Gotta whole bunch of Golden Era Dukes goodness to share. And one Modern Era item at the end of the post. All of these pieces came from the same purveyor of Hazzard County materials. Thanks GB!
I've been chasing this item for a while. It's the handheld Dukes of Hazzard Racing Game. It has gone for quite high prices in the past. You steer the "General Lee" which is actually an generic orange space age car through the roads of Hazzard. Now that I finally have this item, I am remarkably underwhelmed by it. I love having it in my collection, but if I got this item as a young Dukes enthusiast, I would give it about forty-five seconds of play time and never pick it up again. It's not even self-propelled by a crank or anything. You have to scroll with your left thumb as you steer with your right.
These two backgrounds are all you get too. You scroll the entire landscape in about twenty seconds. No wonder it is so rare, everyone who had one probably tossed it. Awesome addition though.
The Dukes had quite a few knock-off items released during its heyday. Some were coy in their exploitation, and some really put it out there. There is no questions about who these Dixie Chargers sets where trying to be.
These came out in 1981 by Midgetoy. They specialized in single piece constructed diecast cars.
Each set has a General Lee wannabe in it. Two of the cars somewhat resemble a Charger.
And the third has a Corvette in it. Weird.
One set also has a decent representation of Uncle Jesse's pickup in it. Midgetoy was ahead of the game here; there wasn't a 1/64 Jesse's truck released until the Modern Era.
Gotta have a police car. One has blue painted lights on top and one doesn't.
All three sets included a Jeep. The creators seemed to love Daisy. Don't we all.
Perhaps the best part of the cars is the tow package affixed to the Charger like General cars. Maybe they are episode specific from episode 4 Repo Men where Bo and Luke tow the #71 car through Hazzard. Maybe not.
I sort of went crazy and bought a whole bunch more Ertl 1/64 four packs. You will remember that I already have five. Every one I have is different. There seem to be random cars in random position in the sets. I have this combination of cars in these same places, but in a different box. The other has different pictures and the cars are labeled. This is the more generic box that didn't label the contents. I also have a set with these four cars but in different places.
I only have one other set with Cooter's towtruck in it. And that one had two Boss Hogg's Caddys. This has two Rosco cars in it. Not as weird.
I have another set with this combination, but, again, different positions. I don't think I can recall a scene from the show with more than two Hazzard County sheriff cars.
Now this is the weird one. This set contains a white Corvette. This is the second unexplained Corvette sighting in this post.
I have a version of the playset that also has a white Corvette included. Like I said in that post, I believe these came out toward the end of the run and Ertl was just putting in random cars. I've only seen one other set with a Corvette. And the owner of that one thought he was going to get rich. Sorry pal.
This set has a blister type plastic covering over the cars. They others have a shrink-wrap like application. These sets are so random.
The blister is still in good shape.
And finally another one with Cooter's truck in it. So I have eleven of these sets now. And they are all different. Maybe that's enough for now. Maybe not.
And the final item is this coat from the set of the 2005 movie. This thing is awesome.
It was given to the stunt crew members. While filming, they hadn't yet released the movie logo that has the big underlining Z. They used the original TV show logo.
The production used Panavision equipment and that is also on the jacket.
Carhartt was a sponsor of the movie. There was a huge Carhartt 18 wheeler on location when I was on the set. You can see it in the movie briefly before the race scene. I have seen several Carhartt coats for sale since the movie wrapped. They all look similar to this one, but this one is made by Columbia. I was told this one was only given to the stunt crew where the Carhartt was given to more crew members. I guess that makes mine more rare.
It fits perfectly and I love it. Too bad I got it in late April and I can't wear it until it gets cold. This will be a piece of my collection, but I will also wear it on occasion. It's too nice not to. Perhaps there will be a Dukes event in the fall. It would be so cool to show up in this thing. Hazzard Run maybe.
And yes, I did use the word "coy" early on in this blog.
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