Holiest of Holy Grails: Dukes of Hazzard Children's Tennis Shoes

Holy Grails, the pencil cup, the rain coat, the shelf, the sidewalk bike, the bath mat.  I have been fortunate enough to add all of these items to the collection over the last couple of years since I started this blog.  It seems before the blog got rolling, these items were pipe dreams.  Maybe I've stepped it up since starting the blog, maybe I've just been lucky, perhaps the notoriety has added to my good fortune.  I have really added great entries to the collection.  In my opinion, the pinnacle of commercially produced, Golden Era Dukes of Hazzard collectibles, A number one, top of the list, king of the hill piece is the Children's Tennis Shoes.
These little town blues melted away recently when I added a pristine pair of Dukes shoes to my collection. These truly are the holiest of holy grails.

Like other scarce items such as the bicycle and bath mat, if the shoes were used, it is in their nature not to last.  This particular pair was never even tried on.  The individual shoes are still coupled together with plastic wire.  The colors are so vibrant and they are so flawless, they look brand new.

It surprises me that they are blue with orange accents, and not orange like the General Lee.

The General Lee is clearly the subject of the shoes, not the Duke Boys or Daisy.  These seem like they could be worn by either Good Ol' Boys or Good Ol' Girls.

The liner of the shoes is printed with "The Dukes of Hazzard" repeating throughout the entire inside.  That is a very nice added touch.  I would love to surround my feet with such wonderful words.

If the side of your shoes feature 01s, the tongue should feature the confederate flag.  It's only natural.  It also includes the title and WB's copyright information 1982.

This particular pair of shoes is size 1½ .  In my mind it's size 01½.  That printing on the sole would have been worn off in about a day.

These pristine shoes still have the tag attached to the wire between them.  The tag has a great drawing of the General jumping with the flag behind it.

The back of the tag doubles as an Identification Card.  Dukes footwear enthusiasts are encouraged to jot down their name, address, and phone number in case they forget this pertinent information.

The bottom of the shoes even has an embossed scene of the General Lee jumping over two crashing Hazzard County patrol cars.  I bet they left awesome prints in the dirt.  Imagine if I saw these prints on the ground today.  I'm not sure what I would do.

The heel includes the standard text logo.

This is a lot of detail for the bottom of a shoe.  I'm sure this picture wore out pretty quickly when these shoes were worn as well.

The back of the tongue has a confusing tag.  I'm not sure what S.C.A.I. stands for, but these shoes, referred to here as "Dukes TM" are manufactured to the exact specifications of it.  The "Dukes TM" name and side configurations are indications that the product is of highest quality.  I feel the Dukes name indicates highest quality on everything produced, except that horrible "Beginnings" movie.

Like most shoes, the Dukes shoes came in a shoebox.  This pair came with its original shoebox and it is in great condition.  It features artwork of the General flying in front of the flag.  It is the same image on the tag, but positioned differently.

The top of the box has an image of the top of Rosco's car.  In case you wanted to carry your new shoes home, or perhaps re-purpose your shoebox, the lightbar on top of the police car is popped out with a plastic strap that can be used as a handle.  This is a unique and unexpected feature.  The actual piece of cut out cardboard with the print of the lightbar is still in the box.

The bottom of the box features more of the artwork where the police car came from.  It also feature Boss's Caddy and a piece of the General and Dixie.  It is strange how this shot isn't cropped to show the whole scene.

Each side of the box is the same.  It has the flag, logo, stock number and a sticker for the shoe size.  The color is printed as R. Blue/Orange.  I bet the R stands for Royal.

When the shoes were shipped to the store, they were wrapped in Dukes of Hazzard printed tissue paper. This pair of shoes still has this paper in the box.  This might be the most delicate addition to the collection.  I can't believe I'm so happy to have tissue paper.  This is the complete package.

I found this 1/18 car case laying around.  It makes a great display for the shoes.  I think I'll keep them in there for a while.

