Now this is an exciting and different bunch of Dukes of Hazzard collectibles. We got knock-offs, super rare clothes, foreign variants, newer licensed oddballs, and an episode on film! Let's check them out.
I have episodes of the Dukes on VHS and DVD. I have the movie on HDDVD, PSP UMD, and a bunch of different foreign disc formats. I own the show on digital streaming formats. Let's say I have a lot of different versions of the Dukes. But this is definitely the most unique and rare version of the show I own. This is a complete episode of the Dukes of Hazzard on 16mm film. Wow!
Do you remember the episode Duke of Duke from season 2? A Duke cousin from across the pond shows up and the Dukes accept him into the family. Daisy kind of falls for him while Luke doesn't think his story is adding up. Bo just smiles a lot and goes along with Luke's plan and gives a couple yeehaws. Turns out the Duke isn't a Duke and is trying to scam the folks of Hazzard. Classic. If we were to find a 16mm projector, we could watch it using this film.
The reel is marked Viacom Enterprises. That makes it official. I was told this film was sent to a local TV station for the first syndication run of the show. It was sent a few years after the original air date when the show was still in production. Only the first three seasons were produced for syndication on this type of film and later episodes were sent on tape. This film is super rare and I'm so excited to have it in the collection.
The episode title is hand-written on the reel. The film itself is very big and pretty heavy.
The fist images on the film are a standard 5 to 1 countdown. I'm happy the Dukes always had a "Tonight On The Dukes" intro because I didn't have to unravel too much film to find some good images. Here's Luke explaining his plan to Bo, who is pretending to understand. Wow, I'm being kind of hard on Ol' Bo today.
Here's a shot of Rosco getting ready to cuff'em and stuff'em. The audio track can be seen on the right of the film. Just looking at it, you can hear Rosco's signature kew kew kew laugh. This is such a cool piece.
The film reel comes in this bulky case that can be locked using slides in the corners. This protective case must be why the film is in such great condition all these years later. What an amazing item.
Ok this one is weird. We all know Funko. The company behind Pop Funkos, the figures that include every license in pop culture. There are Pop Funko figures for Marvel, DC, Wrestling, NFL, NBA, music, Disney, Star Wars, nearly every movie and TV show; there are Pops from almost everything, except one thing. There are no Pop Funko Dukes of Hazzard. It's a real shame too because they have great figures in cars, like Ghostbusters, A-Team, and Fast and the Furious that have the figures sticking out of the roof. Maybe someday. But until that day, the fine folks at Funko have released this line of blind-bag collectibles called Daisy Dukes Dogs.
What are Daisy Dukes Dogs? Well, I guess they are dogs wearing Daisy Dukes. Blind-bags are all the rage these days. Similar to baseball and trading card packs where you never know which card you're going to get, blind-bags are collectibles that may contain common or rare figures or toys. There are several different dogs wearing short shorts in this collection.
I cam across these online and saw that it was made by Funko, Way back when this blog was new, I met Reis O'Brien, who at the time was a fellow blogger and custom toy designer who shares our love for all things Dukes.
We met up at San Diego Comic Con back in 2012. Reis has climbed the ranks of toy creator stardom and is now a lead designer at Funko. He's big time. We still stay in touch online. As soon as I saw one of these online I had to ask Reis about it. He said they weren't Dukes related, but we both know he had to say that. I asked if there was a Flash looking dog and Reis said of course. That's the one I had to add to the collection. So now I have a Flash in Daisy Dukes in my collection.
The package has a Daisy Dukes Dogs logo front and center. Short shorts are synonymous with Daisy Duke. Catherine popularized the look. To call something Daisy Dukes you are always acknowledging Daisy and the Dukes of Hazzard. I'm glad Funko is finally in the Dukes business, at least in a tiny way. Here's hoping we see official Dukes Funko items in the future.
The other dogs in Daisy's shorts are shown on the package. I got one Flash dog, and one unopened blind-bag. This is a fun and different addition.
Next up are some wild ones. These are unlicensed Dukes inspired strip ticket lottos. Twice a year, I host a fundraiser for our church called the Bonanza. Our team of four run the event and I'm the MC. We have a raffle where an attendee can win a big cash prize and we give away other prizes and money. One of the popular items are strip tickets where Bonanza goers can win a quick few hundred bucks. I'm usually not the one selling these, but I almost always announce the winners. They usually have different themes like tabby-tails and lucky sevens. I've never seen Dukes inspired ones. I love these things!
