@LoranCehack Not yet. I was however referring to G.I Joe and the general concept of directing patriotic and warfare propaganda towards children. Guess you were too busy being a smartass to consider my point.
There's a at least a couple, but that's more due to the fact that much of the G.I. Joe line at the time was based on real-world military developments and ideas (before they started creating weird stuff like RoboJOE and the Ninja Force). The Defiant's shape comes from ideas that were worked on before the shuttle fleet even began construction.
i almost passed out when i first saw this thing in real life. next door neighbor to the right of me had this and next door neighbor to the left had the aircraft carrier. if all of us saved all the stuff we had, we might have a good amount of cash at this point.
I remember asking for this Christmas 1987, knowing full well I was never going to get it. At this point, I was just about to old for toys (I was 13 then). Lo and behold, on Christmas morning, there it was sitting next to the Christmas tree. The box for the toy was almost taller than I was. It was obviously too big to wrap. This toy probably has to be the best play set ever.
Best toy ever made, bar none. They really need to re-release this for the current line, the hell with the USS Flagg. Fantastic playset, and I'm glad to say I had it.
I was the Sr. Design Director at Hasbro from 1984-1988, designed this one and have the original concept art that I did to sell the idea to Hasbro Marketing back in 1985....right before the Challenger disaster placed it temporarily on hold. We did get to resurrect it once the post crash upset quieted down......
My favorite toy as a kid (hand me down from my older brother who grew up in the 80s)... I still have it, but it's broken (aka battle damaged) a lot... still love it though!!! I used to pretend it was the space ship from the Space Quest games
parent's of the 80's HATED gi joe wow a 200$ mound of plastic & paint. i had 3 siblin's & was a child of the 80's i was lucky to have 20 gi joe action figure's & 2 vehicle's. my mom would buy the immitation gi joe's & a 20$ plastic air plane barely big enough to fit one guy in luckily i had a good imagination in the tub it was like 20,000 league's under the sea at bath time for me!!!
Bigger than I thought...had the Flagg, but not the Defiant. So I had no idea what drove its price to Flagg-like proportions. (Still MUCH smaller, but hey...)
Actually, despite it's enormous size, when scaled 1/18, the booster and shuttle are only about 27-28 inches long, so in that regard, theyd only be around 40 some-odd feet long.... the shuttles we use are around 120 feet long.
@SOLACEBOY Totally agree. Its not just toys either. Look at cartoons, and even the playground. Everything has lost its fun because of parents looking to sue the companies.
@necrokratia Yes, but until recently they stopped the gi jioe anniversary line for the Rise of Cobra movie which they lost out on because the movie bombed. They are now selling the Pursuit of Cobra line which I think is doing better and would do better if they would put more Alley Vipers on the shelves.
@SOLACEBOY agreed, and the new hiss tank is awesome, but when you look at it the pursuit of cobra line seems to be based a bit more on the video games, and completing the 25th line but under the movie theme. the new beachhead is also cool but i can't see him carrying that much equipment, also the new jungle trooper and shock trooper, alley viper is cool and all as an urban tactical force but the shock trooper is more of an occupation force.
@necrokratia Believe it or not, the Pursuit of Cobra line is a continuation of the Rise of Cobra line; mixture of the film and the 80's line for dedicated fans.
@SOLACEBOY How the hell did the movie bomb? It made a profit. It certainly wasn't what us old school fans wanted but it didn't bomb. If it had, they wouldn't be working on a sequal. Personally, I didn't think ROC was great but I didn't think it was terrible either.
@SOLACEBOY If I could do it, I would make a action figure series that would be more epic than GI Joe, He-man, Thundercats, and Dino Riders combined. Even better, it would certainly last.
As for this, I can't imagine feeling what it's like having all these toys.
Yeah the Flagg is better overall. The defiant is more technologically advanced and is the second coolest vehicle of the line id say.... the crawler/gantry isnt great, but the booster/shuttle combo is really cool
The three holy grails of the G.I. Joe line is this, the U.S.S. Flagg, and the Cobra Terror Drome. You can also go on and say there is a fourth "holy grail" as well, the Sears exclusive Missile Command HQ from 1982.
Did n't this one come out around the same time as the Tomahawk helicopter? I remember seeing the commercial for this once or twice but, it seems like I had lost interest in it by this time too.
I can tell you that when my parents bought me this HQ it was sometime in 1991 (Toys R Us) for $99... I remember it vividly, it was either the Defiant or the NES game Super Mario 3 ($59.99). I somehow felt that the nes prices would go down someday (now they're worthless and available as ROMS), and I still have my defiant. the drivers: Hardtop(Defiant HQ) and Hardtop (space shuttle) were a breakthrough to me since us GI JOE fans were used to have 1 driver per vehicle every time we'd buy one.
