The Greenlights keep coming! This time we got three new cars in two scales that each have special editions. Let's check them out!
This is probably the car I've been most excited for in GL's Hazzardous Collection. We finally get a super accurate Dixie Jeep! We've had diecast Dixies since the Golden Era, but none of them captured Daisy's trusty Jeep as accurately as all the diecast General Lees we've been blessed with. This new one from Greenlight Collectibles is a home-run! GL's first Dixie is in the 1/43 scale. As we all know by now, GL is covering a lot of bases in their Hazzardous offerings that include 1/64, 1/43, and 1/18. They have both of the other scales on deck for us later this year. The Jeep is the diecast I'm most excited for, but the 1/18 scale is definitely the lead hitter on my roster. I can't wait to see that one, it's sure to be a grand slam. Let's take a look at GL's new 1/43 1979 Jeep CJ-7 Golden Eagle Dixie.
The box for the newest 1/43 Dukes vehicle is similar to the previous entries. It has a lighter brown design and features a lighter background than the first two police cars. The Jeep is labeled as a 1979 model. The show used a 1980 model but from what I can tell by reading online, there wasn't a difference in the two model years. The Jeep was, of course, customized by the Dukes of Hazzard producers.
The custom Dixie logo with the daisies is used on the back of the box. This is the logo that's on the hood of the Jeep.
The first three GL 1/43 Hazzardous cars have shrink wrap around the boxes, but this replica is wrapped in plastic and taped. I wonder why GL changed it up?
The bold Jeep logo is on top of the box. My first car was a 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee; I have a special place in my heart for Jeeps and this logo. I really love this replica.
The bottom of the box is similar to the previous Greenlight releases. I've said it a bunch of times before, so everyone say it with me this time, "there is no mention of the Dukes of Hazzard or Warner Bros. on the box because this car, and all the cars in Greenlight's Hazzardous Collection are not licensed." Ok, the obligatory statement is out of the way.
Each of the 1/43 scale cars comes with a nice little display case. For the first time, I actually unscrewed this car from the case to take pictures. For my previous reviews, I opened the boxes but left the cars attached to the base. I had to see this new Jeep from all angles.
The Jeep is just beautiful. The General Lee is one hundred percent the star car of Hazzard County, but Dixie is a close second. The look of the Jeep is nearly as iconic as the Gen'ral and I can't believe it's taken forty-one years since it's first appearance to finally get an accurate replica.
Let's discuss a little Hazzard History that pertains to Daisy's beloved Jeep. In the beginning of the series Daisy drove a big yellow Plymouth muscle car that rivaled the General Lee. There were a couple different models but it was mostly a Road Runner, and sometimes a Satellite. Autoworld released a 1/18 Satellite and the Road Runner was released several times in 1/64 by Ertl and Johnny Lightning and in 1/144 by Racing Champions. The first time Daisy's Jeep was seen on the Dukes of Hazzard was in the December 1979 season two episode "Arrest Jesse Duke." The episodes were aired out of order and the Jeep wasn't given a proper introduction until two episodes later, in the January 1980 episode "The Runaway."
Daisy just got finished washing and waxing her yellow Plymouth when Bo and Luke asked to use the car. The throttle jammed and the Duke Boys narrowly escape before the Road Runner plunged from a cliff to a fiery death. You might think the episode is called "The Runaway" because of the runaway Raod Runner, but the runaway is actually Suzy Holmes, who is running away from her rich father, tycoon C. J. Holmes, who is trying to stop her from marrying "just a farmer." The Dukes find Suzy and help her get to "just a farmer" Fred and away from Daddy's hired muscle. Once Uncle Jesse sets C. J. straight and he realizes the error of his ways, C. J. presents Daisy with a new car since hers got destroyed because of his actions.