In this picture we have three incredibly rare Dukes of Hazzard items.  They are all from the Golden Era and are all recent additions to the collection that I probably wouldn't have acquired if it wasn't for this blog. Thanks DukesCollector!!!

The completed Dukes of Hazzard Bath Set

As promised, this blog is devoted to a particular item I just got in the mail.  It is the Dukes of Hazzard bath mitt.  Now that I have it, I have completed the collection of items that make up the Dukes of Hazzard Bath Set.  It took a long time to gather all of these items together. 

All of these items are more rare than standard Dukes things due to their nature.  If they were used with any frequency, they simply wouldn't last.  The mitt is probably the second rarest of the entire set.  It has great vibrant colors and is very soft.  When I saw it on eBay, I immediately bid and toward the end I upped my highest bid about three times.  No one outbid me.  Weird how that happens sometimes.  It is bigger than I expected.  I can fit my hand in it.  I thought it would be for kid-sized hands.  The mitt, along with all of the other items in the set, have no tags or markings beside the usual 1981 Warner Bros. copyright.  I wonder what company made these.  

I would rank the washcloth and hand towel as tied for the third rarest items in the set.  They both fetch a rather high number when they pop up on eBay, which is not very often.  The General Lee print on the washcloth is the same used on the mitt, mat, and bath towel.  There are also stars all over most of the items.  I added the washcloth to my collection about a year ago.  

The hand towel is a lot bigger than you might think.  It is just about the size of a regular bath towel. It seems to be printed like this so it can hang over a towel rack.  It is the only item to have a different print of the General.  Boss Hogg also makes an appearance on this one along with the three Duke cousins.  I got this from the same seller as the washcloth at the same time.  I don't think I have seen either on eBay since.   

The bath mat is, in my opinion, the rarest of the set.  It is one of the rarest Dukes items out there.  It has a rubber bottom to prevent slipping.  It features the same print of the General along with Bo and Luke in a bubble and Daisy in another.  It doesn't have any stars on it.  I have been doing this whole Dukes of Hazzard on eBay thing for coming up on 14 years now.  I have only seen this one on there.  At first I was outbid on it.  But the highest bidder later sold it to me.  I can't imagine there are too many more of these in the world.  It might be the rarest thing I own.  If an original owner bought it and used it even a few times, it would be susceptible to dry rot, fading, or a number of other fates.  Mine is in great condition, though a little less colorful than the other items.  

The bath towel is probably the least rare of the items.  I originally thought it was a beach towel.  There are two other Dukes beach towels.  One features Bo and Luke and the other has Daisy.  They are both printed portrait where this one is landscape.  After noticing that it has the same print and logo font as everything else in the bath set, I now classify it as a bath towel, and proclaim that there are only two Dukes of Hazzard beach towels.  You're welcome world.  The beach towels have a different logo font as well.  This one is big.  It is the size of a beach towel, but as noted it is not a beach towel.  No stars on this one either.  It pops on on eBay from time to time.  The sellers usually improperly advertise it as a beach towel.  We all know it is not. 

And then we have the famous Dukes of Hazzard General Lee soap.  You know Dukes was huge if they went to the trouble of creating a mold in the shape of a '69 Charger for kids to wash themselves with.  I have about three of these, all in varying conditions.  One is not sealed and it smells quite pleasant.  It has a good amount of detail for being soap.  The flag on the roof is a sticker.  There is an 01 molded on each door, and it really looks like a charger.  I have seen these go for a wide range on eBay.  A few years ago, a store display box with, I think, twelve soaps went on eBay.  It went for an insane amount.  I didn't win it.  Us Dukes Collectors are crazy.    

Given the rarity of these items, I can't imagine too many other people having a complete set like this.  If you do, please comment or contact me through email or something so we can discuss it.  I love the smaller collections within my whole Dukes collection.  And I love completing them even more.  Another example of this is my complete set of all 150 collector cards still sealed on the 1/144 Racing Champions Dukes of Hazzard cars.  I need to write a post about that crazy adventure.