Thursday, August 29, 2019

The Dukes Of Hazzard Bed Sets, Blankets, and Sleeping Bags


No this is not my actual bedroom.  It is a room that I own, but it is not usually set up like this.  At one time my bedroom was all Dukes, but I didn't sleep on Dukes sheets.  You gotta save those for posterity!

The Dukes of Hazzard were everywhere in the early '80s, even on bed sets.  Through the years I've bought a bed set here, a pillow case there, a blanket or two, but it wasn't until I went through the collection and gathered all the bedroom items together that I realized that there were a lot of different Dukes bed set items.  I had a lot of fun staging this room to look like a Dukes room.  I took a bunch of pictures of the room with the different items on the bed.  Let's take a look at them all.


Like a lot of your non-common Golden Era Dukes stuff, unopened examples can get pricey.  I definitely don't have all these different items still in the package, but I do have a few unopened sets.  This first one is the 3 Piece Twin Bed Set from Room Concepts by Bibb.  The front of the sealed package shows the Dukes inspired bed.


The back of the package shows a part of the design and lists the contents.  This set comes with a flat sheet, and fitted sheet and one pillowcase.  I'm guessing all the items I have in the post came in similar packages, but sealed sheet and blanket sets are very rarely listed for sale.  If anyone has any different sealed sets, I'd love to see pictures of them (or buy them).


Bibb still seems to be in operation as you can buy Bibb Home sheets and blankets from Target, Walmart, and Macy's.  I searched for Room Concepts and I found a few vintage sets like a crazy 80s Coca-Cola bed set.  Room Concepts must have been their licensed products department.


Though it is not in a package, I also have this insert that came with the Coordinating Comforter.  It shows off the bed with the above sheet set and a matching comforter.  It also has a wider and slightly different picture of a Dukes bedroom on it.  Someone nearly forty years ago was doing the same thing I did, creating a Dukes bedroom and changing slight details for each product picture.  This picture shows a couple other Dukes goodies such and the Bo and Luke poster and the 1/25 remote control General Lee that I also have and included in my Dukes bedroom pictures.



I added Daisy and the General Lee bath towel, but I think the recreation is pretty darn good.  This comforter came with the above insert.  It has the General Lee action scene covering the entire blanket.



The Coordinating Comforter is above, this is the No-Iron Woven Beadpread.  It has our cousins on top and rebel flags on the bottom.  I've seen the package online, though I don't have it.  I got the official name from the online package.




The images of Bo and Luke together, and Daisy by herself are quite detailed.  Bo and Luke have the correct colored shirts, which wasn't always the case on a lot of early items.


I have yet another blanket that is different than comforter and bedspread.  I don't know the official name because I've never seen the package for it.  It has just the action scene and is thicker and heavier than the other two but also smaller.  Perhaps it was meant to go between the sheets and the comforter on the colder Dukes of Hazzard nights.


The action scene I keep mentioning is this familiar image.  The General Lee is evading Rosco by getting up on two wheels, or skiing.  The Dukes of Hazzard logo is above the Gen'ral.  The image repeats all over the blankets and sheets.  


The same image is also used on the Dukes of Hazzard curtains.  They were also made by Room Concepts by Bibb.  They came in different sizes, both full length and valance types.  I have a few of these in the collection and had some in my bedroom for years.  Those particular ones are quite faded.  I have some perfect unused ones too though.


The pillow case that came in the set is great.  There is only one case, but it has two different sides.


Bo and Luke are above the General Lee on one side.  It's the same image of them used on the comforter.


And Daisy is on the other.  These bed sets were great for boys and girls.


The action scene is flipped on the pillow.  Rosco is chasing the Dukes going the other way.  I'm glad the designer took the time to make sure the 01 wasn't a 10 on the flipped image.  The list of Room Concepts by Bibb Dukes of Hazzard items include the fitted sheet, the flat sheet, the pillow case, three different comforters and curtains.