I started to get out of G.I. Joe when this toy appeared. I blame the movie and growing up for that.
I think the shuttle was the most expensive G.I. Joe ever made. I do not remember the price but I remember it was more expensive than the aircraft carrier.
Hello. the defiant costed $99 in 1991... I didn't know there was such a thing like the USS FLAGG aircraft (i read it somewhere on the net that it costed like $50... now worth $500 on ebay... or even $3,000 mint in box) it's an interesting thing to have whilst it is the last thing I have of my GI JOE collectibles (I sold 98% of them for college).cheers
I have a friend who lost this vehicle after the hurricane. hasbro has got to make a new defient in the same incernation of the 1987 version of the same playset!
I got this for Christmas as when I was 4, I still remember waking up to see this gigantic ass box that was taller then I was.
sortedevaras 1 month ago
Being fed with propaganda from the very start. War is cool, kids!
knecke1 3 months ago
@knecke1 Yes, because we totally use fucking space shuttles in wars.
LoranCehack 3 months ago
@LoranCehack Not yet. I was however referring to G.I Joe and the general concept of directing patriotic and warfare propaganda towards children. Guess you were too busy being a smartass to consider my point.
knecke1 2 months ago
@knecke1 Who cares? They're fun toys
Dragonrider1227 2 months ago
My brother had this, my parents had a hard time hiding it because it was so big so we saw it behind the couch before they wrapped it.
MichelleDri 3 months ago
This commercial gives me goosebumps. Yes, I am a G.I.Joe nerd.
Lusus420 3 months ago
that was tooo much money back in the eighties...nobody had it that i knew.
shotsavereboundscore 4 months ago
Defiant comes with driver and astronaut and a shit ton of small stuff you can lose.
sserpent21 5 months ago 3
I remember seeing the box for that thing when I was a kid, it was bigger then me!
I remember they also issued just the shuttle part with a one man drone inside. I was able to buy that after a summer of real hard work.
daveh013 5 months ago
I have the Defiant, the U.S.S. Flagg, the General, the Rolling Thunder, the Terrordrome, the Mobile Command Center, etc.!
The Defiant is the best!
neapolitanjoe 5 months ago
isn't some company making a space shuttle that looks EXACTLY like the Defiant? Hilarious...
warlord683 5 months ago
@warlord683
There's a at least a couple, but that's more due to the fact that much of the G.I. Joe line at the time was based on real-world military developments and ideas (before they started creating weird stuff like RoboJOE and the Ninja Force). The Defiant's shape comes from ideas that were worked on before the shuttle fleet even began construction.
MikeTaylorLives 3 months ago
We didn`t have all those kind here in Brazil... It would be great if we had... but it`s in the past... the 80`s childhood
gustavokummel 5 months ago
i almost passed out when i first saw this thing in real life. next door neighbor to the right of me had this and next door neighbor to the left had the aircraft carrier. if all of us saved all the stuff we had, we might have a good amount of cash at this point.
xasthur502 5 months ago
I remember asking for this Christmas 1987, knowing full well I was never going to get it. At this point, I was just about to old for toys (I was 13 then). Lo and behold, on Christmas morning, there it was sitting next to the Christmas tree. The box for the toy was almost taller than I was. It was obviously too big to wrap. This toy probably has to be the best play set ever.
acrovader 6 months ago
Thats a big ass toy! unfortunately Joes were not that famous in my country. M.A.S.K was the IN thing back then!
mahaasura 6 months ago
wtf never even heard of this!!!
plastique45 6 months ago
Best toy ever made, bar none. They really need to re-release this for the current line, the hell with the USS Flagg. Fantastic playset, and I'm glad to say I had it.
TJ347 6 months ago
How big can the G.I. Joe budget be, that they can afford a space station? For the longest time, NASA had to share MIR.
SamonMarquis 7 months ago
That guy at the beginning said something about a cobra attack, where was cobra in all
Sturmdude 8 months ago
again...back when toys were cool! One of my friends had this and it was bad ass!
Super73VW 8 months ago
no one beats g.i. joe, but the might decomposing o-ring.
AvEryBadApPLe 9 months ago
Pffft! Only rich kids had this monstousity! ( can you hear my jealousy)
rush1er 9 months ago 3
just got mine out today. I can't believe how dirty it is but not beyond saving!
chewzok 9 months ago
wow i love it hhhaaa i wish i had that
jenimarie69 10 months ago
GI_Joe was called 'Action Force' in the UK,, but I never remember seeing that space shuttle
IrrepressibleGuile 11 months ago
I was the Sr. Design Director at Hasbro from 1984-1988, designed this one and have the original concept art that I did to sell the idea to Hasbro Marketing back in 1985....right before the Challenger disaster placed it temporarily on hold. We did get to resurrect it once the post crash upset quieted down......
