The Danbury Mint General Lee

The Danbury Mint General Lee is a very special Dukes of Hazzard collectible.  The Danbury Mint is "the world leader in the design and development of fine collectibles including Christmas Ornaments, Fine Jewelry, Coins, and Sports Commemoratives."  They produce extremely highly detailed diecast cars.  In 2007 they decided to tackle our favorite car, the General Lee.  They did their research and proved that they have a great deal of respect for the Dukes and its star car.  They had quite a marketing push for the release which included direct mail advertisements.  The following letter from the direct mail package shows their love for the project.

  

Here is the order form.  The original price for the General was $140.  Too bad you can't use this order form any more.  The General quickly sold out.  It was retired after the first run.  It goes for double to nearly triple the original price on eBay now.

I also scanned the brochure they sent.  It is worth reading as it talks about all of the details they put into the car.

The General Lee came with a Certificate of Title.

Now that I got all the paperwork out of the way, let's get to the important part: the pictures!

Until Ertl released the General in their Authentics line, and Auto World improved upon that with their Silver Screen Machines work of art (my reveiw here) Danbury Mint was the only "highly detailed" player in the General Lee game.  Some people complain about the 01s not being perfect, the General Lee text being too small, or the license plate being wrong, but as long as its not way off, I'm happy with it.  Danbury Mint did an excellent job on this diecast.  It would make a great centerpiece for any Dukes collection.  It was worth the hefty original price, and I could justify paying the eBay prices it goes for these days.  The Danbury Mint General Lee is one of the nicest replicas of our favorite car ever released.

The Dukes of Hazzard Fun Tunnel

There are a few items out there that are so rare, I almost don't think I will have a chance to add them to the collection.  Until last week, the Dukes of Hazzard Fun Tunnel was one of those items.  Back in March of this year, I posted about the Fun Tunnel blowing my mind.  Now I have it in my collection. Again, my mind is blown.

I got this item from new friend of the site, and new message board member ShadleySCM.  And I couldn't be happier.

I always saw these types of tents in toy catalogs in the '80s.  They were usually on top of a kid's bed, but I never knew anyone who had one.  The kid on the box seems to love his while reading his comic. I love that 'Ol Flash made it on the box.

A lot of Dukes items share the same art and designs on their boxes.  This design seems unique to the Fun Tunnel.  The General Lee is roaring away, and the Duke cousins are hanging out.

Features of the indoor/outdoor play tent include the abilities easy storage, lightweight, and movable.

The tent was made by Outdoor Venture Corp.  A quick google search came up with surprising results. From the '70s to the early '80s the company made recreational tents, but in 1984 they started making tents for the U.S. Military and are now one of the biggest suppliers.  They also made some of the first automotive airbags in the country.  This tent had to be released in the "heyday" of Dukes merchandise, around 1981, so shortly after making this bad boy, they went on quite a different path. Cool stuff.  They are still based in Stearns, KY.

The graphics on my tent are bright and vibrant.  I'm not sure Shadley has ever used this thing.

I could say something like it's rare for these tents to come with all their pieces like the "T" shaped inserts, but I have no idea because I've never actually seen one.  It's that rare.  From reading the instructions, all the pieces are accounted for.  

Speaking of the instructions, they are on the back of the box.  You could buy a complete replacement frame for $3.50.  I wonder how much this thing originally retailed for.  

The tent itself is bigger than I expected.  I was thinking about putting it together, but didn't have a chance to do it.  One of these days when everything is more organized, I will.  

Adding this piece to my collection is very fulfilling.  It's one of those things I never thought I would get.  It could be one of the rarest things I have.  Thank you very much Shadley.  I know you are a Dukes fan from way back, and I hope you enjoy meeting all of us that share a passion for all things Dukes of Hazzard.  

A Big Ol' 1/64 post- '81 Ertl Dukes and new Hot Wheels Retro Entertainment

In 1981, Ertl Dukes of Hazzard diecasts were the biggest thing going.  Stores couldn't keep them on the shelves.  People trampled each other to get their hands on them on black Friday.  Maybe.  What do I know?  I was a baby.  I do know that they were popular enough to have all sorts of different four packs available back then. I do know a thing or two about what was released.  The only two cars to have single-card packages were the General Lee and Boss Hogg's Caddy.  So if you had a police car, Jeep, or Cooter's pickup from back then, they came from one of these four packs or the playset.  There were also weird additions like a white Corvette and a blue van.  These four variations I have shown aren't all of the ones out there.  I'm not even sure if these are the only ones I have.  I really need to get this stuff more organized.  How is that app coming Elyse?

These four packs are pretty rare and demand rather high prices.  They are also tough to store because of the back board that often gets bent down.  None of mine are in perfect condition.  This box design seems to be the more common of the two that are out there.  It does not have the names of the cars printed on the box.  I think this is so they could just add any cars to it.  This combination of cars seems to be the most common.  The General, Caddy, and two patrol cars.  The 1981 Ertl cars never differentiated between Rosco's and Enos/Cletus' cars.  

This combination is strange to me for two reasons.  There is no General, and there were rarely ever more than two patrol cars shown in Hazzard on the show.  

This set is odd because it has two Boss Hogg's Caddys.  The Caddy was almost as iconic as the General Lee and almost never got damaged.  More than one patrol car is excusable but another Caddy is weird.  I have never come across a set that had two Generals, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are some out there. 