The first one is called "Bootleggn'" and offers a chance to win $200. It costs $1 to play and $5 could also be won instantly. It features a cartoon General Lee being chased by a generic black and white police car. It was produced by a company called Capital Gaming Mtg. in 2008.
There is legal information on the back that is specific to California. Gambling with these games is strictly regulated and the rules differ from state to state. Our church has a Small Games of Chance license that lets us host our events. I really enjoy being the face of the event. I am a total ham.
Speaking of ham, the other ticket has a pig dressed up like our favorite crooked county commissioner. The Boss Hog ticket has ol' JD as an actual Hog. I'll forgive the lack of the double G that I'm sure was to avoid legal trouble. This ticket also costs a $1 to play.
This ticket has several different instant win options and the big prize is a cool hundred bucks. There is additional legal info on the back. It's made by a different company, called Tabco, and was produced in 2006. It's crazy that two different pull ticket producers made Dukes inspired lottos. If you've been to a Dukes event that involves cars, you've probably run into Bobby Scott. He is one of the hardest working and most trustworthy Dukes fans in the hobby. He organizes all the General Lees at the big events and is a great guy.
He took me for a spin around the track in his General Lee at Good Ol' Boy fest and it was so much fun. He created and runs the Hazzard Run event with Cooter's Place and it's grown to be one of the premiere Dukes events year in and year out. I can't wait for this year's event in October. More on that in a future post. Bobby came across these great lottos and thought I would like to ad them to my collection. He was so right. Thanks Bobby, I love these odd little Dukes tickets!
Speaking of pins.
We all know that I obsessed over the Jaycees pins and collected them all recently. Apparently, in a similar move to the Jaycees, the Lions Club International also has a pin trading program. We all know the Lions as a service organization the supports so many causes such as sight, hearing, and speech conservation, diabetes awareness and youth outreach. They do amazing work. They also create fun pins and happen to have a couple Dukes pins. In 2008 a set of pins were released that included some of the best vehicles from TV and movies. Along with the General Lee and Dixie, the set includes, the 1989 Batmobile, Fred's Flintmobile, The Munster Koach from the Munsters, Jed's truck form the Beverly Hillbilles, the Sanford and Son pickup, the A-Team van, the Torino from Starskey and Hutch, KITT, and Andy's police car from the Andy Griffith Show. That's quite a line up.
I've been aware of these pins but never owned any. Dave DeWitt has the Gen'ral and Dixie. Each pin has the name of a Lion on them. I didn't do a deep dive to figure out why each club member is on the pin. Since these pins aren't that old, maybe the PDG Larry Anderson or Lion Barbara Anderson will google their own name and come across this post and start a conversation about the origin of these pins. I love the fact that a fellow Larry is named on the General Lee pin. We Larrys love that General Lee!
Each pin has two pins on the back and have plastic yellow pin backs. I bought the entire collection in one fell swoop and they came on this sheet like this. I didn't take them off. If I would have bought just the Gen'ral and Dixie, I might have later on wanted to complete the collection of star cars. I'm glad I got them all at once.
For years, when anyone asked me what some of my most wanted items were, the answer always included Dukes of Hazzard kid's jeans. I finally added a pair of the famed jeans to my collection and I'm so excited.
The jeans are very soft and include a rebel flag and General Lee patch on the back pockets.
The jeans are definitely worn-in and the patches show great patina.
The front of the jeans don't have any Dukes to them.
Just to be sure they aren't just kids jeans with Dukes patches sewn on, there is a Dukes tag inside. These bad boys were released in the great year in 1981.
Next up is a set of items I've been aware of but never tracked down. These are leather wrapped Dukes of Hazzard butane lighters.
These lighters share the modern era brown package design that was used for nearly a decade after Warner Bros shifted all the Dukes merchandising from the 2005 movie back to the show. This design was used up until 2015.
These don't have a date on them. My guess is they were released around 2008ish.
I bought a bundle of weird blinking solar powered keychains and wrote about them back in 2012. They were WB licensed and made by a company called Novelty Inc. I believe these lighters were made by the same company. They were sold at retail at discount shops and off brand stores. They didn't quite make it to Walmarts or Targets. This is an odd little package. I've avoided buying individual ones because I wanted the package too. I bought a set from a fellow collector years ago, but it got lost along the way somehow. I finally found the whole set at a good price recently.
