 And this is our first GI Joe toy review of 2016 and we are starting 2016 big and by big I mean the largest play set ever made of course I'm talking about GI Joe's aircraft carrier from 1985 the USS flag I would like to thank Carson at 3djoes.com for giving me permission to use the 3djoes.com USS flag poster you can pick up one of these bad boys at 3djoes.com HCC 788 now presents to you the USS flag This is it the USS flag GI Joe's aircraft carrier from 1985 with Keelhaul GI Joe's Navy Admiral. The USS flag was available in 1985 and 1986 it was discontinued in 1987 and in 1987 GI Joe did have another big vehicle play set the defiant shuttle complex but as big as the defiant was it still wasn't as big as the USS flag in fact this was the largest toy play set ever made USS flag is spelled with two G's and it's meant to be a person's name it is named after general flag a character from the GI Joe comic book who was killed by major blood in issue number 19 Admiral Keelhaul the action figure that came with the USS flag was also available in 1985 and 1986 of course with the USS flag but in 1989 he was available as a mail away offer and then later in 1993 surplus Keelhaul action figures started to show up as prizes at Chuck E cheese the children's pizza restaurant this figure must have been overproduced and Hasbro was just looking for any way to get rid of their overstock GI Joe action figures are at the 118th scale and this aircraft carrier despite being really big seven and a half feet long is still underscaled for a real aircraft carrier if a real Nimitz class aircraft carrier were scaled down to 118th scale it would still be over 60 feet long since the USS flag is supposed to be an American aircraft carrier it has a CV number which is 99 and that would be CVN 99 since it would be nuclear powered all US aircraft carriers are given CV numbers in the order in which they were commissioned at this time the US Navy has planned up to CVN 80 there is no real CVN 99 at this point however at some point there will be as the carrier numbers continue to go up I think it will be interesting to see what the real CVN 99 is named the 99 stickers on my USS flag deck are positioned so you can read the 99 uh facing toward the front from the back of the ship uh Hasbro would have you put those stickers around the other way essentially mine are reversed however for a real aircraft carrier this is the proper position for the deck numbers and so I really prefer it this way we're going to take a closer look at the admiral keelhaul action figure in the second part of this review so I'm going to set him aside for now so we can take a close look at the USS flag let's take a look at the parts and the features of the USS flag starting with the bow with this very nicely shaped bow piece that has some detail on it it has some sculpted what's supposed to be lights here nice details and it has two anchors now these anchors don't have chains on them that you can't lower them to the bottom of the ocean they're more or less decorative but they do look very nice they're not just sculpted on there those are separate pieces very nice looking bow on the starboard side of the ship near the front we have this missile control radar and it can rotate around it can't rotate all the way around there just isn't enough room and it can't elevate it's a pretty simple design and there's another one like this at the rear of the ship and they have these antennae which can come off pretty easily they're very easily lost and can be hard to replace behind the radar dish there's this ladder that leads up to the flight deck on the port side of the ship directly across from the radar dish is what the blueprints call a 76 millimeter rapid fire blaster anti ship gun and it can rotate it can elevate got good elevation on that uh and this barrel kind of telescopes and it does sometimes tend to sort of collapse in like that but it should be fully extended for display there are two other identical guns elsewhere on the ship for a total of three anti ship guns although this is billed as an anti ship gun i tend to imagine it as an anti missile gun specifically the phalanx ciws radar guided 20 millimeter gatling gun the phalanx anti missile gun i think would be a much more effective defensive weapon for the ship to take down enemy aircraft and missiles that have been fired at it i think the carrier's best anti ship weapon would be its aircraft not guns this is the forward most deck plate and it has stickers to reflect the uss flags cvn number which would be cvn 99 now most uss flags will have these stickers switched around so you can read the 99 facing this direction from this direction this looks like 66 when i got my uss flag thus these stickers were already oriented in this position and i prefer it that way because on a real aircraft carrier this would be the correct orientation of the numbers to be read by aircraft landing on the deck of the carrier these deck plates are made of a sturdier type of plastic than the superstructure and the supports of this play set that's one of the first things you'll notice is there is definitely a quality difference in the plastic these deck plates are made out of the kind of plastic you would make playground equipment out of this next deck plate behind the 99 is a bit larger it stretches from here to about here and it's pretty plain it has this ladder you can go down to the radar station and it has a lot of these very long thin stickers and those can tend to just peel right up and they can be very difficult to