My Most Wanted Dukes of Hazzard Items

I'm going to try something a little different on this post.  Usually I show things I've added to the collection or things that have been in the collection for a long time.  This time around I'm going to show off things that I don't have.  I'm frequently asked if there are Dukes of Hazzard items that aren't in my collection.  The answer to that is an overwhelming yes.  I'm happy I don't have everything because then I wouldn't have anything to chase.  Just like Rosco P. Coltrane, I really like chasing the General Lee!  There are a lot of items I haven't added to the collection yet.  There are some school notebooks I don't have, there are some variations of the Ertl four car set, and who knows if I'll ever catch up with all the new Greenlight cars they keep releasing.  I just got their Tri-Counties Bonding car, who asked for a Tri-Counties Bonding car??!?!  But you know I bought it, and I will soon blog about it.  And I'll definitely catch up on the Greenlights.  But if I'm going to write a blog about my most wanted list, I'm not going to talk about items that I currently don't have but will pop up on ebay eventually.  I'm shooting for the stars.  I'm going to lay out some items that I'd love to find, but the chances of doing so aren't too great.  Talking about them on the blog might help me find them.  That worked before with a little item called the Dukes of Hazzard swimming pool!  So let's give this a shot.  Here's a few items that I'd love to add to the collection.  

If I'm going to shoot for the stars, I'm going all the way up.  This is my number one most wanted item.  It's called the Boss Hogg 3 Dimensional Plastic Pop Art.   It's a golden era item made my Dimensional Graphics Co., Inc. also know as DGC.  It, of course, features Boss Hogg wearing a Boss Hogg For President pin.  It's a poster that "pops out" and is 3D.  This is a screenshot of a video I took at the original Sperryville Cooter's store back in 2003.  I fell in love with this poster then and always hoped to find one.  It's now hanging in the Nashville Cooter's Place and I've never seen another.  I would love to find one.  It was sold at Toys 'R Us and other purveyors of fine Dukes of Hazzard merchandise when the show was originally on.  I guess it's just a very rare item because of its poster size.  I'm not really sure how thick it is but maybe many of them shared the same fate as the Dukes kiddie pool, being big and flimsy which lead to them breaking and being super rare today.  Man would I love to hang this 3D Boss Hogg poster up in the collection.  

 

My next most wanted Dukes item also features Rosco's little fat buddy.  Remember the Dukes of Hazzard McDonald's promotion that included vehicle shaped boxes and character cups?  I dedicated a whole blog post to it.  In that post I mentioned the above Boss Hogg stand up.  It was an restaurant display of Boss saying "I've finally got my hands on the General Lee."  Boss is holding a General Lee shaped Happy Meal box.  How beautiful is that piece?  A few have sold on ebay over the past two decades (wow, I've been on ebay for over two decades!) but I never landed one.  I've never actually seen one in person so I don't know the size of it.  Unless that light switch in the picture is particularly low, it seems to be over four feet tall.  It would look great next to my other Dukes stand ups and displays, especially this Daisy Dukes stand up promoting the Dukes of Hazzard video games.  

Maybe I should offer to trade my Daisy stand up for a Boss Hogg McDonald's display.  (Maybe I have 2 Daisys)

Next up is another super rare piece.  It's the Dukes of Hazzard bean bag chair.  This one is sitting behind glass at Cooter's Place in Nashville.  It's a licensed golden era piece.  This one is white and blue and there is also a white and red version.  I've only seen one sell on ebay and it was years ago.  I was in a heated bidding war for it and I lost out.  

About three minutes after the auction ended I got a text from your pal and mine, Dave DeWitt telling me how excited he was to win a Dukes bean bag.  We were engaged in a bidding war against each other.  You can see his red and white bean bar on the corner of the table in the above picture sitting behind Matt Thomas's gorgeous General Lee and in front of Dave's amazing mobile museum.  I'm surprised I don't have a better picture of it.  Me and Dave have gotten into quite a few bidding wars over the years, the most recent being just last week.  I'll win one day Dave!

Another item I would love to have is the Dukes of Hazzard Daisy Power Cycle, more commonly known as the Daisy Big Wheel.  I have the General Lee version both complete and in good shape, and sealed in a box.  I would love to get the white Dixie Jeep inspired version.  Perhaps this one is so rare because it's geared toward girls.  Maybe the powers that be didn't produce as many because they didn't think girls would want to buy Dukes toys.  It's a shame toy company and studio big wigs thought like that.  Girls love Dukes just as much as boys.  There should be as many Daisy big wheels out there as there are General Lee big wheels.  But there aren't many General Lee big wheels out there because they were ridden hard and got pretty beat up.  A fun story is a friend of mine from high school found an unopened General Lee big wheel in his grandparents' basement.  Apparently they bought it way back when to give as a present but never did.  When my friend, who forgot about my Dukes fanaticism, googled the big wheel, it lead him to me.  He lives twelve miles away and had to go online to be reminded that his ol's buddy Larry was the guy who wanted his Dukes big wheel.  It's now in my collection and we're better friends because of it.  Maybe this post will lead someone else with a Daisy big wheel my way.  Fingers crossed.  

Finally I'll mention the Dukes of Hazzard ruler.  I could go on and on about my most wanted list, but I'll revisit this topic down the road.  This is a picture of Dave's ruler.  Dave really does have an awesome collection.  The ruler was made by leadworks.  Leadworks Inc. from Cleveland Ohio also made the Dukes of Hazzard pencil and the pencil cup.  You can see both of those items in my collection on this post.  I'm extremely fortunate to have two of the three Leadworks Dukes items.  I found the pencil can at a local antiques store of all places and tracked down the pencil online.  I would love to finish the set of Leadworks Dukes of Hazzard school supplies by adding the ruler to my collection.  Toes crossed along with my fingers.  

Of course there's one giant piece of Dukes of Hazzard memorabilia that I don't yet have in my collection.  And that's a highly stressed "yet."  I don't own an actual 1969 Dodge Charger General Lee.  It's not so much a matter of not being able to find one, just timing.  When the time comes, I will one hundred percent have this missing piece in my collection.  I will own a General Lee.  

This has been a fun little look at pieces I don't have.  It would be wonderful if this blog post lead to me tracking down one or more of these most wanted Dukes of Hazzard items.  If you have any of these pieces and want to get them into my collection, please contact me, either by email at lafre@atlanticbb.net or on twitter and instagram at @larryafranks.  I've already got my fingers and toes crossed that I find some of these items. What else can I cross?