By CONNIE SWAIM-ROBB
AntiqueWeek Editor

Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, Bullet and Duke the Wonder Dog.

What, you never heard of Duke? OK, I hadn’t either. I was shopping a flea market this past weekend when I saw a large plastic action figure of a German shepherd. His tail, jaw, head, legs and even his torso moved. I thought he was probably Rin Tin Tin, as did the dealer selling him. The price of $12 seemed reasonable. The dog was marked Kenner Productions on a back leg.
When I got home I did some online research and found an auction house in Indiana sold the exact same figure, also referring to it as Rin Tin Tin for $30 in 2008. However, I found an eBay listing where the dog sold for $14.50 and on eBay it was listed as Duke the Wonder Dog. An Internet search of Duke the Wonder Dog showed me that lots of people have named their dog Duke and called him a “wonder dog.”

However, after about an hour of sifting through sites, I hit pay dirt on the website of the Plaid Stallions (www.plaidstallions.com), which describes itself as revisiting the 1970s one catalog page at a time. The website had an entire page devoted to Duke. According to the website, “Duke truly was an original concept, never had a toy line such as this been tailor made for a character who couldn’t speak! Duke lasted a couple of years actually and would see TV star Run Joe Run added to the line as well.”

Kenner promoted Duke as the “Super Action Dog.” He came with all kinds of cool gadgets. There was Duke with Canyon Slide, which allowed him to grip a rope in his “mighty jaws” and then be propelled down canyon walls. There was Duke with Rescue Unit that had a cart and a hook so that Duke could go out and rescue people. Another version had Duke paired with a fire extinguisher pack that he kept on his back, which allowed him to hold the nozzle of the fire extinguisher in his mouth.

Duke even had his own headquarters (all sold separately of course). Oddly the headquarters had a periscope, elevator and data center. Let’s see Lassie top that!

Duke came out in 1974 and was not a huge seller. The line only lasted a couple of years and even its creator Bernard Loomis referred to it as a flop. According to Loomis’ obituary in The New York Times June 6, 2006, Loomis became a toy industry legend by using children’s television to turn Star Wars dolls, Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears into stupendous successes.

However, in an interview Loomis did with D. Martin Myatt on the website www.rebelscum.com, he is quoted as saying, “Don’t get the wrong idea, I also did Duke the Wonder Dog and Steve Scout - I had a great batting average but I struck out now and then.”

Since eBay and other online sites are not full of Duke examples for sale, it would seem that there aren’t many out there, or else, they are out there, but since no one remembers Duke, then no one is buying him.

I only found one example of Duke selling in the past month on eBay and one other example was listed in the current auctions. That example had Duke, The Super Action Dog with his Canyon Slide, the original box, complete with the slide, and a comic book entitled “Duke the Super Action Dog Fights the Energy Crisis.” With a Buy it Now price of $44, I hit “buy” without a second thought. I can’t wait to find out how Duke fights the energy crisis, perhaps I will be able to learn something that will help with today’s $3 and up per gallon gas prices. I also found an example of Duke selling on Ruby Lane.

I would have been 14 when Duke first hit the market, probably too old for action dog figures, my younger brothers though would have been the right age for Duke, but I don’t recall ever seeing him before.

Besides, both my brothers were into Army men more than dog action figures. But, now Duke joins my German shepherd collection and he can stand alongside Rin Tin Tin. The same day that I found Duke, I bought a Rin Tin Tin puzzle, complete, and with its original box for $15.

I have to admit I have never seen an episode of the Rin Tin Tin show, but my brother-in-law bought us the complete show on DVD for Christmas, so I will be watching it soon.

The flea market even added another print to my German shepherd collection. For $10 I got a clipped page from the The Dog Book by Diana Thorne and Albert Payson Terhune. The book featured 12 color plates of dogs by Thorne. The German shepherd was the dog chosen for the front and back covers as well as the pictorial dust wrap. I am hoping my illustration came from a copy of the book that was in too bad of shape to sell complete. I found a complete copy of the book with dust jacket listed online for $75. I also found a framed copy of my print for sale for only $6.

To top things off at the same flea market, Curt and I bought a tent large enough for both of us and our three dogs (two of which are German shepherds). Maybe I can take my dog Condor and teach him to use a canyon slide so he can go rescue people trapped at the bottom of a canyon just like Duke the Wonder Dog.