replace reproduction stickers for the uss flag run about a hundred dollars and that's just for stickers so for that reason i have opted to not replace my missing stickers just really just not worry about stickers these stickers are fine on the starboard side of the ship we have this elevator and this elevator sort of works you're supposed to be able to just pull this out slightly and gently lower it down to the lower position but it has a lot of points where it fits into tracks and it gets off the tracks very easily then you're supposed to be able to lift it up it's supposed to go back up to the top and you push it in to lock it in place i prefer to leave it in the up position this elevator never really works very well for me here's another reason to leave the elevator in the up position this is what it looks like in the lower position it doesn't lead to anywhere it just has these support structures all around it if this were open then the elevator could lead to the under section of the ship but it doesn't so the elevator doesn't really go anywhere so there's really no point in using it i really just leave it in the up position the elevator is a bit too small for gi jo helicopters so it's better used for smaller gi jo aircraft like the skyhawk or since it is a flying submarine you could use it for the shark or since it does lower to what would be water level you could use it to launch boats this next deck plate the midship deck plate is huge it runs from here all the way down to here it measures more than two and a half feet wide more than three and a half feet long and this is why it costs so much to ship a uss flag the postage on this thing is a lot because that piece cannot be broken down and put in a smaller box it's one solid piece of plastic on that midship deck plate we have what the blueprints call a titanium framed blast deflector and that can be lifted up and these hydraulic bars can be locked into place and you would put these sky striker in front of it in order to launch it off the deck of the aircraft carrier the blast deflector has some nice detail under it and these hydraulic bars have notches on them that hold them into place you can just put them in that position or you can just kind of slide them down and lower the blast deflector the uss flag does not have a simulated catapult system which a real aircraft carrier would have the uss flag should be a kato bar carrier kato bar standing for catapult assisted takeoff but arrested recovery the catapult system is a type of assisted takeoff and it essentially launches aircraft off the deck of the carrier back on the starboard side of the ship we have what the instruction sheet refers to as an admiral's launch this is often mistaken for a lifeboat this would be a pretty small lifeboat to evacuate everyone on the carrier the admiral's launch lowers on these boom arms it does not lower all the way to water level which i think is unfortunate it attaches to the boom arms by these pegs which peg into holes here and here on the middle section of the boat the admiral's launch has some detail and i think it's fine to describe this as an admiral's launch a launch is really just any type of open motorboat but i think this serves more as a captain's gig a captain's gig is a boat on most naval ships that serves as the captain's taxi so if admiral keelhaul wanted to travel from ship to ship he would just ride in the gig back over to the port side of the ship under the deck plates we have these support beams and we have this hull skirting which runs almost the full length of the ship and this is just a thin strip of plastic it's meant to give the illusion that the carrier has a hull when in fact there is no real hull there behind the skirting you would just see more support beams like this the whole deck is held up with support beams there's nothing really back there this is my least favorite part of the play set i think it looks kind of cheesy and i even think it looks kind of cheap despite the time and the effort that went into designing and making this play set this really i think indicates that they used the least amount of plastic possible to hold this thing up since there is no real hull the uss flag could not really float in water i don't know if anybody's tried that but that would be a bad idea the flight deck of the uss flag has this secondary strip which is angled on a real nimitz aircraft carrier there would be additional catapults so you could launch more jets from the deck of the carrier on the uss flag you can land jets on this strip using this arrester cable this is the flag's arrester cable and it consists of a long black string that's connected to a couple simulated gears and you can tighten the string by just pulling on one of the loops on one side or the other you can tighten that up and this works very similar to a real aircraft carrier's arrester cable aircraft that are landing are meant to snag the cable with the tail hook and that rapidly stops the landing aircraft the gi joe jet that came out in 1983 the sky striker did not have a tail hook however the uss flag came with a tail hook that could be retrofitted on the sky striker this tail hook is designed to fit in this gap here in the back of the sky striker it fits on there pretty firmly now the sky striker can land on the uss flag using its tail hook here and what is referred to as the fan tail deck is the infamous fan tail railing which is very easily lost broken and very difficult to replace you can fit an action figure in here but there's only barely