Vintage Review – USS Flagg Aircraft Carrier!
The Highs: Frigging HUGE, WOW factor, will hold a ton of figures/vehicles, Holy Grail of the Joe line.
The Lows: Huge toy means huge space requirements, expensive, many small, easy-to-lose, fragile and expensive parts, basically a table with a tower.
The Verdict: If you have the means, the room, and the desire, the dropped jaws alone are worth the price of admission
I’ve done some big reviews. I’ve done the TerrorDrome, the General, the Mobile Command Center…the list goes on, to some of the largest vehicles and playsets ever offered in the history of toys. I’ve reviewed some of the most unique and iconic vehicles the line has to offer. I’ve reviewed some of the rarest Joe stuff out there. But THIS is by far the BIGGEST review I could EVER do, because this is the BIGGEST Joe vehicle, one of the BIGGEST toys ever made, and the Holy Grail of GI Joe collecting…the mighty CVN-99, USS Flagg aircraft carrier! Because I didn’t feel like stripping my carefully set-up dio, my Flagg will be reviewed as it sits. Hopefully all the figures and vehicles sitting on it will help give you an idea of the massive size of this thing.
The USS Flagg!
Fully loaded!Before I go further, I have to give mighty props to formbx257 for his fantastic review. He beat me to the punch on this by a few years, and I initially said that I wouldn’t review the Flagg…mainly because I did not have it. But, now I do, so consider this as more of a supplement to his review, and/or my impressions on it, than me trying to replace his review. Also, his Flagg is the better looking one between the two of us, because his Flagg’s superstructure is much whiter and the stickers are much nicer and placed correctly.
So anyway, how about we start with some dimensions? The USS Flagg measures 7 feet 7 inches long by 3 feet wide by 2 feet 9 inches tall. For the metric conversion that’s 2.31 m long by .91 m wide by .84 m tall. I’m considered a pretty tall guy, at 6 feet 4 inches tall (or 1.93 meters tall) and the Flagg dwarfs me in length. My Flagg’s length led to an amusing anecdote when it was picked up, which I will share later. Anyway, no matter how you slice/convert it, the Flagg is easily one of the most massive toys ever. And as impressive as it may be in photos, trust me…it’s MUCH more impressive in person.
Despite its massive size, the Flagg actually has rather simple construction at its core. The main flight deck comes split into four rather large pieces. Those pieces are supported underneath by a system of interlocking plastic girders, and the large bow and stern sections. The girders snap together by way of plastic tabs…if you own or have put together an ’83 Joe headquarters, the Flagg’s support structure snaps together the exact same way. The deck pieces lock onto the girders with small, push-in clips that are among the tinier, more expensive pieces to replace. On the far right side of the Flagg sit the elevator and the “island,” which consists of the Flagg’s bridge, radio room, weapons storage, and various access rooms. The elevator is held into its support girders with metal pins on each end, which provide the strength to hold heavier Joe aircraft that might make the trip from the Flagg’s “hangar” deck and can be raised and lowered with some gentle pulling and pushing. On top of the island is the Flagg’s mast, which is brimming with various radar and communications antennae. The island attaches to the flight deck with two small “Y” style pins that not only hold the island to the deck, they also provide realistic-looking tiedown points for the Flagg’s main deck. The rear of the Flagg consists of one large piece that not only helps support the weight above it, it also doubles as a fairly realistic fantail for the ship. The Flagg includes a long, flexible plastic piece that slides into grooves along the port side and gives the appearance of the Flagg having a hull. The starboard side gets no such disguises, and the girders are easily visible underneath. This may put off some, but between the island and the elevator on the starboard side, a hull piece probably would not be very practical anyway.
Yup, that’s all that’s underneath.Snap all the girders together, carefully clip the deck pieces onto the supports, slide the island on and Y-pin it into place, and voila, you have the USS Flagg. First-time assembly will take you a while, but once you do it a few times it becomes much easier. Extreme care should be taken with the Y-pins, deck clips, and the tabs on the girders when assembling/disassembling the Flagg, as these parts are fairly fragile and easily broken…and trust me, with the massive weight of the deck pieces resting on them, the girders need all the support they can get! Once assembled, the Flagg feels fairly sturdy. I wouldn’t lie down on it or anything, but it feels plenty sturdy enough to fill the deck with figures and vehicles. Just don’t expect to be able to pick it up and move it, as moving the Flagg anywhere other than a few inches each way WILL require disassembly.
