Star Trek was a program that I definitely watched over the years. The more notable interest for me on this show was the starships. That was the vehicle form for my imagination and still to this day I enjoy reading technical specifications on these fake vessels.
Same for G.I.Joe in many respects, the vehicles were really rather the big interest for me. While not having near the level of fictional background built into 'Joe vehicles as Star Trek has for ships, there is still a lot of real world influence that is definitely apparent in many G.I.Joe vehicles. The Skystriker, for example, if not based off an F-14, surely can be argued to have similar styling.
It is this real world meeting fictional world that kind of feeds my imagination, where the toy in my hand could be anything, but I can take real things and apply them to this experience of play. It's like somewhat making a thing ones' own, but based in reality, while somewhat just having fun being creative.
With G.I.Joe, my personal take on what I have is that vehicles are more unique, more one-of-a-kind things that are not mass produced. Sometimes more mass produced items are borrowed but so heavily modified that no else has this very same vehicle.
Or, imaginatively speaking, many vehicles are advanced prototypes that are able to disappear off the regular inventories lists, "off the record," or never existed officially type of things.
The
U.S.S. Flagg is one such vehicle/ playset, one I have never had, but have imagined as being one of these "one-off's." For a vehicle the size of a carrier, to operate the world over, as a special missions force carrier, it has to be different, wouldn't you think? I have no doubt there was a certain ship style that was in mind when designers created this ship, but I think I have a plausible fiction that supports where a ship like this might have come from.
It is the
SCB-125 upgrade program that you can read about there.
It is essentially an upgrade, or to use the Star Trek term of "refit," it essentially looks like much of the original ships hulls remained intact, while reworking a lot of the rest. Like a Star Trek Constitution class refit, which was done in that fictional universe to many ships, including the Enterprise, but also proven to be done on what would become the NCC 1701-A.
It happened in that fictional realm, as well as our real world to large vessels.
Add into the fact that there were many ships that have been on order of varying sizes and classes, and I am only guessing, but there is no doubt projects that are sitting around.
That's why I am making up an origin for the U.S.S. Flagg here, a former carrier that might have been scheduled for an upgrade, or a lengthening, but was sent to the budgetary chopping block. Then, some forward thinking General slipped this project into another fund, resulting in the opposite: a shorter carrier, with a much more limited aircraft complement, much less armaments, but much more suited to supporting a small elite unit.
Assigned the "99" designation, with the shorter deck, limited aircraft, limited armament, this little carrier could be sent out into the ocean under the guise of some sort of testing or training vessel. Surely, from the fictional standpoint in the shadow of the real world, a little carrier isn't something the Navy would actually be putting out there.
No one would take it seriously, it could roam the world in support of G.I.Joe missions as a training/ testing vessel.
Even the crew on board might not realize their jobs are almost solely an exclusive support for the daring, highly trained special missions force we know?
But this is just me.
I don't see me coming into possession of a Flagg any time soon, if ever. I'm actually more interested in creating my own, but something else that won't be any time soon.
