 Two of the HCC 788 review of the USS flag and the action figure that came with it, Keele Hall. We'll pick up right where we left off in part one. 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. 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-7 C-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, they're the two flags together for comparison. The GI Joe flag features a gold fringe around a blue field with a 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. 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 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 onto 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's 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 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. 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 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. Then we have another computer console for the admiral. Here's a closer look at the bridge so we can see 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. Here's some of the detail on that really large navigation computer array. A lot 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. It 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 playset because it's not really part of the playset. It's a separate electronic device that attaches to the playset 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 playset. 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 9 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. When you get to 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 distorts your voice really. This is Keele Hall, G.I. Joe's Admiral and the action figure that came with the USS flag. Let's take a close look at Keele 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 Keele Hall's pistol. Keele Hall had it first. Keele Hall's pistol is not identified but the card contents for the Hawk version 2 action figure calls his pistol a Walter PPK. Well this doesn't look anything like a Walter PPK. PPK is much shorter and stubbier. It may be based on the Browning high power 9mm pistol but that's still not an exact match. Some later issues of Keele Hall did not come with the pistol so they would be considered complete without the pistol. However collectors don't really consider a loose Keele Hall action figure to be complete without the pistol. This can be a very frustrating figure to complete because more action figures exist than pistols. Keele 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 attempting to pass off the Lifeline pistol as an authentic Keele Hall pistol. They are not the same. The Lifeline pistol is a common accessory. You can get them for pretty low prices. But the Keele Hall pistol is rare and will be quite a bit more expensive. Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of Keele 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 and sign on his shoulders and on his collars indicate Keele Hall is an 08 Rear Admiral. As an 08 Rear Admiral Keele Hall is the highest ranking member of GI Joe. He even outranks the GI Joe commander General Hawk who is a US Army Brigadier General with a pay grade of 07. On his right arm Keele Hall has what appears to be a unit patch with an image of an eagle's head with a lightning bolt through it. There's a variant of Keele 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 Keele 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 Keele 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 has 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 Keele Hall here that 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 Keele 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 Annapolis and Navy Flight School. Annapolis is referring to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Navy Flight School is at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida and they provide initial primary training for Navy Marine and Coast Guard aviators. Flew Phantom F-4s off the Intrepid in the late 60s. Phantom F-4s is referring to the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom 2 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 Rhode Island and the Armed Forces Staff College. The Naval War College is in Newport Rhode Island so other than being the headquarters for Hasbro that's another thing Rhode 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 inter-service special forces unit. Holder of the Navy Cross, DFC, and Air Metal Heal 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 Heal Hall was always cool. He could set an F-4 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. Admiral Heal 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 Heal 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 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 2, but it first appeared in the miniseries Pyramid of Darkness. Interestingly Heal 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 Heal Hall with a new character that did not have an action figure? I really don't know. Heal 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 Heal 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 Heal 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 breath taking 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 place set and the sheer volume of space that it takes up. There are some downsides to this place 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 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 scenarios, sea battles, air battles and you can launch your land missions from the USS flag. I'm going to rate both the USS flag and Keele Hall as a top tier place set and figure. You may find flaws both in the flag and Keele Hall but I have to admire the courage it took just to produce this place 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 G.I. Joe. And 1985 was the fourth year of G.I. Joe. So in a year where most toy companies would be looking around for the next big thing Hasbro doubled down on G.I. Joe. Hasbro took a risk to make this place set but they knew they had a winner in G.I. Joe and in 1985 they were still riding high. That was my review of the largest place set ever made. The 1985 G.I. Joe USS flag and the action figure that came with it, Admiral Keele 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 G.I. 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 G.I. Joe toy review. Give a hell, grunt. Give me another airplane 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. Ok, Gamma 13 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. Ha, I can do it. I've flown in worse weather than this and if OG13 gets run 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 a new targeting computer on the Sky Striker, I know I can hit the targets. Do it. Get in the air and save our brothers. Good luck Ace and yo-jo. Yo-jo sir. Okay, get the Sky Striker on Catapult One. It's already- Yo pilot, reminds me of my soap. For breakfast.