g i joe aircraft carrier

G I Joe Aircraft Carrier - USS Flagg was only available in 1985 and 1986, but it still resonated with a generation of kids who never made it. Illustration by Chris King.

Otherwise, it's been 35 years since the greatest Christmas gift of all: the legendary giant aircraft carrier from G.I. Joe, the USS Flag, wasn't waiting for you under the tree on Christmas morning.

G I Joe Aircraft Carrier

Lopez grew up in the far north of America in Valdez, Alaska, but in the dead center of Reagan-era Americana. He vividly remembers Christmas Day 1985 when Flagg was under his tree.

Vintage Gi Joe U.s.s. Flagg Aircraft Carrier Playset With Box 1985 Hasbro

"I remember seeing it on the shelves of the local pharmacy," recalls Lopez. "My grandparents bought it for $149.99. Santa gave it to me this Christmas."

USS Flagg was only available in 1985 and 1986, but it still resonated with a generation of kids who never made it. Photos from Facebook and Reddit, composed by Matt White for Coffee or Die Magazine.

The USS flag was only available in 1985 and 1986, but it still resonated with a generation of kids who never got one. Photos from Facebook and Reddit, composed by Matt White for Coffee or Die Magazine.

The USS Flagg was only sold for two years in the 1980s, so if you didn't get it in 1985 or 1986, you're missing out.

For Uss Flagg Aircraft Carrier (1985)

Lopez, an engineer who now lives in Anchorage, told Coffee or Die magazine. "I consider myself very lucky because I know people who had them when they were younger and don't have them anymore."

"I remember it took a long time to build, and I had my uncles and dad put it together," Lopez said in an email. "They put it on a piece of plywood so I could move it around easily. The instructions were a little complicated, and it came with more stickers than you know where to put it. The coaster ended up at my grandma's house because she had room for it."

Jason Lopez in Anchorage, Alaska. He rebuilt the USS Flagg from his childhood for his children. Photo provided by Jason López

Jason Lopez in Anchorage, Alaska. He rebuilt the USS Flagg from his childhood for his children. Image courtesy of Jason Lopez

Dustin Diamond With The Most Insane Gi Joe Haul On Christmas 1985

Of the lucky few who got a Flag for Christmas, the stories usually cover the same ground: whether it was in the box or already assembled, it was bigger than all the other gifts that were collected that year. It can be bigger than a tree. He was certainly older than any child.

But for those who didn't get one, Flag caused a deep disappointment throughout the 1980s. And every year, when Christmas rolls around, echoes of the shock appear on the Internet. There are Reddit threads, such as Searching For The U.S.S. Flag: The game I never had for Christmas. There are sad memes on social media. There is an almost endless hunger in the collecting groups. On the GI Joe Yo Joe collector's website. , the list of voted "25 Most Wanted" members are mostly rare action figures like Cobra Commander and the original Snake Eyes, but number 1 on the list is Flag (Flag's leader, Kell Hall, is number 4) .

There are poignant personal essays about not having a flag (and then seeing someone grown up) and how having one became a permanent monument to a father's bad love for his child.

In the paper-wrapped or built-in box, Flagg was bigger than any other gift, and bigger than most kids. Photos courtesy of Matt Zane.

G.i. Joe Unopened Toy: Motorized Aircraft Carrier

A private Facebook group dedicated to Flagg, called "The Admiral's Club," has more than 730 members. At a Texas collectors store, Dallas Vintage Toys, a recent buyer left a generally flattering note:

"Thank you Scott for selling my baby your Holy Grail grill. My friend grew up like this. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would have one. Thank you for making my dream come true."

For those who remember GI Joe as a childhood staple, along with those who dabble in the increasingly lucrative world of toys today, there has been no other game quite like it before or since. Produced by Hasbro, Flagg pioneered the GI Joe action figure series, a highly engineered plastic shell that, even today, looks too big to exist.

Flagg arrived with over 120 parts that required three pages of assembly instructions covering 31 steps. Once built, there were over 200 decals and stickers to stick on, which came on five more pages.

Hasbro Gi Joe Sky Patrol Sky Raven Complete With Box (1d)

It's just there in its own wonder, a dark gray monolith of Reagan-fueled 1980s American dominance and projection, but for kids.

Michael Dixon acquired the USS Flagg in 1986. Today he collects and sells GI Joe figures and vehicles, but still carries his original Flagg. He says the fund could easily sell for just $500 today. Image provided by Michael Dixon.

Christmas was never more ripe for a Supergame than in the mid-80s. It was the last years of the era when massive hard toys were king, at least among those aimed at boys. The modern Christmas is, at least in part, owned by the media: online video games, streaming subscriptions, phones, tablets and virtual reality glasses.

None of that was under American Christmas trees in the mid-1980s. CDs were first sold in 1982 and didn't take over the music business until 1988. VHS movies in the mid-1980s were very expensive, usually rented instead of shopping, and DVDs were years away. Early video games were around, but the era of Nintendo and the ubiquity of the PlayStation was a decade away.

Who Wanted The U.s.s. Flagg Aircraft Carrier From G.i. Joe?

But action games, especially action figures aimed at boys, were at the height of their fire. Hasbro had success with the 12-inch GI Joe figure in the 1970s, which was conceived as a Barbie for children. Then, in the early 1980s, rival toy company Kenner entered the toy market with 3.75-inch Star Wars figures. Hasbro brought Joe back to life in miniature form to take on the next war.

The war raged for a decade, as Joe and the Star Wars Empire fought for dominance under the Christmas trees. For every Han Solo, there was Snake Eyes. By X-Wing, Skystriker. And to answer the massive Millennium Falcon, AT-AT and Death Star games, there were The Terror Drome, the space shuttle Defiant and, the backbone of the fleet, the USS Flagg.

According to the Netflix documentary series The Toys That Made Us, Hasbro's main idea was to make "GI Joe" not be the name of the man the 1970s toy was named after - it was named after a World War II movie World Cup - but the name of a team. GI Joe was a fighting force. And the fighting force needs vehicles.

"A lot of people didn't understand the fact that the car, that's the main profit margin," designer Larry Hama told the Netflix series. "The action figures are almost the same as the loss leaders."

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And of all the ships, the USS Flagg was the greatest GI Joe dared to dream of. It had only been out for two years, and stories of Flaggs being sold at clearance prices in the 1980s were popular. Collectors still discover them in sealed boxes. "This is the holy grail," said Michael Dixon, a professional golfer in Frederick, Md., who has been making extra cash in recent months buying and reselling GI Joe and other collectible games.

Collectors can now pay upwards of $2,000 for a complete USS Flagg, more if it's still in the original box. Like many, Matt Zane added the custom lighting and base (below left) and made it the centerpiece of an extensive collection. Bottom left image courtesy of Matt Zane and others from Facebook and Reddit.

On Facebook trading groups, a Flagg in good condition can expect to make at least $1,500 or more if the boat keeps some of the often-missing parts, like the Keel Haul gun or 14 small deck clips. Or a railing instead. a fantail so nondescript that many of the original owners mistook it for junk. The market is so hot now for Flaggs that Dixon said he met a collector who sold an original box — nothing inside, just the box — for $500, even though it had a big cut on the front. He said he's seen the original boxes sell for $1,000.

Many collectors attribute the surge in Flagg-stalgia in recent years to isolation and the inner world of COVID, while others cite the jump in "disposable" income now made by a generation of '80s kids after a boom decade in stock and real estate markets.

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Search most Facebook groups or Reddit threads about Flagg, and beneath the lament about not getting one in 1985 are dozens of photos — glossy digital phone photos — of the giant plane

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