enough room a shipwreck just barely has enough head clearance to fit in there the fan tail also features another anti-ship gun and our second radar dish which looks the same as the one at the front of the ship i've removed the railing in the action figure so you can see some of the really excellent detail in there on the starboard side of the fan tail we have our third and final anti-ship gun which is the same as the other two also back here there's an opening that leads to the lower part of the ship and that's a good place to store vehicles on the starboard side of the ship forward of the fan tail we have this crane and this is a working crane it can rotate it can't quite rotate all the way around it is obstructed by the superstructure it has a black string and a yellow hook and you can use this wheel on this side of the crane to play the line out and extend the line and then you can reel that back in by just turning the wheel the other direction the crane has an engine cover with some nice engine detail in there and this engine cover is another frequently missing piece the flag came with two small vehicles this delivery trailer and this fuel tank and they can attach together you can separate them they attach with this little tow bar thing here this fuel tanker has two wheels and it has a couple fuel lines hoses with fuel pumps here in the back so you can pretend to fuel up your airplanes and they can connect on the back like that this yellow delivery trailer is a four wheeled vehicle and it does have this tow bar on it which can be raised and lowered and it has a driver's seat that's right in the front so your driver can sit there and use these control joysticks to drive it around the delivery trailer also has an engine cover you can pop that off and see some engine detail there one bonus feature on this trailer is the knob on the tow bar can fit in the screw hole on the nose of the sky striker so you can connect those and once they are connected you can use the trailer to pull the sky striker into position the deck of the uss flag is so huge you can fit pretty much all of your gi joe airplanes and helicopters on it and a lot more you can fit a lot of other vehicles on it and you can fit dozens maybe even hundreds of action figures on the flag for that reason the uss flag works great as a display stand not just to display the glory of the carrier itself but also a lot of gi joe's other awesome vehicles now that we've had a good look at the flight deck let's take a look at the island starting with the exterior and we have upper and lower decks and really we have three levels on the exterior this upper level is more of a catwalk from which the admiral can oversee flight operations we have sort of a middle level here with another catwalk another walkway and then we have the lower section which is right at the level of the flight deck here's a look at some of that exterior detail on the island there's some discoloration on mine and a few missing stickers but that doesn't really bother me too much a very nice detail there looks like a sculpted ladder there up on the top we can see the uss flags number 99 some excellent detail on the middle and the lower level and both the middle and the lower level have these doors which are hinged and can swing open nice portals there gi joe logo really excellent detail on the exterior the exterior of the superstructure has quite a few features including this missile box which has six orange missiles now the blueprints do not specify what type of missiles these would be but they're probably something like the rim seven sea sparrow which are anti aircraft and anti missile missiles they are all hollow on the inside and they fit very well in the missile box the missile box itself can rotate all the way around and it can elevate and it has a lot of very nice detail on it just behind the missile launcher we have this flag post and the american version of the uss flag has the american flag on one side and the gi joe coat of arms on the other side now that coat of arms first appeared on the 1983 gi joe headquarters command center's flag you can see that is the same there are the two flags together for comparison the gi joe flag features a gold fringe around a blue field with the shield and gi joe's motto which is honor duty and courage this flag is a nice callback to gi joe's first play set from 1983 behind the flag post and at the highest point of the play set we have this antenna assembly with communication transmitters and receivers and this is an amazingly complex antenna array the antenna cap is often missing and there are just a lot of parts to this and then at the back we have this phased array targeting radome as you can see this carrier has a lot of radar this middle level has the windows to the bridge and some additional detail it has this catwalk here and it has a ladder that goes up to the top level uh then over here it has some portals and it does have a door that swings open to the inside we'll take a look at where the that door leads to a little bit later when we look at the other side of the superstructure and then down here at the lower level we have another door that opens in we have additional portals some additional detail all the way around and then we have these y pins that serve to kind of hold this structure on to the flight deck now we can look at the other side of the island there's that antenna array there is the flag post that's the flag on the flag there is the missile box from this side and then over here of course we have the