They were each released in 1982.  There could be more items out there with the same design, but these are the ones I know for sure.  I have seen several different custom items like lamp shades, shirts, and dresses made from the sheet material.  I'm not certain, but I would guess that you could buy the material with the action scene on it by the yard at craft and department stores in the early '80s like you can buy licensed material at Wal-Mart and Michaels now.  Every time I see a giant roll of Ninja Turtles or Spider-Man material in stores now I wonder if there is a roll of Dukes of Hazzard material from 1981 out there somewhere.  I would love to add a roll like that to the collection.  That would be one of those crazy items like the roll of Dukes T-Shirt Transfers I added to the collection a few years ago.  Any material collectors or clothes designers out there have any leads?  Let me know.  


I have a few other Dukes bed items but I can't be certain if they were made by Bibb.  They use completely different designs and are made of different material which makes me think they were made by a different company.  There are no markings on them and I don't have any packages, so I can't be certain.


The first one is a blue blanket with several different images on it.  It's thick and would definitely keep any Dukes fan warm while watching The Runaway, Follow That Still, or Treasure of Hazzard, all episodes of the Dukes that originally aired in January. 


The images on this blanket include The Gen'ral flying in front of the rebel flag with the Dukes logo.


A horrendous crash with the General Lee escaping unscathed.


Rosco crashing into his dipstick deputy while the General Lee flies over them both.


Rosco parked in front of the Hazzard County Police sign.


And the badge of the Hazzard County Sheriff Department.  Many of these images are are used on different products.  The General Lee flying over the two police cars is on the sole of the Dukes of Hazzard tennis shoes, and other two jumping General Lees are seen on the metal trash can and the lunchbox thermos.


The other blanket is lighter and might only be needed when watching Miss Tri-Counties and The Law And Jesse Duke, episodes that originally aired in March and April, when there is just a slight chill in the air.


It features the same two images repeated all over the blanket.


The image of the General Lee is very similar to the image on the transfer roll, but not exactly the same.


The image of Bo, Luke, and Daisy is used on several different products, such as the Dukes Power Cycle but not with these crossed rebel flags.  The images aren't that clear on this blanket.  That could be due to age, or the transfers used to make it.  I can't be certain if this was produced like this, or if someone took transfers to it.  I doubt it's homemade because of how many transfers would be needed and also because they are lined up so perfectly.  Regardless of where it came from, it's in the collection now, and I love it.


Now this is one I know is homemade.  This quilt was bought for me nearly twenty years ago as a surprise and it's a great addition to the collection.


The quilt was handcrafted by a master quilter named Brenda Thompson in 2001.


The General Lee adorns four corners of the quilt and is the only image that is repeated.  The characters from the show are each shown once on the quilt.


The images used for each character were taken from the Dukes of Hazzard Card Game from the makers of UNO.  Quilter Brenda must have scanned the images from the cards and printed them on fabric for the quilt.  Bo is wearing a pink shirt here, which he never wore on the show, but you can blame the makers of UNO for that error, not Brenda.  It's a very good likeness.


Luke has the correct shirt.  Another near perfect likeness.


Looking at this image of Daisy, I just realized the artwork on the UNO cards is the same artwork used on the pillowcase and comforter on the Bibb bed sets.  I didn't even think there was a connection to this homemade blanket and the official bed set.  That's a fun coincidence.





The images of Uncle Jesse, Cooter, and Cletus, and Boss Hogg are all straight from the playing cards.


Brenda added Flash to the image of Rosco.  Flash has his own card in the game, and this is the image, but Brenda made him a little smaller and tucked him in with Rosco.  The image works and Brenda made a good choice putting them together.


Enos missed a lot of the merchandise when he went to do his own spin-off show.  Though Cletus was on the show much shorter than Enos, Cletus is on many more toys and items such as the action figures, trading cards and the card game.  Brenda didn't make the mistake of not including Enos and used an actual photograph, as opposed to artwork like the other images.  The image she used actually came from a promotional still for the spin-off show, Enos.  Maybe Brenda wanted this to be specific to the 1980-1981 season when Cletus was in Hazzard and Enos was in LA.  I like the attention to detail Brenda.  This is a great quilt!


