Greenlight Collectibles is releasing so many cars in their "Hazzardous Collection" that it's almost becoming hard to keep up, almost. You know I'm not going to fall behind in the release of new Dukes of Hazzard memorabilia! In this post we will take a look at the latest additions in the GL's collection. We got cars of all scales in this post. Each and every one of these cars are available at Cooter's Place, both at the three locations and online at cootersplace.com. Add them to your collection too!
First up is the big one of the bunch. After twenty years of Dukes in 1/18, Sheriff "Big" Ed Little has finally joined the party. This is Greenlight's 1975 Plymouth Fury Chickasaw County Sheriff Patrol Car. Of course it was made famous by the closest thing to actual law enforcement in Hazzard County, the neighboring Chickasaw County's Sheriff Little. Sheriff Little wasn't corrupt like Sheriff Coltrane. He wasn't in anyone's pocket and he played by the book. But he hated moonshine and anyone who transported it. So, just like Rosco, he was nearly always after them Dukes.
The first official replica of Sheriff Little's patrol car came in Series 2 of Johnny Lightning's Dukes line in 2007. Racing Champions listed "Big" Ed's green and white car as a part of their 1997 1/144 line, but it was never released. Because it is listed on the back of the other car's packaging, I've been getting questions about it's existence since the beginning of the blog.
This is the first time Sheriff Little is represented in the largest diecast scale, 1/18. The replica is a part of Greenlight's Artisan Collection, just like the first 1/18 Hazzard County patrol car they released, the 1977 Plymouth Fury Rosco car, and unlike their 1/18 1973 Ford F-100 Uncle Jesse Pickup.
The box design is very similar to the previous Rosco 1/18 from GL. It has the plantation imagery on it and the large Fury logo.
The top of the box is all Artisan Collection.
The green used is the same color as the car. I wonder if they specifically used "Greenlight green" for this car. I wonder if "Greenlight green" is a real thing.
The bottom of the box has GL's and Chrysler's legal info on it. Of course there is no mention of Warner Bros or Dukes because just like all cars in Greenlight's "Hazzardous Collection" this car is not official. The box for this car does not have a window like the the 1/18 Uncle Jesse truck and all the smaller scale cars. Maybe that's because the Artisan Collection is shipped in styrofoam.
The first thing you see when opening the box is this push-bar tucked neatly inside the styrofoam. That needs to be removed so it can be applied to the car.
The light bar and antenna are packaged inside bubble wrap above the car. Those need taken out too.
The car is a beauty. There is no mistaking the second most recognizable police car on the Dukes. If the police car chasing the General Lee isn't all white with a Hazzard County emblem on the door, chances are good it's green with a Chickasaw badge. The addition of the huge "cow-pusher" style push bar really makes the car stand out.
This really is a nice replica. This picture could be mistaken for a picture of a real car.
Chickasaw's Sheriff emblem was a little less flashy than Hazzard's. That is understandable as Boss probably designed Hazzard's himself. The emblem is perfectly represented on the replica.
The push bar is... interesting. I looked at a few episodes that Sheriff Little appears in and didn't see this addition on his car. He appears in ten episodes total and I didn't check them all in preparation for this blog. That doesn't mean his car didn't appear on the show with this large push bar, I just didn't find it. It's a very cool look though and definitely something I could see Sheriff Little adding to his car to help him catch those darn moonshiners, but my guess is that it's something GL used on previous models and added to make this car differentiate from Rosco's car.
The fact that Don Pedro Colley only appears in ten episodes as Sheriff Little on the Dukes but left such a lasting impact on the show's legacy shows how great an actor Don was and how great a character Sheriff Little was. Sheriff Little being in only ten episodes and having such an impact reminds me of Puddy on Seinfeld. Patrick Warburton only portrayed Puddy on ten episodes of the greatest sitcom of all time and he's probably the most popular character from that show that isn't one of the main four. Yup, I'm putting Sheriff Little up there with Puddy.
All right, I'm stumped. I don't know if this is actually Sheriff Little's licence plate or something Greenlight added. The previous Rosco car does not have a plate, but the Uncle Jesse does. The Uncle Jesse plate is the correct number, but says Georgia, instead Hazzard County on it. This plate says Georgia, and Peach State on it and reads SFR 304. I can't find any indication that Sheriff Little's plate number was ever visible on the show. Maybe GL got creative, or maybe they caught a detail I missed. Can anyone else verify if this plate was ever seen on the show?
[EDIT: I just watch the season six episode Dead And Alive and noticed Sheriff Little's licence plate number is simply 7624]
My only complaint with the previous GL Rosco 1/18 was the antenna. It's just a thin metal rod that goes into a hole. When inserted it's crooked. The Chickasaw car is the same. Hey Greenlight, Rosco was crooked, but "Big" Ed Little wasn't! The light bar fits more snugly into it's holes on this car compared to the Rosco Car.
The interior is nicely detailed.
Comparing the 1/18 Chickasaw to the 1/18 Greenlight Rosco car, they compliment each other nicely. They are very similar and use many of the same parts, but Rosco has a 1977 model Fury while Sheriff Little's is a slightly older 1975 model.