The package comes with twelve lighters and there are six different varieties.
The three brown ones all include the Dukes logo. One just has the logo, one has the General Lee and one has a big 01 on it.
The three black ones have just the logo, the 01 on the General Lee and lovely Daisy on them. Each lighter has the image on both sides printed on actual leather (according to the package).
They still have butane in them and light. They are weird additions to the collection and are getting harder to find. Boss Hogg would like to have one of these. I got these through the mail. Every time you ship something, they ask you at the post office if the package contains anything liquid, flammable, or dangerous? This package was all three but still somehow got through the postal service to arrive in my collection. I didn't know.
Another few items that came to me by way of good ol' Bobby Scott are these golden era knock off toys.
This is an actual Mego Daisy Duke that has seen better days, but the Jeep is what I was interested in. This huge Jeep Golden Eagle is such a cool toy.
It's not in the best condition and the windshield is broken off, but the graphics are great and it fits the 8 inch Mego line perfectly. I'm sure it wasn't specifically a Dukes knock off toy because the Golden Eagle is an iconic enough vehicle to have it's own toys. But it's in the Dukes collection now. Welcome fun Jeep toy.
Gay Toys didn't get too creative with their Rosco car. It's just the same '71 Charger body they used for their General Lee. I'm sure they used the least amount of effort and capital possible and probably already hade the mold for this style car. They just made some orange and some white. The police badge logo is pretty similar to the real thing. It's obvious why WB sued the company. I see a scenario where a young Dukes fan asked their grandparents to buy some Dukes toys and they went to a discount store, maybe one that also had a grocery store, like Fayette County's infamous Penchin's Village, and bought these kinda Dukes toys instead of the real thing. A respected toy store like Toy City, in Roscoe, PA wouldn't carry these type of rip offs; they only sold the licensed Dukes of Hazzard goodness.
My collection sure has evolved since I started this blog. Back in 2014, I was using terms like holy grail and landed one pair of Dukes of Hazzard kid's tennis shoes and thought I'd reached the pinnacle of collecting. I still can't believe I now have four different pair of these super rare footgear, and there are still several I'm chasing. I showed off the other two before, and now let me present my third and forth pair of mystical Dukes of Hazzard sneakers!
We all know these shoes are rare. They are some of the rarest of all commercially produced Dukes goods. One thing I think is funny is you barely ever see them in less than perfect condition these forty odd years later. I seems to me that they were either put away for posterity or worn the heck out of. You never see beat up Dukes shoes because if they were worn, they were worn to death. This pair is in brand new condition. They are connected by a plastic wire.
A really fun addition to these shoes is the Dukes ID card. It has one of the best cartoon images of the General Lee in mid-air on the front and a place for the young Dukes fan to write their name, address and phone number. I suppose this card was meant to be placed in Gordy or
AJI Inc Dukes wallets.
The shoes are similar to the other ones I have but a little different. They come with Dukes branded shoe strings. The other pair of lace up shoes have plain white strings.
The string says The Dukes of Hazzard in blue. The title is also repeated on the interior sides of the shoes. The orange 01 has a white background. The other pair of lace-ups has the orange 01 printed directly on the blue canvas and the velcro shoes have this similar 01 on white.
The box for this one matches the other boxes and isn't in perfect condition. It kept the shoes safe all these years, but took a little damage. The Dukes tissue paper is still in the box though. That's one of my favorite parts of the Dukes shoes package. I got this pair on ebay after noticing it was slightly different than my previous pairs.
One super rare pair isn't enough for this blog post. I added another super super rare pair of Dukes shoes to the collection recently.
This pair really blew me away. Every once in a while I get those magical emails that start off with something like: "I read your blog" or "I found your blog looking for info on this item I have." A lot of times those emails lead to new additions to the collection and I'm so grateful for them. This time I was in Sam's Club when Samantha emailed me about a pair of shoes she was considering selling. Being deep in the big box store, the picture took a few minutes to load on my phone but when it came through I jumped on the opportunity. We want back and forth with emails as I went up and down the huge isles at Sam's. Before I checked out, we had a deal and I sent her some Venmo money. I bought some bulk groceries and a new pair of Dukes shoes that day. It was a good day.