The Flagg is a military vehicle, so of course it needs armament. While the Flagg would definitely never be mistaken for an
Iowa class battleship, it is decently armed for an aircraft carrier. Even modern carriers rely mainly on the airpower they carry and the other ships in their battle group for protection. What appear to be 5-inch guns (mounted on small turrets on the edges of the hanger deck) protect the port bow, and both sides of the stern. The turrets have good range of motion, with 180 degree firing arcs, and can elevate their barrels almost straight up. Just don’t let those attacking Morays get too close, as the turrets cannot lower the barrels enough to even ATTEMPT to aim at close-in threats. There are two small fire-control radar dishes to help aim the guns…one dish is mounted on the starboard bow, directly across from the port turret. The other is mounted on the fantail, giving direction to the rear turrets. Finishing off the Flagg’s armament is a very large missile box, which is perched above the bridge. While it has a good range of travel and can even face astern, those missiles cannot protect the Flagg’s stern. Firing them astern would both take out some very critical navigation and communications gear and leave a big hole in the top rear portion of the bridge.
A Gun…
A Radar Dish...
The Fantail…
…and the Missile Launcher.Ahh yes, the bridge. The Flagg’s island by itself is larger than the majority of most playsets…Conquest of Cobra Mountain would be dwarfed, for example. Though it is assembled in three, stackable main pieces, it basically consists of two stories, with three rooms in each.
The Flagg’s IslandThe lower level has a Combat Information Center at its front, with various computers and a swivel chair for an operator. The center room features racks for weapons storage, and the rear room is mainly an access room, with both a hatch to the flight deck and an internal ladder to the second floor (the CIC also has a ladder that leads directly to the bridge inside).
CIC
Storage and AccessUp top, the front room is of course the Flagg’s bridge, and features both a turning wheel, and various controls and consoles for the captain/admiral/Shipwreck to use from his/her swivel chair. There is also a ladder in the bridge to an imaginary upper level. The center room, which I believe would be a radar room, has both a large computer console and operator’s chair and an access hatch to the second level outside walkway.
Main Bridge
Bridge from the front
Radar and AccessThe walkway has room for several figures to stand on, and features a ladder up to a THIRD level walkway, above the bridge. Unless you have them standing haphazardly on top of the bridge, this walkway is the highest point figures can stand on…but they’ll have a pretty good view.
The mast…is that a CJC Set I see??!!??You would think a playset this massive would have a long list of play features, and the Flagg delivers. Besides the aforementioned weaponry, there is a flip-up jet blast shield amidships, behind where a SkyStriker (or other Joe aircraft) would line up on the catapult system to launch.
The Blast ShieldThe fairly large flight deck elevator can of course be raised and lowered, and just aft of it sit two small cranes which hold the (admittedly crappy looking) Admiral’s launch. The crane arms can be flipped up and down to “launch” the boat, but they feel pretty floppy and fragile. The giant radar dish on top of the bridge will rotate if you manually turn it. There is a very nice crane aft of the bridge that can raise and lower its hook via a crank on the right side (and it has an access panel to perform “maintenance” on it too). The crane’s nice, but I just wish it could raise and lower its arm, which is fixed in place.
Admiral’s Launch
CraneRight next to the crane, the arrestor cable system stretches across the flight deck. The two arrestor cable supports have a long piece of black string in between them. The string can be wound around the supports, and the Flagg comes with a yellow arrestor hook that will snap onto the back of a SkyStriker. In this manner, you can fairly realistically “arrest” a SkyStriker coming in for a landing. It’s a nice touch, and the arrestor hook WILL fit the 30th Anniversary SkyStriker.
Besides the crummy Admiral’s launch (seriously…would it have cost that much more to put a little outboard motor or something on it?) the Flagg also has two more auxiliary vehicles…a yellow tow tractor and a green fuel trailer. The tow tractor can pull around either the fuel truck or an original SkyStriker, via the screw hole in the nose of the ‘Striker (doesn’t work with the 30th Anniversary one, though…no screw hole). The fuel trailer has two fuel nozzles on its rear, which can be gently pulled to reveal a decent length of hose behind them. Both of these little vehicles are neat touches, and add to the realism of the Flagg’s flight deck.
Tow Tractor
Fuel TrailerThere is one final, major play feature that my Flagg does not have. The Flagg originally came with a small bullhorn/walkie-talkie setup that both played alarm noises and allowed you to “broadcast” your voice over the ship’s make-believe PA system. The PA system is a commonly broken item, and I don’t miss it all that much. I honestly doubt that I will ever pony up for a working one…unless the right deal comes along, of course.