The front ends are the most obvious difference. The single headlight and different style grill are the biggest distinction. Both cars have antennas that lean to the side.
It's harder to recognize, but there are also some differences in the tail ends like the bumper placement and tail light shapes. Both of these cars are about to take off to chase the General Lee. If Rosco causes Sheriff Little to wreck, which he probably will, Sheriff Little will yell out his trademark "COLTRAAAAANNNNE!!!!"
Let's move from 1/18 scale down to 1/64. So far Greenlight has spoiled us with 1/18 and 1/43 cars and now they are giving us the scale with the most "play factor." Commonly referred to as Hotwheel or Matchbox size, we've been playing with 1/64 Dukes cars since 1981. Though we've had countless General Lees in the scale that all look great or better (yep, some are better than great,) Rosco's journey in 1/64 scale has been a rocky one. Most of Rosco's journeys are rocky, some are even horrendous. The original 1/64 Rosco cars were Pontiac Bonnevilles. No one really knows why. Actually, we all know why; Ertl already had the Bonneville castings and didn't want to spend time or money to make correct ones. Those Hazzard County Bonnevilles were released in all three eras of Dukes of Hazzard collecting. When Johnny Lightning took up the Dukes mantle they followed a similar route as their Ertl ancestors, using a casting they already had. Throughout the famed JL Dukes line, all of the Hazzard County Patrol Cars were incorrect year Dodge Monacos. It wasn't until 2010 that JL produced a Monaco that actually looked like the Rosco car we know and love. I crowned that car to be the best 1/64 Rosco car, but there's a new king in town. This is Greenlight's 1977 Plymouth Fury Hazzard County Patrol Car. It's pretty perfect.
Speaking of Plymouth Fury vs. Dodge Monaco, in the mid-to-late '70s the cars were very similar. They were both used on the Dukes and you have to really pay attention to tell them apart. I kind of see them as being similar to when both Dodge and Plymouth made Neons in the '90s before Plymouth got the ax. Man, I hated Neons. The package for the 1/64 uses a design similar to the 1/18 and 1/43 cars with the plantation motif and giant Fury logo. Again, no mention of the Dukes of WB.
More of the same on the back. To really display the cars in GL's "Hazzardous Collection" you really have to open them up and put them with a General Lee.
Two of the three 1/18 cars are in the Artisan Collection, and now the first 1/64 is a Hobby Exclusive. I guess that means you aren't allowed to buy it to play with it, only collect it as a hobby. I might break the rules and and play with it. I've been fightin' the system but never meanin' no harm. In reality GL's Hobby Exclusive line is a line created as a tribute to the smaller hobby shops that sold GL cars in the beginning. That's a really nice thing for Greenlight to do for their loyal smaller hobby stores. Cars in this line aren't sold in larger retail stores. But you can definitely get them at Cooter's!
This car is great. It just looks right. The decals are all correct and the color is a little off white. It looks like Rosco is about to drive it right into the 1/64 scale pond.
There is no license plate on this one either, but it wouldn't really fit anyway.
Comparing it to the latest Johnny Lightning release from 2010, it's obvious why I crowned a new king. The GL on the right really looks better than the JL on the left. It just looks more like a real car.
The GL is substantially bigger than the JL. I wonder which one is actually 1/64 scale. I'll leave the math for another post.
The color difference is obvious in the two cars. That's really a mater of preference as to which one you like better.
The light bars on both cars are nice, but the JL, in the back, has blue and red plastic as a part of the connector piece. The GL has the correct silver color on the connector. I'm going to go with the GL for the light bar. The engines are similar except the GL is blue. Google tells me that some of the actual engines used in these cars had blue engine blocks. Nice touch GL. I really like this 1/64 Rosco car.
This car also has a green variant version. I'm seeing two different names for Greenlight's chase versions. Some list them as Green Machines while others call them Greenies. I'll go either way until I'm told a definitive answer. But calling them Green Machines in a Dukes line brings to mind Coy and Vance's nemesis the Mean Green Machine. That seems like a perfect addition to GL's "Hazzardous Collection"! C'mon Greenlight, produce a Mean Green Machine and then make a Greenie chase variant called the Green Machine Mean Green Machine, or the Mean Green Machine Green Machine!
The green variant has green wheels and a green chasis. Lotsa green!
Now let's get a little bigger and move up to 1/43 scale. Greenlight has a few more of those for us too. First is the 1975 Dodge Monaco. To me, any Rosco car that isn't a late '70s Fury or Monaco doesn't look right. Sure, they used different cars throughout the show, mostly in the beginning and during the Georgia episodes, but there is a certain picture I have in my head of what cars Rosco, Enos, and Cletus drove, and this isn't it. That doesn't meant this isn't a nice car, it just doesn't look right to me.
The box is basically the same as the previous 1/43 Plymouth Fury. It is a window box with the same artwork.
See?
The back of each box differs mostly because there is a picture of the car on the box.