uss flags 99 number again and then we have this air search radar net which can rotate here's a shot of the interior now the starboard side of the superstructure is cut away and that's just to make it easier to play inside there this is a toy after all it's not a model this is the first room on the lower deck and there is that hatch that goes out to the flight deck there's a clip that you're supposed to be able to pull this open from the inside unfortunately that's broken on mine it has a ladder that goes up to the upper deck other than that this is a pretty empty room there's not much going on here the adjacent chamber is the ballistics storage armory and it has this bomb and missile rack which i guess you can use to store bombs and missiles for the aircraft unfortunately it's too small for all but the smallest of the missiles for the sky striker but i guess you could store the sky strikers small missiles in there moving forward we have the computer station and that has a large green computer console with what looks like a reel-to-reel tape there you'd probably use this for communications it has a chair that has a backpack for the figures and that can spin then it has a ladder that leads up to the bridge this interior wall for the computer station is the only interior wall that has a full oval shaped door frame the others are kind of cut away like this again just to make it easier to play inside this play set moving back to the rear and to the upper deck we have this completely empty room it has a hole in the floor for a ladder that leads to the lower deck but other than that this room is completely empty moving forward from there we have the radar station and it has another nice green computer console this is a radar console and it has some nice radar screen stickers on it it has a chair with another backpack this is very similar to the chair on the lower deck and here we have the door and this is the door that leads to the catwalk and it opens up on the to the inside on the hinges finally we get to the most important part of the interior the bridge and the bridge has a lot going on uh first we have this ladder and this ladder goes up to nowhere really it goes up to this top deck but the top deck just sort of ends right there we have this helm which just has a green base and kind of a silver plastic wheel and this kind of looks like the kind of wheel you would see on an old wooden sailing vessel a great big wheel that's kind of cool we've got a green computer console here and we have this purge valve which is a piece that is very easily lost so that's often missing from this play set that goes right there we have this support beam right here that has a sculpted telephone right there on it and then we have this very large green computer console this navigation console that runs all the way around the front part of the bridge then we have the admiral's chair with the backpack and this is a larger chair than the ones we saw below decks and then we have another computer console for the admiral here's a closer look at the bridge so we can see in some of the detail there's a green computer console there's a hole in the floor that leads to the ladder that goes below decks and then of course we have that admiral's chair a nice detail and texture on that we have the admiral's computer console and we can see a little bit more of the detail on that with some switches the purge valve the great big wheel which does turn there's some of the detail on that really large navigation computer array a lots of nice detail in the bridge a real aircraft carrier would not just have one bridge it would have multiple bridges with the top bridge being the primary flight bridge where aircraft movement would be controlled by the air boss below the primary flight bridge would be the navigation bridge where the ship is controlled and steered by the helmsman below that you would have the flag bridge for the admiral and his staff the bridge features these great large picture windows that allow the admiral to oversee operations on the flight deck and allow you to see the action figures inside the bridge from the exterior now we get to the sound system which is an often forgotten feature on this play set because it's not really part of the play set it's a separate electronic device that attaches to the play set and is completely removable on the side of the superstructure there is a knob right there and these metal prongs on the speaker slide in there to attach the speaker to the play set on the back of the superstructure there is a slot which you can use to clip on the microphone this speaker system is electronic so you do run into issues with it not functioning so you may have to hunt around to find one that's working it features a microphone with a selector and a button on the side a black coiled cord a speaker a gray speaker with a black on the face of it and a battery cover the speaker is powered by a nine volt battery which can be placed all the way in the speaker housing the battery cover just twists on like a pill bottle cap with the battery in we can hear the sounds that the speaker system makes it has three alarm settings and one microphone just press the button on the side to hear the alarm sound this is the first alarm sound move the selector over one to the left and hear the second alarm sound move the selector one more to the left to hear the third alarm sound finally the microphone position just switch it over there and you can press the button on the side to speak into the microphone and you can