach towels because one is printed horizontally but declared that the horizontal one is a bath towel, not a beach towel.  I'm sticking with that declaration, because I like declaring things and can't go back on them, but I was wrong about the number of vertically printed beach towels.  I found out about a third one shortly after posting the big pool blog, while working on Cooter's museum.  It took me some time to track one down, but I finally did.  This is the second Daisy Beach Towel, the Dixie version.  The other towel has Daisy over the General Lee, and this one has her with her beloved Jeep.  Now, I can say I have all the Dukes swimming items, well actually I can't.  Your pal and mine, Dave DeWitt, has a pair of the wonderful swimming trunks with Coy and Vance on them.  I'm still trying to track those down.  One day...

The final item in this three item post is a whooper.  I present a Dukes of Hazzard television show cast and crew police jacket.  I added another one to the collection!  This is one quite different from the one I bought in 2015.

It makes sense that Daisy is pictured with this jacket.  Many people don't know, but Catherine Bach designed and purchased these jackets for the cast and crew.  They were a Christmas present during production.  All the cast members have them.  Sonny Shroyer still wears his regularly, Ben Jones has his on display in Luray, Catherine has hers in safe keeping, and now I have two.  It was cool talking to Catherine about these jackets, and she is very proud of them.  I posted a couple pictures of the stars wearing theirs in my other crew jacket blog post.

This jacket is a little different from my other one.  The back is the same with the Dukes of Hazzard written in red.

The tag inside says "The Lawman."  I believe it is a different brand then my other one.  It definitely looks like a jacket that an officer of the law would wear.

Like my other one, this one in monogrammed.  It once belonged to Bob C.  IMDB tells me that that could be director Bob Claver, who directed episodes Route 7-11 and The Big Heist, and also directed loads of other classic TV shows like Mork and Mindy, Facts of Life, Webster, Small Wonder, and Charles in Charge, or writer Bob Clark, who wrote the episode Repo Men as well as the second reunion movie, and also directed a Christmas classic, A Christmas Story.  This could be a jacket owned by the director of Ralphie, Randy, the Old Man, and Scut Farkus, that's exciting!

The Hazzard County Sheriff's Dept. patch on the sleeve is the same as the ones seen on Rosco's, Enos's, and Cletus's uniforms.  It really adds a nice touch to the jacket.

My other jacket only has a zipper, but this one has these bold shiny buttons as well as the zipper.  You can't miss these things.  They go down the front and are also on the pockets.

Though similar, the Bob C. jacket and the Len jacket are quite different.  The names are on different sides of the front, and the Len jacket has an area for a badge.  The collars are similar, and they have the same patches.  Maybe Catherine bought them at different times, or just spread the love to different brands.

My guess is these were all made at the same time, but Catherine bought different brands.  The patches and printing on the back are the same, which are the additions Catherine made, but the bases of the jackets are different.  I didn't know there were different version of the Dukes of Hazzard television show cast a crew police jacket, but now I'm glad to have one of each in the collection.