I've never seen this variation of Dukes shoes before. These are considered Daisy Duke shoes and were marketed toward girls who loved the Dukes. Girl's Dukes stuff is more rare because less of it was made. I've seen other pairs of Daisy shoes before. There is a pair at Cooter's in Nashville on display, and your pal and mine, Dave DeWitt, has a pair. But both of those pair of shoes have more canvas and are mostly white. They do have the same Daisy flower on them, but they are totally different shoes. I've never seen a pair like this before.
They are quite small. Maybe the pair Dave and Cooter's have were geared toward elementary aged kids and these are the toddler variety. Another big difference is the bottom. The other pair has a cartoon image of Daisy herself on the sole. This pair has the same General Lee jumping image that's one the more common blue shoes. They don't have the connecting wire or the ID card, but it's obvious they are in brand new condition and have never been worn. The laces appear to have never been untied.
299 is written in silver marker on the front of the bottom. My guess is these were sold for a whopping two dollars and ninety-nine cents way back when. I paid a little more than that to Samantha for them. The fact that the price is on the actual shoe tells me these probably never came in a box.
These bad boys, no wait, bad girls also come with Dukes branded laces. This time the Dukes lettering is a nice light blue. I know someone who loves that color.
The Dukes of Hazzard is also repeated on the interior sides. These shoes are really special and the rarest pair of the super rare shoes I have.
Go back and tell 2014 Larry that in a few years his blog would lead him to four different pairs of Dukes shoes and he wouldn't believe it. I still don't believe it. You can see the differences in the four pairs. The larger lace-up pair have plain white laces and the orange 01 is printed directly on the material. The velcro pair and smaller lace-ups have a similar white insert with the 01s printed on it. These are all quite different and there's still at least another style of Daisy shoes, a Boss Hogg themed pair, and a grey General Lee pair that has printed wheels on the side. And those are just the ones I know about. I got a lot more shoes to find.
I think it's interesting that there are so many variations in the shoe laces.
There's even a packaged set of Dukes shoe laces you could buy individually.
I have several pair of Dukes shoe laces and they aren't terribly hard to find.
The laces were produced by LJN who are famously behind the large rubber WWF figures as well as the Thundercats action figures. LJN didn't produce the Dukes shoes. These are officially called The Dukes of Hazzard Fun Laces.
The Fun Laces differ from the laces that come with the shoes. They have repeating General Lees, with nice little 01s, and the Dukes text is in the Dukes font we all love. The laces that came with the shoes are in generic font. It's surprising how much variation there is in the Dukes footwear market.
Now you might feel sad that the Daisy shoes didn't come in a box. But don't fret dear DukesCollector reader. Way back when I thought I would never have the opportunity to add a pair of Dukes shoes to the collection, let alone four pair, I bought an empty Dukes shoe box. Each of the other pair came with a box so now I have four pair and four boxes. That worked out quite nicely.
This is a long one. Let's take it home. The final item in this list of pretty great items come to us from Germany by way of the Netherlands. This is a German version of the brown box Dukes of Hazzard slot car set.
Just in case you didn't know the name of the car, General Lee is added above the 01.
The cars are listed as the Sherriff-Auto and the Duke-Boys-Dodge. I can translate those from German without using Google!
The pictures are the same as the American version of the set. Did anyone actually get the Gen'ral to land the jump and keep going around the track?
The set itself is in nearly perfect condition. The tracks have The Dukes of Hazzard printed on them in English. All the pieces are present.
Any thoughts of firing this set up were dashed when I saw the plug. I won't be trying to plug that into the wall anytime soon.
This is my favorite track piece.
The cars have a little wear to them. The General thankfully doesn't have the General text above the 01s; it's where it belongs beside the flag. The Sherriff-Auto doesn't look much like Rosco's car and the decals are worn away.
The German instructions are really interesting and worth clicking to enlarge and checking out. I love the graphic of the General Lee and patrol car. I'm surprised there's no mention of the Dukes of Hazzard anywhere on the package or in the instructions. I guess the German Dukes fan had to recognize the General Lee, but who wouldn't? Thanks again to Serge for giving me the opportunity to add this great variant to the collection.
What a fun bunch of items in this post. The film reel is something I never thought of getting and I've been searching for jeans forever. I love collecting all this crazy Dukes stuff and I love sharing it with the world. Yee-Haw!
