Look at this beauty! Recently I found this amazing store display that was originally intended to sell the movie when it was first released on DVD. Somehow over the last sixteen years since the movie came out, I've never come across one and as soon as I saw it, I had to have it. Come along with me as I build this gem that's definitely become a new cornerstone of my collection.
So, normally I'm all about keeping things mint. I'll usually get at least two of everything, one to open and one to keep sealed. If it's tougher to find or if I can only get one, it will most likely stay in the package. This display came unbuilt and folded up. I struggled with the notion of keeping it in this state, but I dropped that idea pretty quickly and knew I had to put this bad boy together.
It didn't just come in a plastic bag. It came in a poly bag with this great little tag on it. The official name for this display is The Dukes Of Hazzard Large A-Frame Header Kit. It's a household name.
It came with detailed instructions. Thank goodness it did or I would have had a heck of a time getting it together. The original is a little crinkled up, so I made a copy of it. I use legal size paper at work, but don't come across it much outside of my work forms. It's funny that the instructions were printed on legal.
I really don't think I could have completed this thing without the directions. I love how detailed they are.
The graphics are great on the print out. I'm so happy every piece is accounted for.
Let's take a look at the individual parts. A movie catchphrase that was mostly under utilized was "Cousins, Outlaws, Thrillbillies." I don't love it. Thrillbillies is a little...silly. But it's on most of the posters and on the DVD packages. I'm really glad they didn't actually say it in the movie. These pieces are stickers that are to be applied on the shelves.
I love that Warner Bros. created a different logo for the movie and kept it separate from the show. For the most part, everything dealing with the movie has the underline Z under Hazzard. This title piece is big. I love giant carboard letters spelling out some of my favorite words in the world!
All the pieces are made of cardboard. I'm really happy they didn't need punched out and were already cut out.
This is possibly my favorite piece. It's the jumping General Lee. This image of the Gen'ral in midair is used quite heavily mostly because it's an awesome shot.
Casting two legends like Burt and Willie made it an easy decision to include them on nearly all the advertisements. They look like they are two buddies back to back. The movie didn't go the route of Jesse and JD being good enemies but better friends like in the show. The movie did a lot of things different. That's an understatement.
This display is huge and the images of the Duke cousins are really big I'm now the owner of a nearly life size cardboard Jessica Simpson and I'm ok with that. I also got a big ol' Stifler and Knoxville!
Putting the shelves together wasn't difficult. Just some folding and tab inserting. Pretty quickly I had three shelves and was ready for the fun parts.
The base is made of only a few large pieces and the shelves each go on it. It's starting to look like a display now.
The header is placed on the base first then the Dukes logo gets inserted into the header.
The logo pegs don't go all the way into the header. It sticks out over an inch to give it a really 3D look. The General Lee appears to be jumping out of the logo. I love it.
Just this 3D header above the shelf looks cool, but there's so much more to this display.
Next the Duke Boys are inserted into the header and Luke's shoulder hangs on the base. There's a huge rectangular hole in Luke. It appears something goes there.
It's Daisy. She get's inserted into the slots left in the Boys piece. She's sitting on the General Lee so this display includes two Gen'rals. The images are basically a deconstructed movie poster. It works really well for the display.
The last part is to attach the tag lines and the Welcome to Hazzard County placard.
The image of Boss and Uncle Jesse goes below the shelves. It has built in double sided tape, but for some reason I didn't want to use it. I put some additional removable tape on it and it works well enough. Me and my keeping things mint weirdness.
The tag lines are basically big stickers. Again, I used some removable tape to adhere them to the shelves. I really don't know why I didn't permanently affix them, but they look almost perfect using the tape.
It's pretty funny they included Boss's Reserved for Hogg parking sign. I really don't know why. It would have made more sense to include his signature Cadillac. I don't think I can think of another Dukes movie piece, either promotional or not that includes the sign. You only see it once in the movie. Weird.
I really love the way the General Lee is jumping out of the logo and over the Duke cousins. The imagery on this piece is more action packed than the large movie
posters and banners I have.
This is such a special piece. It's so big and takes up a lot of space. I never really considered not putting it together. I knew it would be so perfect as not only a beautiful piece on it's own but also an amazing way to display other Dukes movie items. It was built to hold dozens of copies of the movie on DVD, but I will use it to show off different versions of the movie, toys, promotional items, and other fun stuff. This will be the center of my movie collection which will be in one corner of my entire Dukes collection. I have to figure out which corner this will go in. It's crazy that I've never seen another one of these bad boys in the years since the movie came out. If it was meant for a bigger chain like Walmart, there would definitely have been other copies of it out there. It must have been an independent video store piece, and by 2005 those were becoming scarce. Maybe it wasn't even actually released and this is one of a kind. Whatever the case, it's the only one I've ever seen and I'm so happy I own it. I can't wait to fill it with movie stuff. I love this hobby.