We don't see Dixie until the end of "The Runaway." Waylon tells us the the name of the Jeep is Dixie. In that episode, Dixie looks a little different than what we're used to. The soon to be classic Dixie logo is on the door and the Golden Eagle logo is on the hood, the way it would come from a dealership. The next time we see Dixie, and actually the first time we see it, in the out of order episode two weeks before, the doors are gone and the Dixie logo replaces the Golden Eagle logo on the hood. I've never heard why the change was made to get rid of the doors, but I'm sure I know the answer. A lot of times Daisy had to get into Dixie fast and take off after the bad guys, or gals. The door probably got in the way. Jumping in and taking off would be a lot easier if she didn't have to open the door. Since they could be easily removed, I'm sure it was better to just leave them off. The Dixie logo looked better on the hood anyway.
There were no other changes made to Dixie after "The Runaway." Now that we know how Daisy got Dixie, and the show even addressed how Daisy could have a brand new car when it is established that the Dukes don't have much money, you may be asking why the switch was made. The answer is simple. Money. AMC, American Motors Corporation, owned the Jeep brand since 1970. AMC knew a good thing when they saw it and saw that the Dukes of Hazzard was popular. During the second season AMC partnered with Warner Bros. to provide vehicles for the show. Besides giving away bad guy cars and background cars, they wanted one of their vehicles to star in the show. What better way than to give Daisy a new Jeep? The Road Runner was thrown off a cliff and Dixie was born.
The partnership was even mentioned the end credits. I would say AMC made a very smart move because the Jeep is an iconic part of an iconic TV show and we are still talking about it over forty years later. AMC was later purchased by Chrysler, who happens to make Dodge, which, of course, made the Charger. Did Dixie and General Lee lead to that merger? We may never know.
Ok, history lesson over. Back to the diecast. GL nailed every detail. The front grill with its seven iconic slots is perfect. The wipers are up in that first image of Daisy and her Jeep. I bet GL used that image as reference and made the model wipers up to match.
The rear end looks perfect too.
Well would you look at at that. FCH 630 is right there. Even Hazzard County is present on the plate. Good job GL!
This Jeep just looks great from every angle.
What happened when it rained in Hazzard County? Silly question, it never rained in Hazzard.
The Golden Eagle is perfectly represented on the hood. I know this is a Jeep logo and not specific to the Dukes, but I can't see this image without thinking of Daisy. It's her logo.
You know I had to do it. I had to break out older Dixie Jeeps and take my favorite picture. I present the Dixie Jeep scale picture! Here we have the 1/25 scale Ertl Jeep from 1981, the new GL 1/43 Dixie, the Johnny Lightning Dukes Series 2 Dirty Dixie Jeep 1/64 from 2006 and the Racing Champions 1/144 Dixie from 1997. I love taking these types of pictures.
The Ertl 1/25 has a big error on it. It has "Daisy" instead of "Dixie" on it. The first Ertl 1/64s as well as Silver Era Ertl and JL 1/64s also made this mistake. I'm glad GL got it right. None of the previous diecasts came anywhere close to being as accurate as the GL 1/43.
Here is a slew of 1/64s from Ertl and JL. They are each different types of Jeeps and not the correct CJ-7 Golden Eagle. It's as if toy designers said slap the eagle on any Jeep casting we have, no one will know the difference. We knew. And we're glad someone finally got it right.
When I've done these types of comparisons before, I always seem to say the most accurate previous replicas are the 1997 1/144 Racing Champion. RC got it 'em all right back in '97. The reason the RCs are so accurate is because they were each made from scratch. They had to cast the models especially for the Dukes vehicles so there wasn't the temptation to see what older near accurate castings were available. This picture is like a Momma Jeep with a Baby Jeep. So cute!
The eagle looks great on all the replicas.
Remember back in 2018 when Jeep paid homage to Diasy Duke and her iconic Dixie Jeep by including a pair of Daisy Duke Shorts with a daisy on the hood of their 2018 special edition Golden Eagle Wranglers? That was awesome. Greenlight remembers that and released a diecast to commemorate it. I had to add it to the collection.
Though you couldn't tell it has any connection to the Dukes from the box, it's definitely a Dukes vehicle.