Ok, so, the highs for this thing? Well, first off, it is just flat impressive. I mean, we’re talking about a playset that is taller than just about every NBA player. All that size means that it will hold a MASSIVE amount of vehicles and figures…if you want to see just how crazy a Flagg setup can get, look online at the pictures of the one Hasbro set up at SDCC last year. You can have flight operations on the front and a massive battle on the back (complete with vehicles, there’s plenty of room!) if you so desire. I also love the realistic carrier touches, like the jet blast shield, tow tractor, and arrestor system. You also have to love the thought that went into the Flagg’s design, since it is set up to work perfectly with the SkyStriker…even though the SkyStriker was released two years before the Flagg! The fact that the F-14 Tomcat was actually the US’s primary carrier strike aircraft when the Flagg was released is a great realistic bonus.
Ok, so the Flagg’s lows? There are actually quite a few. The Flagg’s biggest high is also its biggest low: the massive size. Seriously, you have no idea how huge this thing is until you see it with your own eyes. Pictures do NOT do it justice. So if you want one, you better have a GOOD amount of space set aside for it, and even more space if you actually want to be able to walk around it, put figures in the bridge, and set up aircraft and/or dios on it. A proper setup with easy access to all areas of the Flagg can easily take up a whole room. A very large table in the center of a room is ideal…but unless you have a dedicated Joe room, live alone (like me!) or are currently single, good luck getting the significant other/roommates/parents to let you permanently borrow the dining room table to set up your Flagg. Though technically you COULD eat your meals off the flight deck…trust me, it’s big enough.
Besides the massive size, the Flagg can also come with a massive price tag. Good luck finding a mostly complete one for anything under $400, and cherry examples will run you at least a grand…and if MIB is your thing, get ready to drop the cost of a decent used car. If you get a mostly incomplete one, the price tag WILL go up, because all of those tiny, hard-to-find parts like the deck clips, radar antennae, mast pieces, and arrestor cable supports will cost you QUITE the pretty penny. Some parts run in the $50+ range, FOR A SINGLE PART. Mostly complete is the way to go here. In the case of some overly ridiculously priced/rare parts like the fantail railing, you also might want to get a good reproduction…but just because those reproductions exist, if you have to have a “real” part be sure you get it from a reputable dealer.
The Flagg is also considerably prone to yellowing, particularly the crane and the entire bridge section. The bow and stern sections are also susceptible, though not as easy to notice because they are darker gray. Good luck acquiring enough peroxide to soak this sucker. A chemist from Chemkitdepot.com has come up with a plastic-whitening solution and the site offers an option to send them your Flagg pieces and get them whitened for $50, but you have to pay to ship your extremely valuable and very large Flagg pieces to Dallas, Texas. If you haven’t heard of this yet, it has been discussed extensively over at YoJoe.
Finally, while the Flagg is massive and has some neat play features, don’t expect the absolute greatest toy/playset you’ve ever played with in your life. The Defiant, TerrorDrome, Mobile Command Center, General and so forth are all arguably better toys/playsets. They can be easily moved from room to room, do NOT take up the whole room (well, ok, other than the Defiant) and all feature several levels of play. Don’t expect a bunch of awesome rooms, storage, and inner carrier workings below the Flagg’s flight deck, because all that’s under there are plastic support girders. At its core, the Flagg is basically a giant, aircraft carrier shaped plastic table with a ship’s bridge playset stuck on the side of it. If you can accept the Flagg for what it is, you will enjoy it. If you expect the most awesome, feature-loaded toy in all of GI Joe-dom, well…you’ll probably be a bit disappointed.
It may sound like I’m trying to discourage people from buying a Flagg…the opposite is true. I just want to paint a realistic picture of the thing, and let those “on the fence” about it know the reality of the situation. I wouldn’t trade my Flagg for anything, but I will be brutally honest about its shortcomings. The last thing I want is for someone to read my review, go spend a ton of money on a Flagg, and then be disappointed by it. That’s not good for the collector OR the hobby.
All that being said, owning a Flagg is an experience. I liken it to owning a beautifully restored or overly ridiculous car…the dropped jaws, disbelieving curses, and giddy excitement it causes can be worth all that time and money. As I said, pictures don’t do it justice. The scale HAS to be seen to be believed. I’ve shown several people multiple pictures of the Flagg, including one of me laying on the floor next to it for scale purposes. Then those same people come in my house for the first time, and every single one has dropped his or her jaw and said “HOLY S#&T!!!!” followed by exclamations of how incredibly huge the thing is and how the pics didn’t do it justice. I don’t care who you are, how young or old you are, how crotchety or jaded you are, if you love or hate GI Joe…you cannot help but be impressed by the Flagg.
And that, to me, is worth the price of admission.
The Flagg…and your humble author. 
