I've been sitting on these pictures for too long. I took them a while ago and never got around to writing this blog. Time to change that. Here's a beautiful bunch of new Dukes items that each come with beautiful stories. Let's take a beautiful dive in.
Hmm, I wonder why I'm using the word beautiful so much? I bet you guessed. One thing you probably wouldn't have guessed is that, until now, this beautiful, iconic, and just plain awesome poster was not a part of my collection. Don't tell Catherine that. This has to be the most recognizable image of Daisy Duke there is. It's just perfect. Oddly enough it's not technically an image of Daisy Duke, but of Catherine Bach.
This poster that perfectly portrays who Daisy Duke is was not released by Warner Bros., but by Catherine herself. The story goes that whoever was behind releasing a licensed Daisy Duke poster wanted Daisy in a bikini and looking very un-Hazzard like. Catherine said that's not who Daisy is and the poster was cancelled. Catherine made the clothes, picked the daisies, and had this photo taken herself and marketed the poster on her own. Needless to say it was a hit and sold five million copies. Imagine that, Warner Bros. dropping the ball with Dukes of Hazzard merchandise. And we thought the issue that led to John and Tom quitting was the first misstep. Nope, this poster came out in 1979. Catherine sure made out that time. Western Graphics Corporation, who printed this poster, made several other
Dukes posters that were licensed by WB.
I've been beside Catherine many times when she signed this poster for fans and heard the story more than once. The poster comes pre-printed with her autograph as well. I finally added one to the collection. Catherine will be happy, I guess you can tell her.
There were a lot of Dukes themed kids clothing released in the golden era. Most of it was bought and worn back then too. Items like diecast cars, lunch boxes, action figures, and record albums might have been kept in the basement for a few decades before they were found and added to collections, but the clothes got worn, grown out of, and tossed. The kids clothing items are some of the hardest things to track down. These Dukes gloves are a prime example of that. Who keeps little gloves that don't fit any more? I'm glad someone did.
These brown and yellow gloves aren't pristine, but I would categorize them as slightly used. The thumb on the inside is odd but I guess there would be a big crease if they were used more than slightly.
The General Lee is busting through the glove under the logo with a big ZOOM! underneath. Zoom isn't the first word I'd think of when the Gen'ral is in flight, but it works.
I'm always surprised that items like this didn't get the 01 backwards when the image is reversed. I guess it's the most important element of the car. Zoom and the 01 are switched on the other glove. Good job glove makers! There are no tags or markers to tell me who the glove maker is, just that it was licensed by WB and released in 1981. Such a good year. There are a few different variations of gloves and I gotta track down the others.
Another sure hard to find kids clothing item is this Dukes visor. This thing is super rare. I've had a harder time chasing one down than Rosco has chasing the General Lee. It really is an odd item, but I guess they were popular in the early '80s. I remember having a non Dukes visor like this when I was a kid. I don't remember much about it, but I remember having it at my grandparent's house, and my sister had one too, and we may have gotten them from a church festival. I guess I remember more than I thought.
The Dukes of Hazzard logo is front a center on this half-hat. The General Lee is on the brim. I guess the Gen'ral decal shaded your eyes from the sun, because the plastic part would only make the sunlight blue. Didn't poker dealers wear these things or something? And have those weird cuffs on their sleeves? I gotta go watch the movie Maverick with Denver Pyle again.
It's interesting how some designers took the rebel flag and incorporated it into products. The red was replaced with orange on the visor.
Below the Dukes of Hazzard reads "Lic to Universal Industries New Bedford, Mass." I wonder what other items came from Ol' Universal Industries.
There's a tag on the inside that shares the same info.
Next up are two issues of MAD Magazine. If you've been following along, you might recall that I recently mentioned MAD while blogging about the most recent big Dukes event.
A very cool moment at
Cooter's Good Ol' Boys Fest last August was while shooting the cast pro photos, Ray Brooks Jr.s came through the line and introduced himself to Ben and the gang. Ray's father, Ray Brooks Sr., was worked on the Dukes of Hazzard as the make-up artist. The entire cast shared stories with Ray about his dad. It was really special. Ray brought a huge photo that his dad had blown up and everyone, including Sorrell and Denver signed.
What an awesome memento. The subject of Ray's photo is the cast reacting to the above issue of MAD Magazine. I had to find that issue.