hear it through the speaker it sounds something like this it doesn't really amplify your voice it disturbs your voice really this is keel hall g i joe's admiral and the action figure that came with the uss flag let's take a close look at keel hall starting with his accessory he came with one accessory a silver pistol and this pistol is often lost it's very tiny and it can be very hard to replace it's considered kind of a rare item and if you're wanting to replace one it can often be more expensive than the action figure itself this silver pistol was recolored black and given to the second version of hawk in 1986 that's the same pistol it's just black instead of silver but this was keel hall's pistol keel hall had it first keel hall's pistol is not identified but the card contents for the hawk version two action figure calls his pistol a walter ppk well this doesn't look anything like a walter ppk a ppk is much shorter and stubbier it may be based on the browning high power nine millimeter pistol but that's still not an exact match some later issues of keel hall did not come with the pistol so they would be considered complete without the pistol however collectors don't really consider a loose keel hall action figure to be complete without the pistol so this can be a very frustrating figure to complete because more action figures exist than pistols keel hall's pistol is often mixed up with the pistol that came with the 1986 lifeline action figure and although they are the same color the design is very different and this is something to be aware of i have seen some sellers that attempting to pass off the lifeline pistol as an authentic keel hall pistol they are not the same the lifeline pistol is a common accessory you can get them for pretty low prices but the keel hall pistol is rare and will be quite a bit more expensive let's take a look at the scope design and color of keel hall starting with his head and on his head he has an admiral's dress hat complete with scrambled eggs on the brim now this leaf this gold leaf adornment on the hat is standard for officers of 05 commander rank or higher his face features a mustache and there's a spot of sloppy paint on mine he has black hair and according to the designer ron rudat this head sculpt was based on clark gable now i'm not sure this is a very good likeness to clark gable but as a classic movie fan i do appreciate the old hollywood reference on his chest he has a brown jacket which is probably a g1 military flight jacket he has a blue shirt with a wide open collar and he has silver dog tags and i think that's a very nice detail on the left side of his jacket he has a bunch of citation ribbons and his us naval aviator wings the rank insignia on his shoulders and on his collars indicate keel hall is an 08 rear admiral as an 08 rear admiral keel hall is the highest ranking member of gi joe he even out ranks the gi joe commander general hawk who is a us army brigadier general with a pay grade of 07 on his right arm keel hall has what appears to be a unit patch with an image of an eagles head with a lightning bolt through it there's a variant of keel hall that does not have the patch on the arm and those variants also do not have the stars painted on the collar the back of the action figure is pretty plain it's that brown leather jacket same with the sleeves and he has black cuffs and black gloves on his waist piece he has two black belts with gold belt buckles and the lower belt has an anchor sculpted on the belt buckle the belts go all the way around and that lower belt slings down to the pistol holster on his right leg that pistol holster has a black sculpted pistol in it and the figure comes with the silver pistol so keel hall is carrying two pistols around his left leg has a large pouch and he has black boots that are nicely sculpted with buckles on them let's take a look at keel hall's file card this file card was not printed on the back of the box that the uss flag came in the file card was an insert inside the box with the action figure there's nothing on the other side it's very plain on the back it has its factionist gi joe and it has a very nice portrait of keel hall here that's some excellent artwork shows a lot of character it has his specialty as admiral and of course that's not his specialty that's his rank and of course it has his codename as keel hall his file name is everett p colby and it has a special line here command uss flag his primary military specialty is command his secondary military specialty is pilot his birthplace is charlottesville virginia this section says graduated anapolis and navy flight school anapolis is referring to the us naval academy in anapolis maryland navy flight school is at the naval air station pennsycola in florida and they provide initial primary training for navy marine and coast guard aviators flew phantom f fours off the intrepid in the late 60s phantom f fours is referring to the mcdonnell douglas f four phantom two which was in service from 1960 to 1996 intrepid is referring to the uss intrepid the aircraft carrier cv 11 which began service in 1943 and was finally decommissioned in 1974 and it did see service in the vietnam conflict attended the naval war college in newport rhod island and the armed forces staff college the naval war college is in newport rhod island so other than being the headquarters for hasbro that's another thing rhod island has going for it the naval war college was established in 1884 the armed forces staff college is also known as the joint forces staff