The styling is all Dixie. They two Jeeps were made to be together,
The original Golden Eagle next to the 2018 version. They both look great.
Ok, the Daisy Dukes logo was too small to make it onto the replica, but we know it's there.
This is a fun model and I'm glad GL made it. I came close to buying this actual car. If I can't have the real thing, I'm glad I have a model of it. Thanks Jeep for officially including Dukes in the Jeep legacy, and thanks GL for making a diecast of it.
Greenlight also made a Green Machine version of the Dixie Jeep. This one isn't Green at all.
The special edition version of the Jeep is mostly silver with a white windshield frame and roll bar.
It's a nice look and proves that not all Green Machines have to be green. I like it!
The four 1/43 cars in the Hazzardous Collection all have similar boxes but I'm glad GL moved toward the lighter box backgrounds to make the car standout more. I love the new Dixie and can't wait to get it in glorious 1/18 scale!
If you can believe it, I have more cars to talk about in this post. GL has also given us a new 1/64 Hazzard Patrol Car.
The lesser seen 1975 Dodge Monaco in 1/64 is now a part of the Hazzardous Collection.
The 1/64 cars are a part of the Hobby Exclusive line. These cars are sold at smaller stores such as Hobby stores and Cooter's Place. This is a great program that GL does to help out smaller individually owned stores. Uncle Jesse would be proud.
We all know what I'm gonna say here. No WB, no Dukes.
The car looks good. I'm more of a fan of the '77 and '78 Monacos and Furys, but this model year was seen on the Dukes and is accurate.
It matches its 1/24 scale counterpart. Thankfully the 1/64 version does not incorrectly reference Smokey and the Bandit like the 1/24 version does.
It's fun having cars other than the Gen'ral in so many different scales.
The Green Machine version of this car has the familiar green wheels.
The chassis is also green on the Green Machine.
And the final car in this post is the Chickasaw County Patrol car in 1/64 scale. Another beauty.
The package matches the others. Hobby Exclusive and no WB/Dukes.
Like its larger brother, the Sheriff Little's Monaco has the large pushbar in front.
This car looks good from all angles.
The Chickasaw County Sheriff badge would make Don Pedro Colley proud.
The SFR 304 license plate makes another appearance. In the post about the 1/18 version of this car, I wrote that I didn't know what Sheriff Little's tag read, but then later noticed it while watching the Dukes (I watch it a lot) and it was not SFR 304. In the season six episode "Dead and Alive" the plate of the sheriff's car was 7624. I wonder where GL got this plate.
Here are the three 1/64 cars currently available in the Hazzardous Collection. Let's pretend they are being driven by tiny 1/64 versions of Sheriff Little, Rosco P. Coltrane, and Enos!
I wonder why only the Chickasaw car got a license plate. The 83522 and 83502 would look good on these cars. Maybe if they included one it would be specific to Rosco or Enos. Would still be better than nothing.
If tiny Rosco was driving one of these cars he would no doubt wreck into tiny Little and make him mad enough to yell "COLTRAAAAANE!"
Here is the new GL Chickasaw car next to the 2006 Johnny Lightning version that was in the Dukes line series 2. The Greenlight looks much more like a real car.
The JL had a pushbar too. I haven't seen a pushbar on any Chickasaw cars on the show. Maybe the fact that the the previous version of the car came with one is why Greenlight included one on theirs. Maybe they were trying to outdo Johnny Lightning. They certainly did that as their version is all around better.
The JL has a license tag that reads 72583. That also doesn't match up with the tag on the show. Weird.
The Green Machine, again has green wheels. It matched the rest of the car perfectly.
Lotsa green on the Green Machine version of this green Chickasaw Greenlight car. Green.
That was a lot longer than I expected. I'm going to go ahead and say that, so far, the 1/43 Dixie Jeep is my favorite car in Greenlight's Hazzardous Collection. I bet it will be replaced by the 1/18 version to top my list. All of these cars are available at Cooter's Place and on www.cootersplace.com I can't wait to show this car to Catherine, cause she is going to love it!
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