Since were talking blankets and sleeping, I decided to include the two Dukes of Hazzard sleeping bags in this post.  I got them out and laid them on the bed with the sheets when I was taking pictures.  They weren't made by Bibb. but by a company called Outdoor Venture.  Outdoor Venture Corporation, or OVC, was founded in Sterns, KY in 1972 and was once focused on recreational tents and sleeping bags but is now the leading supplier of military tents, base camp components, and military accessories to the United States Department of Defense.  That's really cool that the company responsible for giving our troops a place to sleep while defending our country once made Dukes of Hazzard items.  OVC also produced the Dukes of Hazzard Fun Tunnel.

The first one came out in 1980 and is generally referred to as the red sleeping bag.


The bottom of the bag features Bo, Luke, Daisy, Rosco and Boss Hogg.  Dasiy is holding a guitar and Bo is wearing a green under shirt.  I guess if he was wearing his normal light blue shirt, it would be the same color as Luke's shirt and the background.  Some decisions had to be made and Bo got a green shirt.  The artwork isn't that great on the faces, but they are recognizable.  Boss looks good. 


The General Lee is flying at the top of the bag.  The representation of our favorite car is very nice and correct.  Even the wheels look great.  Making the 01s blue is a common mistake, but it seems to work sometimes to give more color to the car.


The top and bottom of the red bag are great and familiar, but the middle is where things get a little weird.  Rosco's car is correctly represented, but it's parked in the desert.  Hazzard is a mythical place that includes hills that look suspiciously like the Hollywood Hills as well as swamps, quicksand, and forests, but there definitely are no deserts in Hazzard.


There are even cacti, the plural of cactus, on the sleeping bag.  That's an odd choice to place the setting of the General Lee jumping over Rosco in the desert.  Maybe it added more color to the overall image.


And then there're pine trees framing the image.  Are there pine trees in the desert?  Maybe in the magical desert that's in Hazzard County.  I think the red sleeping bag is the more common of the two and usually what people picture as the standard Dukes sleeping bag.


But there's also the blue one.  The Blue Dukes of Hazzard sleeping bag doesn't have a desert setting.


The top of the bag features an action scene of the General Lee escaping a horrendous crash.  Wait, I feel like I just typed that.  That's because it's the same artwork used on the above blue blanket as well as the metal trash can and the lunch box thermos.  We are making connections all over this blog.


Below that and following a weird path from the destruction above is another image of the Gen'ral driving right at you.  This image is familiar with similar versions of it used on many other products.  It's above a big rebel flag.


Below the flag are our three cousins.  Daisy looks the best on this one, as she always does in real life.  I get the whole floating head thing as a way to include the Dukes, but the inclusions of the deep Vs with no shirts is a little weird.  If you are going to include that much neck, just include some of the shirts, well more of the shirts than just the collars.  This is a weird image.  So the red sleeping bag has the weird desert setting and the blue sleeping bag has the weird collars with deep Vs and no shirts.  I can't decide which is weirder, but the are both definitely weird.  I love them anyway.


The blue bag came out in 1981.  


Everything folded up just doesn't have the same appeal as laid out on the bed.  It's quite a collection though. 


A Dukes of Hazzard fan has a lot of options if they want to deck their sleeping area out with the Dukes of Hazzard.  The bed sheets, pillow cases, comforters, blankets, curtains, and sleeping bags are all great options for the Dukes bedroom.  I had a lot of fun putting this blog together and definitely couldn't have made the room look so neat and tidy without my Mom.  She makes a mean bed.  Thanks for all the help Mom!  I'm still looking for the different pieces in the packages, but I'm very happy to have them all in nearly perfect condition.

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