I think this set was the original.  It has different box art and more of a blister type plastic covering over the cars.  It has a classic combination of two patrol cars, the General Lee, and Daisy's Jeep. 

 

It also labels the cars in the set.  Funny how they identified the drivers and not the cars.  

Nearly everything about this box is different than the others.  

The bottom of the set that I think was the first does not mention any Dukes.  

The more common box lists the General and Boss Hogg's Caddy.

The back of the original box has this picture of the Dukes family.  I never loved this picture.  The black background and Uncle Jesse's stoic look always reminded me of a very negative backwoods kind of vibe.  But that's just me.

The back of the more common box, however, has my all time favorite cast picture on it.  It's just such a great photo.  The blurb is the same on both packages.  

The side of the more common box has this picture of the General on both sides.  The other box doesn't have anything on the side.  At least mine doesn't, but it is pretty damaged.  

There are all kinds of different combinations of this set.  I think the releases with the white Corvette and the blue van just included those cars as fillers.  The same goes with the playset that includes the Corvette.  Now that I am paying attention to the differences, I'll try to pick up any others that I see.

In other 1/64 news...  A friend tipped me off that Hot Wheels is releasing a new set soon called Retro Entertainment.  It will consist of popular Hot Wheels such as KITT, Ecto-1, the Delorean, and the A-Team van.  They will be more detailed than the standard releases.  They will include better paint, metal bases, and rubber wheels.  These are exactly my complaints about Hot Wheels in this post.  Now we will get a KITT comparable to Johnny Lightning's General Lee.  The packages are also supposed to be TV Show/Movie specific. This set is very exciting.  It also includes Bandit's Trans Am, KARR, and the Mystery Machine.  

My friend said that Hot Wheels only announced the castings of the line.  When they say Delorean, Trans Am,  GMC van, and Cadillac Ambulance, it is obvious that it's the Time Machine, KITT,  B.A.'s van and Ecto-1.  But there are quite a few cars that aren't as specific and dealers, collectors, and fans are speculating which cars they are.  One that I thought was funny was the '84 Pontiac Fiero that people are guessing is coming from How I Met Your Mother.  Wouldn't really expect that but it sounds pretty cool.  Marshall loved that car like I loved my Jeep. One wave of this line includes a '71 Plymouth Satellite.  Speculation is that it will be Daisy's yellow car.  Some retail sites are reporting and selling the car this way.  I really don't think it will be Daisy's car.  Ertl/RC/Tomy has really kept a tight hold on the Dukes license over the years.  I don't see Hot Wheels getting it.  And if they did, they would never release another car from the show before the most iconic TV/Movie car of all time.  Sorry Delorean, KITT, and Ecto, you guys can't touch the General Lee.  When they landed the Knight Rider license, they had KITT and David Hasselhoff at SDCC.  They would do they same if they got Dukes.  But I don't think they did or will because it is such a lucrative license for Tomy.  Just my educated guess.  

New (and some old) Dukes Stuff - 10/1/2012

Got some new stuff recently.  And found a few other things I forgot I had.

First off, I went a little calculator crazy on ebay.  There are several different versions that were released in 1981.  This is the standard Dukes of Hazzard Calculator.

I actually got two of these from the same seller because they were cheap.

I was considering which seller to buy from, when I noticed that the two calculators I was looking at were different.  So I bought both.  This is a bigger version with yellow keys.

The cards look the same, but one is a lot bigger.  I didn't expect that.  When they came in, I was surprised how much bigger one was than the other.  There is also one that came on in a box that I already have.

While getting the displays out for my recent post, I found a few items that I bought with them from a fellow collector.  One was this entry form and giveaway from the movie.  When you bought a case of Castrol GTX motor oil, you got a free special edition 1/64 General Lee if you sent this in.  You were also entered to win one of five movie posters and the grand prize of an '06 Charger.  I have the special edition 1/64.  It is cool because it is the only single carded General put out for the movie.  The card has the Castorl GTX logo on it.  I wonder who won the Charger.

I also got this patch with a General Lee on it.  I don't know much about it, except that it's cool.

One thing that I think is more special then it probably is is the album on cassette.  It took my a while to find the first one, then I found a few more.  And when I see it going cheap, I pick it up.  There is a version from the early '80s and one from 1997.  This is the '80s version.

The original is made of the classic cassette colored solid plastic.  The newer one came in the more modern clear plastic.  They both have the same songs.  The newer re-release has a blue background, like the matching CD.  I said before, I have this album on 8-Track, vinyl, both original and re-release cassette, the 1997 and 2005 CD.  And I have a few of the single 45 records.  Flash by James Best is the best song by far.

Auto World put out a bunch of slot cars a few years ago and each had variant versions.  I have all of the standard and the dirty ones.  They also put out chrome variants.  They got for a little bit more money.  When I see them for cheaper, I grab them.  I already have the General Lee.  This is Daisy's Jeep.  These chrome cars are different because they change the colors.  The Jeep is red.

It has the Golden Eagle on top.  It sure looks different in red.

That completes the haul for today.  I made a few really cool purchases in the last few days and I'm waiting for them to be shipped.  I can't with to add them to the collection and the blog.  More on them when they get here.