college it was established in 1946 and its mission is to train national security professionals in multinational and interagency operations that is perfect for g i joe since g i joe is an interservice special forces unit holder of the navy cross dfc and air metal keel hall is a respected military historian a nationally rated chess player and possibly the world's worst clarinet player this bottom section has a quote it says keel hall was always cool he could set an f4 down on a carrier deck at night with half his instruments out and walk away whistling you know what it's like to land on a carrier at night try jumping on a moving skateboard while blindfolded i will not try that this file card is loaded with information with many references to the real world both historical and technical adriel keel hall is the highest ranking member of the g i joe team but he is not in command of the team general hawk is they could have made keel hall a captain but a play set as awesome as the uss flag could not be commanded by anything less than an admiral everything about the play set and the action figure goes big the uss flag made numerous appearances in g i joe media in the cartoon series it appeared in the intro for season two but it first appeared in the mini series pyramid of darkness interestingly keel hall did not appear in the animated series his role was taken by a new character invented specifically for the cartoon admiral ledger now why would they do this why would they replace keel hall with a new character that did not have an action figure i really don't know keel hall is just too interesting a character to pass up in the g i joe comic book the uss flag first appears in issue number 36 it is shown picking up the killer whale hovercraft and rescuing some joes from the sunken uss jane it was a brief first appearance and that may not have satisfied some readers who wanted to see more of the aircraft carrier but i really liked it i thought it was a nice way to surprise the reader and end that issue on a high note the flag also appears in issue number 41 where ace makes a daring takeoff in the sky striker to provide air support for his teammates admiral keel hall's first appearance in the g i joe comic book is a little more ambiguous there is a tiny figure that appears in issue number 41 that could be keel hall but he definitely appears in issue number 73 as g i joe plans its infiltration of cobra island taking a look at the uss flag overall it is massive the size is so impressive it is breathtaking even for non collectors describing the size of the uss flag does not do it justice you need to be in its presence to understand the magnitude of this play set and the sheer volume of space that it takes up there are some downsides to this play set the interior has some empty rooms and it just feels like there should be something there despite the size and the features in some places it still feels like it could have more it's difficult to assemble display and to store and it has many fragile parts that can be very expensive to replace if you don't have the space for it you might think twice about getting one but this place it has more upsides than downsides it looks beautiful when assembled it's impossibly large it's hard to believe anyone would make a toy this size it could be the center of many play scenarios sea battles air battles and you can launch your land missions from the uss flag i'm gonna rate both the uss flag and keel hall is a top tier play set and figure you may find flaws both in the flag and keel hall but i have to admire the courage it took just to produce this play set most successful toy lines last about three years it's very rare to have one that lasts longer than that like barbie and like gi joe and 1985 was the fourth year of gi joe so in a year where most toy companies would be looking around for the next big thing hasbro doubled down on gi joe hasbro took a risk to make this play set but they knew they had a winner in gi joe and in 1985 they were still riding high that was my review of the largest play set ever made the 1985 gi joe uss flag and the action figure that came with it admiral keel hall i hope you enjoyed it if you liked it don't forget to give it a thumbs up on youtube and don't forget to subscribe i've got a lot of great new gi joe toy reviews coming up you don't want to miss them don't forget to like me on facebook and follow me on twitter you get a lot of updates there you don't get anywhere else thanks for watching and i'll see you next week with another vintage gi joe toy review the uss flag aircraft imagine being on the deck of this aircraft carrier uss flag aircraft carrier comes with what you see here other figures and equipment sold separately and i'll be right back up there that's a negative slipstream doc to check you out before you're cleared to fly we're glad you're safe son king is under attack they're requesting emergency air support maybe duke hasn't read the weather report but i can't get any birds in the air right now we've already lost one conquest x 30 i can do it i've flown in worse weather than this and if ogee 13 gets overrun our primary mission will fail before it even gets started that's risky ace in this storm would you even be able to hit targets on the ground sir with the new targeting computer on the sky striker i know i can hit the targets get in the air and save our brothers good luck ace and yo joe yo joe sir okay get the sky striker on catapult one it's already loaded and fueled up that young pilot reminds me of my soap