When my son was 10 or 12, he wanted a GI Joe aircraft carrier. I didn't buy it for him primarily because it was 7 feet long - and probably 3 feet wide. I asked him where he would keep it and he assured me it would reside peacefully in the imaginary harbor between the wall and his bed - but I wasn't convinced that it was going to fit in his 1950s suburban bedroom. No GI Joe aircraft carrier from Santa.
Fast forward 10 or 12 years.... and my son became a Marine Corps infantry officer - with some time spent on boats used for shore landings and night raids. The teasing began..... "You know, Mom, if you had bought me the GI Joe aircraft carrier way back when, I wouldn't have needed to join the Marine Corps." (I think he was going to join regardless....)
Fast forward another 15 years... and the teasing began in earnest. Now it was that you could buy an aircraft carrier - used - on Ebay for a fair amount of money.
Fast forward another 5 years.... By this year, you could buy an aircraft carrier - new in its box - for $50,000. (Shipping adds another $600.) Clearly I wasn't springing for a new one!
I went on EBay and found one for sale in West Virginia = just 5 hours from home. I reached out to the seller, who said he was a minister who had been down in North Carolina building homes for displaced people in Asheville. Since he had no previous presence on Ebay and was sounding very much like a Craigslist scam artist, I asked if he would meet me in Clifton Forge VA - just four hours from DC. I was uncomfortable about sending a large sum (for me) of money to a stranger on EBay with no record of customer satisfaction. I also wanted to avoid the $600 in shipping costs.
We agreed to meet at 10 am in early December at the local Hardee's in Clifton Forge. He and his wife were back on their way to Asheville to build more houses. I arrived on time. He was 20 minutes late. I started to worry that the transfer was not going to happen. Finally he arrived. He had the aircraft carrier in pieces in the back of his car along with supplies to build houses. He and his wife got out of the car. They gave me the aircraft carrier, I gave them the money in cash. We both counted it. He explained half was going to the elderly parishioner who owned the aircraft carrier and had forgotten about it in the shed that he had offered to clean out. A quarter of the money was going to another parishioner who had posted it on Ebay. The final quarter was being kept by the minister. We stood in the parking lot of Hardee's and chatted for a few minutes and then we joined hands and the minister prayed with me and his wife. It was wonderful.
Now I had to get the aircraft carrier back to DC and then to Nantucket where we were going to spend Christmas as a family. I packed part of the superstructure into a Christmas box for my son to open. The rest was upstairs in our room, waiting to be taken back to CT where it will hopefully live in gracious splendor for many years to come!
Christmas morning - this was the last gift opened. Alex peeled off the paper, removed the tape keeping the box shut and peeked inside. I had finally done it - I had finally surprised him. My son is 46 now and pretty self contained, with his own family and responsibilities. He hasn't been a child for many years. It was a wonderful thing to hear him say that this was the best Christmas gift ever.
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This is a section from a blog post called the Toy Collector's Guide - just to give you an idea of the size of this toy!
The final size of the U.S.S Flagg ended up being 7 feet and 6 inches long, just over 3 feet wide, and almost 3 feet tall. That may not be 65 feet, but it was still absolutely HUGE for an action figure playset at the time, or any time for that matter. In fact, it would be the largest item ever created for any action figure line, and remains so to this day.

When the U.S.S Flagg hit the toy shelves, it retailed for $109.99. That’s a steep price to pay for a playset in today’s world, so you can imagine how that felt in 1985. For obvious reasons, the Flagg was produced in more limited quantities than other GI joe vehicles and accessories of the time. Any child who grew up in the 1980’s immediately wanted this, as soon as we saw it in the store catalogs. This was, without a doubt, one of the most iconic toys of the entire GI Joe line. At first glance, the box for the U.S.S Flagg was huge. Once you dumped all the pieces out, and took a glance at the mini novel instructions, you instantly knew that your work was cut out for you to put this thing together. The main deck came in four large plate pieces, that fit onto the main bow support. If you go by the instructions, you will have to assemble several other pieces before you get to putting the main deck together. To say this thing had a lot of small pieces for assembly would be a MASSIVE understatement. I’m very sure that many parents back in the 80’s struggled to put this together. This assembly can be a bit overwhelming, but just focus on the ultimate prize of seeing the Flagg in all of its glory, sitting on your dining room table!

When completely assembled, the U.S.S Flagg really comes to life, with all of its detailed pieces and features. The ship came with a two-piece vehicle, which was a tow vehicle and fuel trailer. It also included multiple radar dishes, missile launchers, cannons, an elevator deck, arrestor cables, and an admiral’s launch ship. One of the more awesome features of the Flagg was the electronic public address system. This was basically a bullhorn hooked up to a speaker, that allowed kids to speak into it and have their voice projected around the room, just like being on board the ship. The PA system also played various battle sounds to simulate those classic fights with Cobra. The commander of this incredible ship was Vice-Admiral Keel-Haul, who was included with the Flagg. Even though the U.S.S Flagg was featured in both, the comics and animated series, Keel-Haul never was. This ship also later inspired the Joe figure of General Flagg, released in 1992,
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