So cool to see the commercial again!
Steve aka "SlipStream"...............
toysbyus1 11 months ago 4
I want this toy so bad but its nearly impossible to find on Ebay in good condition. I wish Hasbro would re-issue it.
StarscreamLord 1 year ago
My favorite toy as a kid (hand me down from my older brother who grew up in the 80s)... I still have it, but it's broken (aka battle damaged) a lot... still love it though!!! I used to pretend it was the space ship from the Space Quest games
JustShoveJayOhBe 1 year ago
parent's of the 80's HATED gi joe wow a 200$ mound of plastic & paint. i had 3 siblin's & was a child of the 80's i was lucky to have 20 gi joe action figure's & 2 vehicle's. my mom would buy the immitation gi joe's & a 20$ plastic air plane barely big enough to fit one guy in luckily i had a good imagination in the tub it was like 20,000 league's under the sea at bath time for me!!!
jmanideth 1 year ago
faggots die of cancer you faggots!
shredabilly13 1 year ago
wow i dont ever remember seeing that when i was a kid.
lordlen8972 1 year ago
This thing was so big, my cousin had it and it was bigger than him. lol
yourtony99 1 year ago
the rarity back in the day to have a playset come with 2 figures... that things huge though
necrokratia 1 year ago
GI Joe brought war in space! Go USA!
simonbouchard66 1 year ago 3
Bigger than I thought...had the Flagg, but not the Defiant. So I had no idea what drove its price to Flagg-like proportions. (Still MUCH smaller, but hey...)
EvelTwinOfSlogmaster 1 year ago
YO, JOE!
TomRoykouffVideos 1 year ago
Kudos to the exec who held on the keeping things in scale! Folks, it's a toy that requires two or more kids just to move about.
myangeldustatymail 2 years ago
@myangeldustatymail
Actually, despite it's enormous size, when scaled 1/18, the booster and shuttle are only about 27-28 inches long, so in that regard, theyd only be around 40 some-odd feet long.... the shuttles we use are around 120 feet long.
CrimsonGuardJay 1 year ago
I got that for my bday when i was 6 and that thing was tight. box was like 5 feet tall.
timcarlsondo 2 years ago
I would of busted a nut over this as a kid.
xLazyb0nex 2 years ago
they should make reproduction parts for this big playset like the blue wall doors and some other parts.
Gothiczartan 2 years ago
Damn that thing was sweet.
repugnus 2 years ago
holy crap that thing is huge LOL, cant imagine having that as a kid lol. But no where as big as the U.S.S Flagg lol
davida110 2 years ago
yeah i've seen this before its massive!
for a kid difficult to carry alone..
SuperWeng10 2 years ago
They don't make toys like this anymore. It's about cutting corners and making more cash while producing small crap with cards.
SOLACEBOY 2 years ago 34
@SOLACEBOY as opposed to creating a television show to sell toys?
ZoltyMat 1 year ago
@ZoltyMat It's all about quality; whether it's a televison show, a television show to sell toys or just making toys.
SOLACEBOY 1 year ago
@SOLACEBOY Totally agree. Its not just toys either. Look at cartoons, and even the playground. Everything has lost its fun because of parents looking to sue the companies.
mumswording 1 year ago
@SOLACEBOY and this is why hasbro is still number 1 with their aniversy collections for gi joe and transformers.
necrokratia 1 year ago
@necrokratia Yes, but until recently they stopped the gi jioe anniversary line for the Rise of Cobra movie which they lost out on because the movie bombed. They are now selling the Pursuit of Cobra line which I think is doing better and would do better if they would put more Alley Vipers on the shelves.
SOLACEBOY 1 year ago
@SOLACEBOY agreed, and the new hiss tank is awesome, but when you look at it the pursuit of cobra line seems to be based a bit more on the video games, and completing the 25th line but under the movie theme. the new beachhead is also cool but i can't see him carrying that much equipment, also the new jungle trooper and shock trooper, alley viper is cool and all as an urban tactical force but the shock trooper is more of an occupation force.
necrokratia 1 year ago
@necrokratia Believe it or not, the Pursuit of Cobra line is a continuation of the Rise of Cobra line; mixture of the film and the 80's line for dedicated fans.