The decals look good; and so does the light bar. All of the 1/43 cars are screwed to the base and I haven't unscrewed them. They also come with a clear case that attaches to the base.
The 1/43s also come in Greenie, or Green Machine variants. I've got to land on one or the other term. This time the entire car is green. I like it!
Ok, now we get deep into the Dukes. So far Greenlight has been making very recognizable Dukes vehicles. They are filling holes with cars like Uncle Jesse's pickup and improving upon already released cars like the above Rosco cars. But this next car is something you really have to love the Dukes to get. This is the 1977 Dodge Monaco Finchburg County Sheriff car. There are a lot of counties surrounding Hazzard. It's almost as if the writers of the show didn't want to go back and see which counties they already used, and they just made up new ones each time they had to leave Hazzard. Could the writers of the Dukes of Hazzard have made lazy choices? That's not for me to decide, but they made up a lot of surrounding counties, and it seemed they all had Sheriffs with different looking patrol cars. Cartoons of the '80s had a practice of creating new characters just so they could produce new toys. If that was the intention of the producers of the Dukes of Hazzard, they were sure playing the long game. Regardless, the season three episode "Baa, Baa White Sheep" saw the Dukes travel to nearby Finchburg County, which is across the state line, to help Boss's twin Abraham Lincoln Hogg. While doing so we meet the Finchburg County Sheriff and see his red and white patrol car. GL has graced our collection with this car in 1/43.
This isn't the first time we saw this car in diecast form. Johnny Lightning gave us this car in 1/64 as part of series 3 in their Dukes line. The box is similar to the other Hazzardous cars.
The background behind the car is lighter than the Hazzard County cars and I like it better. You can see a little more detail with the lighter background.
This car has a very nice design to it. GL nailed the look and it's a great addition to the collection.
The Sheriff emblem is a little flashier than Chickasaw, but doesn't have as many accents as Hazzard's. I like it. It's spot on from the show. Waylon says "the Finchbug Sheriff is so poor that the only thing he has for a roadblock is an impounded car. Y'all to do well to drive careful around Finchburg." Good advice Waylon. We also see a State Police patrol car in this episode. It's a similar '77 Monaco that has black where the Finchburg has red. I bet we see that car soon from GL.
Comparing the three 1/43s, I like the box background the best on the Finchburg car. I hope the future 1/43s have the lighter background.
This one also comes in Green Machine form. I think I'm sticking with Green Machine over Greenie. It sounds meaner and more Dukes like. The Finchbugh Green Machine has green wheels and I would guess a green chassis. If GL made all the white portions green like they did with the Hazzard County cars, it would look like a Christmas car. That would have been pretty fun though.
When I blogged about Greenlight's 1/43 1977 Plymouth Fury Hazzard County patrol car, I didn't know about the Green Machine (yep, I'm sticking with it) version. I have since added that one to the collection too. It's all green just like the 1975 Dodge Monaco. Here are all three 1/43 Green Machines.
I told you we had a lot of Greenlight ground to cover. Now as of mid-February 2020 we are all caught up. Here is a picture of everything Greenlight has released in their "Hazzardous Collection" so far. The list goes:
1/18 1973 Ford F-100 Uncle Jesse Pickup
1/18 1977 Plymouth Fury Hazzard County Patrol Car
1/18 1975 Plymouth Fury Chickasaw County Patrol Car
1/24 1975 Dodge Monaco Hazzard County Patrol Car
1/24 1975 Dodge Monaco Hazzard County Patrol Car Green Machine
1/43 1977 Plymouth Fury Hazzard County Patrol Car
1/43 1977 Plymouth Fury Hazzard County Patrol Car Green Machine
1/43 1975 Dodge Monaco Hazzard County Patrol Car
1/43 1975 Dodge Monaco Hazzard County Patrol Car Green Machine
1/43 1977 Dodge Monaco Finchburg County Patrol Car
1/43 1977 Dodge Monaco Finchburg County Patrol Car Green Machine
1/64 1975 Plymouth Fury Hazzard County Patrol Car
1/64 1975 Plymouth Fury Hazzard County Patrol Car Green Machine
You can buy each of these cars now at Cooter's Place (while they last)
The 1/18 cars don't come in Green Machine versions. Greenlight isn't stopping there. The next release is one I'm really excited for. Greenlight is producing Daisy's Dixie Jeep in 1/8, 1/43, and 1/64. The 1/43 should be here first. I really can't wait for the 1/18! After that we get all kinds of neighboring counties patrol cars as well as even more versions of Rosco and Enos's cars. There are so many coming that I had to make a spreadsheet to keep everything straight. I'm sure there are other cars coming that haven't been announced yet. Hey Greenlight, if you got your ears on, we love what your doing. If I can make a few suggestions, we haven't gotten a good Boss Hogg Cadillac since 1981 and all of Cooter's tow trucks have been a little off. If we could put a 1/18 Caddy and a 1/18 Hazzard Garage tow truck next to your 1/18 Rosco, 1/18 Uncle Jesse Pickup and 1/18 Daisy's Jeep, well that would beat all we ever saw.