Issue 219 hit news stands in December of 1980. Does that mean we figured out when my favorite Dukes photo shoot took place? Interesting. The issue with the fireman on the cover featured a lengthy Dukes parody title the Dopes of Haphazzard. MAD wasn't very nice to the Dukes, to say the least. I figured MAD wouldn't mind if I included the entire story here on the blog. Hopefully it doesn't make them too...mad. Can you tell I just read the satire and my humor is on their level?
MAD really makes fun of the show. It rips on the overused similar plot lines and throws in a vague kissing cousin joke. Each character has a parody name and Enos is called Anus. Hey 2005 Dukes of Hazzard movie, MAD Magazine made that joke twenty-five years earlier.
The parody also includes a story line about Boss Hogg (Boss Slob) using a parade to distract Hazzard County (Haphazzard County) and the Duke Boys (Puke Boys) while he carries out his plan to rip everyone off. Wait a minute, did Jay Chandrasekhar and the Broken Lizard gang rip off this rip off of the Dukes for the plot of their 2005 Dukes of Hazzard movie? It's very possible.
The artwork is pretty darn good in this story. Each character really looks like the actor. It's a shame the story is so mean and cutting. The General Lee and Hazzard County Patrol Cars are very well drawn.
The story ends with the realization that all of Boss's schemes are just a cover for the fact that he wants the Dukes to make Rosco chase them and then crash. He makes his real money by owning the car dealership that sells all the police cars to the county. That's a pretty good joke. I kinda like your satire MAD.
A few months later, in issue 222 in April of '81, the readers found out that the Dukes did not kinda like the satire. During the famous tree photo shoot, the cast was photographed reading the December issue that included the Dopes story. The photo was sent to MAD along with a letter from Boss Hogg, not Sorrell Booke, but Boss Hogg.
Just like before, I hope MAD isn't angry that I included the letter. Not as corny this time. Even if you didn't take the time to read the entire story before, read this "letter" from Boss. It is perfectly written in Boss Hogg-esse. While reading it, I can hear Boss talking. This is really great.
The picture was included under the letter.
I found a larger version of the image on MAD's website. It's not the exact photo that Ray's father had signed. Cletus has his gun in the other hand and Boss is holding his nose in this one. Ray has an incredibly special picture and I'm so glad he shared it with me and it led me to finding this parody and great letter from Boss. Thanks again Ray!
The final item on today's blog is a doozy. I've said that before, but you can believe me, when I say doozy, I mean it. This is a store display for the Knickerbocker Dukes of Hazzard Finger Racers Crash Cars. Yep, a doozy. A few years ago I got all my
Knickerbocker toys together and wrote a blog about them. Now I have another piece to add to that mini collection.
Store displays are so cool. You never expect to find pieces like this. Most of them were destroyed after the toys were sold and fans never really had chances to get them. Nearly forty years later, this one shows up at DukesCollector HQ. I love it. The bottom box has nice text including the Dukes logo as well as Knickerbockers.
The back of the box contains assembly instructions and copyright info.
The idea of a "snap" sound makes me cringe a little as something had to break for that noise to be made. Knickerbocker was based in Middlesex NJ, I am a big fan of Middlesex DE.
The best part of the display is the back board. Look at those beautiful graphics. I had to get a few more "beautifuls" in there from the first part of the blog.
The same image was used on the back board for Knickerbocker's Dukes wrist racers. Bo is even wearing a wrist racer in this image.
The finger racers come with a little launcher that you wear like a ring, hence the name finger racer. There is no winding up with these smaller cars like with the bigger wrist racers. The cars have a spring inside that is coiled when pressed on the launcher.
When released the cars race off the base.
The biggest difference between the finger racers and the wrist racers is the finger racers crash apart when they hit something. You just pop the tops back on the base and launch them again. Hours of entertainment! That came off as sarcastic; I didn't mean it that way, I can literally have fun with these cars for hours.
When I bought this display, it came with two cars, a General Lee and a Rosco police car. They look pretty lonely in that big box all alone. This display probably once sat in a toy store with sixteen or twenty four cars in it.
These are the two finger races that came with the display. I have a few more carded versions in my bin of Knickerbocker toys.
I think I am going to have to buy some more and try to fill this box. That is going to be fun! Happy hunting!