SOLACEBOY 1 year ago
@SOLACEBOY How the hell did the movie bomb? It made a profit. It certainly wasn't what us old school fans wanted but it didn't bomb. If it had, they wouldn't be working on a sequal. Personally, I didn't think ROC was great but I didn't think it was terrible either.
i80skid 1 year ago
@SOLACEBOY If I could do it, I would make a action figure series that would be more epic than GI Joe, He-man, Thundercats, and Dino Riders combined. Even better, it would certainly last.
As for this, I can't imagine feeling what it's like having all these toys.
vgmaster9 10 months ago
exspensive and awsome
pain10000 2 years ago 2
This vehicle was never in the cartoon was it?
whitedragonawa 2 years ago
Was this available in England does anybody know?
MrNellie65 2 years ago
I have this beauty :) 100% complete
skaterbrat82 2 years ago
One of the three "Holy grails" of G.I. Joe vehicles. Anyone out there have this beauty???
gijoefan1985 2 years ago
my brother is a big fan he has the defiant space shuttle and terrordrome and the mobile command center
i own the Flag carrier which i personally believe was the best toy they ever made.
godscuttingyoudown 2 years ago 10
@godscuttingyoudown
Yeah the Flagg is better overall. The defiant is more technologically advanced and is the second coolest vehicle of the line id say.... the crawler/gantry isnt great, but the booster/shuttle combo is really cool
CrimsonGuardJay 1 year ago
Yes, I just got one this week. It is massive! I had one as a kid and its nice to have one back in the collection!
jaimanstone 2 years ago
what is the third one besides this one and the carrier?
nalgaface123456789 2 years ago
The three holy grails of the G.I. Joe line is this, the U.S.S. Flagg, and the Cobra Terror Drome. You can also go on and say there is a fourth "holy grail" as well, the Sears exclusive Missile Command HQ from 1982.
gijoefan1985 2 years ago 2
The Cobra Missile Command HQ, if you can find one complete for under $1500, jump on it.
hardataq 2 years ago
1500 is considerd a bargain!!
wow
I would pay a couple hundred but wow
nalgaface123456789 2 years ago
the holy grails are the defiant, flagg, and terrordrome?
mrpopinspree 2 years ago 2
@mrpopinspree sears missile command
iowastate89 1 year ago
Did n't this one come out around the same time as the Tomahawk helicopter? I remember seeing the commercial for this once or twice but, it seems like I had lost interest in it by this time too.
PaulUmbarger 3 years ago
I had the shuttle but not the complex. It was cool and all, but it didnt really serve a purpose. There was no one for my GI Joes to fight in space.
weshnolefan 3 years ago
i want it all 25th style baby! except those new target exclusives. im not into pp an tf any more!
hungjudas77 3 years ago
this wonderful playset can make a great comic book appearance in the gijoe/transformers comic series!
Gothiczartan 3 years ago
I can tell you that when my parents bought me this HQ it was sometime in 1991 (Toys R Us) for $99... I remember it vividly, it was either the Defiant or the NES game Super Mario 3 ($59.99). I somehow felt that the nes prices would go down someday (now they're worthless and available as ROMS), and I still have my defiant. the drivers: Hardtop(Defiant HQ) and Hardtop (space shuttle) were a breakthrough to me since us GI JOE fans were used to have 1 driver per vehicle every time we'd buy one.
fernandogonzales 3 years ago 3
they got to updated this vehicle with much better working features. they got to bring it back for all joe fans! for the 25th anniversary joe line!
Gothiczartan 3 years ago 3
agreed! and the USS FLAGG as well!
fernandogonzales 3 years ago 2
Maybe this time they can design it so that they crank mechanism doesn't break the plastic that houses it. :-)
insecticon77 3 years ago
I started to get out of G.I. Joe when this toy appeared. I blame the movie and growing up for that.
I think the shuttle was the most expensive G.I. Joe ever made. I do not remember the price but I remember it was more expensive than the aircraft carrier.
sixpackgenius 3 years ago
Hello. the defiant costed $99 in 1991... I didn't know there was such a thing like the USS FLAGG aircraft (i read it somewhere on the net that it costed like $50... now worth $500 on ebay... or even $3,000 mint in box) it's an interesting thing to have whilst it is the last thing I have of my GI JOE collectibles (I sold 98% of them for college).cheers
fernandogonzales 3 years ago 2
I meant Payload (shuttle driver)
fernandogonzales 3 years ago 2
hasbro has got to make an 25th anniversary figure of him! that means hardtop!
Gothiczartan 3 years ago
I have a friend who lost this vehicle after the hurricane. hasbro has got to make a new defient in the same incernation of the 1987 version of the same playset!
Gothiczartan 3 years ago
I think the Flagg was about $150 initially, and the Defiant was a little cheaper.
insecticon77 3 years ago 2
the flagg origonally was 109.99
iowastate89 2 years ago