Tag: Dukes of Hazzard

Top 5: Favorite Happy Meal Toys

Each Tuesday I do a quick “Top 5” list, and instead of doing some kind of big write up, I do it in pictures instead. I’d love to see others join in the fun as well and chime in on the same topic on your own site, social channel, Instagram, podcast, or wherever you share your opinions online. I’ll be posting under the tag #Top 5, so if you do the same we can all see everyone else’s list.

This week, it’s my Top 5 Favorite Happy Meal Toys. Let’s go to the list…..

Duke of Hazzard Vacuform Containers

These hit McDonald’s in 1982, and with their plastic bodies, the boxes were great for crashing into each other while re-creating scenes from the show.

Construx Action Building System

I absolutely loved Construx toys, and certainly didn’t miss out on the free sets when they were in the Happy Meals in 1986.

Berenstain Bears Toys

In 1987, I was all in on the Berenstain Bear books and the cartoon that was on Saturday mornings at the time, so these were a natural fit for me. These were probably the Happy Meal toys that I anticipated more than any other.

Halloween Pails

These have been offered around Halloween on and off for years ever since 1987. I loved using these things to collect my candy in while trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

Super Looney Tunes

I loved the idea of these things, as their costumes came off to reveal their alter egos. Two toys in one! The Tasmanian Devil/Flash was all kinds of cool.

Dave over at Banzai Retro Club is playing along again this week, so check out his Top 5 Happy Meal Toys as well!

So what about you? What were some of YOUR favorite Happy Meal toys? If you don’t want to jump in fully on social media, then chime in in the comments section below. I want to see what fads you were really into too!

by The Retro Rambler

Looking Back at Random Dukes of Hazzard Merchandise, Part 2

A few days ago, I did a post highlighting several different pieces of Dukes of Hazzard merchandise I had when I was younger. (Dukes of Hazzard Merchandise Part 1) So here we are again as promised for Part 2 of looking back at some cool Dukes of Hazzard Merchandise from the 80’s.

Dukes of Hazzard Bowl, Plate, and Cup

I don’t think this set came with the TV tray, but who knows. I remember sitting around before school, and more mornings than not, my breakfast was served on these fine pieces of plastic. And it was a hard plastic.

Each piece featured scenes from the show, and I would sit and stare at those pictures morning after morning.

Dukes of Hazzard Etch-a-Sketch Scenes

Etch-a-Sketch was such a brilliant toy, and is still a big hit with kids today. As much fun as it was trying to create a masterpiece work of art, you could ramp up the fun even more by adding a fun sheet over the Etch-a-Sketch itself. These were things like mazes, race courses and other things that would test your knob turning ability.

There was a Dukes set that featured several games you could play on your Etch-a-Sketch, but my personal favorite was the maze. There was a Hide and Seek style game, a Boss and Roscoe roadblock game, and a Cooter to the Rescue game.

Continue reading “Looking Back at Random Dukes of Hazzard Merchandise, Part 2” →

by The Retro Rambler

Dukes of Hazzard Videopalooza

We’re continuing on with Dukes of Hazzard week here at Retro Ramblings, and today, we thought it would be fun to take a look at some footage of the stars of the show in various other ways, as well as other interpretations of the show. So here are some fun videos of the icons outside of the confines of their familiar Hazzard County.

First up, check out these couple of videos where the stars of The Dukes of Hazzard competed on the iconic game show Family Feud against the stars of The Waltons and The Jeffersons.

Bo and Luke were pretty talented outside of acting, driving cars, and shooting bows. Turns out, they’re both pretty good singers, and you can see that in the video below as they sing the theme song, Good Old Boys in Nashville.

Robot Chicken’s version of The Dukes of Hazzard

Auto Trader got on The Dukes of Hazzard band wagon with one of their recent commercials

In this modern age of over political correctness, you probably won’t see The Dukes of Hazzard on television anymore. Matter of fact, if you did, it would probably look a lot like this.

The very first General Lee, known as Lee 1, was found in a junkyard and restored.

One more video for today, as we find out if Bo Duke still has it or not.

by The Retro Rambler

Looking Back at Dukes of Hazzard Merchandise From the 80’s, Part 1

Growing up, and still today, I was a big fan of The Dukes of Hazzard television show. As I got old enough, I would watch the new episodes on Friday nights, and beyond that, it was shown in syndication on my local station every afternoon after school, so I had plenty of opportunity to watch.

What I didn’t realize until recently was just how much merchandise I had that came from the show. A while back, I mentioned having a Dukes of Hazzard TV tray that I would eat dinner off of occasionally. That sparked several other memories in me of stuff that I had that tied into the show that I had completely forgotten about. So today, I just want to review some of that stuff and relate some of my memories of those things.

And when you’re done reading this part, be sure to check out Part 2 of Dukes of Hazzard Merchandise from the 80’s.

Dukes of Hazzard TV Tray

We’ll just start with the first item that spawned the floor of memories, and talk about the TV tray for a moment. As several of you may remember, my Dad traveled a lot when I was younger. My brother was eight years older than me, and as soon as he was old enough too, he got a job working evenings and nights at the local grocery store. This left just me and my mom at home at night for dinner.

She would usually make one of our favorite “just us” meals like tomato soup with cheese sandwiches, or Sloppy Joes, or some other simple dinner. We rarely ate at the table since it was just the two of us, and instead we would eat dinner in the living room while watching TV.

I would usually sit on the living room floor, with my Dukes of Hazzard TV tray set up in front of me holding my dinner while we watched Batman (1966) on the Family Channel, and whatever would follow on the original Nick at Night.

Much like everything else on this list, I don’t know what happened to that TV tray, but I still have vivid memories of it and those times alone with my Mom as we bonded over dinner and classic TV.

Continue reading “Looking Back at Dukes of Hazzard Merchandise From the 80’s, Part 1” →