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The Dukes of Hazzard first
appears in the 1981 Mego catalog. Mego
paid a mere $2,500.00 to acquire the Dukes of Hazzard license. The line became surprisingly popular and
sold well due to the Dukes of Hazzard television show, which ranked as high as
number 2 in the Nielsen ratings.
Unfortunately, even this unforeseen popularity was not enough to save
the floundering company.
Click on a head to visit each characters gallery page
The 81 line consisted of only four figures
with two temporary additions, but is filled with numerous variations to keep
hard core Dukes of Hazzard collectors busy.
The image
in the 1981 catalog showcases the four 8" figures. The Luke, Bo and Daisy figures appear as they were initially sold
at retail, but the Boss Hogg figure hardly resembles the marketed figure and is
very interesting for many reasons. See
the Boss Hogg section for details on this figure and the possible reasoning
behind it.
Kids and collectors were
puzzled as to why Mego never made the General Lee car for the 8 inch
figures. Some people have bought the 11
inch General Lee car under the impression it was for the 8 inch figures...Don't
do that. This is an odd omission since
the whole point of the show was racing around in the General Lee. One wonders why Mego didn't simply repaint
the Starsky and Hutch Torino car. With
the 8" format giving way to the 3-3/4" format, there were no accessories or
playsets produced for the 8" figures.
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The 8" Dukes of Hazzard figures were all packaged on blister cards measuring 8-1/2" x 10-5/16" and featured fantastic illustrations of the characters related to the show. It even possibly confused and tortured children/collectors by featuring Uncle Jesse and Rosco P Coltrane, who were never offered in the 8" format. With no checklist of figures reflected anywhere on the packaging, parents or children had no idea what figures were actually available and could have been searching endlessly for characters that never existed with no chance to succeed. The card design was the same for every figure differing only by the character’s name and item number on the front.
The artwork on the back of
the cards was identical for every character with no character specific
information. The back featured the same
illustration as the front, but smaller.
A film-strip ran down the right side of the card with actual photos from
the show. The only non copyright text
on the back was: “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “Collect Bo, Luke, and Daisy to create
your own adventures!”
The revised cards now
reflected a 1981 copyright date. The
1980 and 1981 cards both have two lines of copyright text located at the bottom
left corner of the cards. The top line
on the 1980 card is significantly shorter when compared to the top line of the
1981 card. It is possible to
distinguish between the two cards without being able to read the text.
The easiest way to
differentiate between the 1980 and 1981 is by the copyright text located in the
lower left corner of the card. The text
reads:
1980 card:
The copyright information
reads:
ă1980 WARNER BROTHERS., Inc.
Manufactured for Mego Corp., New York, N.Y. 10010, in Hong
Kong
1981 card:
The copyright information
reads:
TM Indicates trademark of WARNER BROTHERS INC. ă1981
Manufactured for Mego Corp., New York, N.Y. 10010, in Hong
Kong
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The majority of cards
remaining are the 1981 cards. 1980
cards can be found, but are more difficult to find when compared to the 1981
cards. With such a slight difference
between the cards, most collectors will not pursue one particular version over
another.
Click on the pics to see original Mego Dukes of Hazzard Ads and the Dukes sections of every Mego Catalog!
buy or trade Mego Dukes of Hazzard figures at the Mego Forum
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