General Flagg (1992)

This figure was such a huge surprise to me in ’92. When I first saw the name, I wondered if someone at Hasbro had forgotten about the team’s original commanding officer being killed in the Marvel comic. It wasn’t until I actually bought the figure and read the file card that I understood what was happening with this guy. By the way, remember when the only way to get information on things like this was to actually go out to a store and pick the product up? Sure, there were toy magazines at the time, but they didn’t always get into details like this.

The other thing I wondered is why the Joes needed another General, especially after Hawk had gotten a makeover the previous year. Did this Flagg get a pass onto the Joe team because of his famous father?

Regardless, the look of the figure is pretty interesting, in a throwback sort of way, and falls more along the lines of the 1986 Hawk, with a battle ready appearance. It’s also notable that this figure also appears to be outfitted for cold weather, with his fur-lined jacket. The file card handily points out that he’s wearing an “official” World War II style US military officer’s hat. He’s also got his father’s belt buckle. Maybe it’s just me, but all of this strikes me as a bit like he’s pretending to be a World War II general on the weekends, kind of like those Civil War re-enactors. Maybe the smirking face sculpt is a hint, and he’s thinking of how he’s really fooled everyone into believing that he’s an actual general.

Removable hats are always a plus, at least when they look good. This one fits well, and though it’s a tad oversized, it doesn’t look too bad when placed on his head. The bulkiness of the sculpt offsets it somewhat. His missile launcher is one of the goofier affairs of the time, being a literal bomb catapult. I suppose it kind of adds to the overall throwback feel of the figure, but in the end reminds me of something from a Monty Python skit.

Overall, General Flagg is figure that looks nice when taken at face value, but whenever I think about his background, I have to wonder about his true purpose. He could just have easily been General Hawk. Though looking at that jacket one more time, with a little red and white paint, and a new hat, he could make for a great Santa Claus custom.

20 comments

  • General Flagg is definitely a sharp-looking figure. I was kind of the same opinion about him as a character though. I had the 1991 jet-pack version of General Hawk, so didn’t understand why the Joe team needed another figure who was clearly a highly-ranked general. I didn’t grab him because I was loyal to Hawk, but he entered my brother’s collection and he’s definitely nice to have around the battlefield. I also agree that his launcher is kind of crazy. It was always interesting when Hasbro tried to do something a little more unorthodox with the launchers, like Flagg, the Incinerators and pre-safety recall Roadblock.

  • I believe his mold only got reused once–for the 1993 Battle Corps repaint. The torso would then be used for the 1994 China-exclusive Major Bludd.

    I think there’s an idea behind the “catapult”: it gives the bomb initial momentum, then the bomb’s internal timing mechanism activates its rocket propulsion.

  • Dreadnok: Spirit

    This is a great figure and one of my favorites. The only Flagg better was the black jacket version.

  • Pffbbbbbrrrrrrrrtt! (Fart noise)
    For once I’d prefer another version of an existing character to a new one.

  • This was a figure I had to buy when I saw him at retail. I think it’s a great figure. The 93 version and the funskool release are equally as good.

  • Hmm. Do people like the 1992 brown jacket General Flagg better or the 1993 black jacket General Flagg better?

    Yeah, the missile catapult is pretty silly. Some strange weapons came out of 1992, like Firefly’s battle top (to be let loose while hiding within the Car Wash of Doom/Springfield Carwash?), Duke’s Dr. Strangelove/bull-riding rocket launcher, Destro’s killer frisbee launcher, and of course, Roadblock’s Rotor Blade Instant-Recall Device.

  • @ Little Boa–Ah, forgot about the battle top (which I really shouldn’t since I had that one)!

  • My one is missing all his gear. He might look out of place on the battlecorps shelf but he fits in fine with my Airfix shelf.

    Speaking of him looking like Hawk. In the Sergeant savage pilot [the only episode made] he was used as Hawk. Cleary someone got their Generals mixed up.

    On the subject of WW2 generals. It looks like he’s stolen Eisenhowers cap and Pattons jacket

    I wonder if his catapolt was inspired by improvised weapons some soldiers had to make do with;such as the British home guard [R.I.P Bill Pertwee]

  • @Rob: I like your theory about the figure’s purpose a lot better than Hasbro’s. When I first read the file card, all I thought was that no way could this guy be Flagg’s kid, not even using Marvel’s sliding time line. The real General Flagg looked and died far too young to have a son who would make General short of a decade later. In my Joeverse, I prefer to think of this guy as an impostor or maybe just Zartan in disguise.

    The figure does work better as a weekend warrior dressed in WWII gear or even as another version of the Patton-jacketed ’86 Hawk. It’s actually a great sculpt all around.

  • @Skymate: As a fan of the Pertwee acting family, (especially Doctor Who’s Jon and his son Sean) I was sad to read about Bill’s passing. I understand that Dad’s Army is considered a classic show to this day.

  • @Clutch thanks. My mothers favorite Dr is Pertwee. There are three generations of whovians in my family, my mother, sister and neice [my sisters daughter] Its good watching them all sit around to see whats going to happen next to the Dr on the current series

    There was an attempt to cross the pond so to speak with Dads army as an American pilot was made but it failed to capture the test audiances attention. I have the whole series on DVD except for the movie and the three missing episodes. Sadly Ian Lavender is the only cast member one left.

    I think the reason Dads army was so popular was because of the variety of humor in it. Slapstick, character humor, jokes and such. Comedy today is nothing more then inuendo or streriotype nerds arguing about star trek

  • In my mind, this General Flagg is just a little younger than Hawk, the “original” General Flagg that was killed was a quite older than Hawk.

    In my made up back story, the young Flagg was already part of a fairly well known and respected family, the Flagg’s. Hawk also came from a “well established” family, and with this I’ve linked the two together as friends with similar career paths. (a most real aspect of real life and high positions as history shows)

    Young Flagg was the battle commander overall for my GIJoe team when it was at its height. Mostly, young Flagg was at the HQ for this. It provided a way for Hawk to get out into the field more, while his younger friend kept the GIJOE team safe from forces within the politico-military structure (“the jugglers,” etc. …)

  • You know, I’ve always suspected the same of “Captain” Gridiron – that he just showed up one day and everyone went along with it. Maybe they’re both just privates, or not even enlisted at all (vagrants?)! Seems like a “General” would get questioned more about it, though.

  • I liked that the toyline acknowledged the deceased comic book general.

    I see nothing wrong with another general for the team. Actually, if you think outside the box (blister card?), you could use this figure for an officer that is not on the team, since some appeared in both cartoon and comic book.

    Arguable that the talking Battle Commander Hawk should’ve been Flagg Sr. and this figure could’ve been another Hawk. But it didn’t turn out that way.

  • Dreadnok: Spirit

    I never saw a problem with having another General on the team. Although, I did think it was kinda strange that the highest ranking member of the Joe team is a navy Admiral, but Hawk’s still the leader.

    But, really, I think of the Joes as having their own personal order rather than being forced to adhere to traditional military ranking. I mean, how else would a guy like Duke give orders to officers and get away with it?

  • @ Clutch. It’s possible he could’ve been adopted, like he was the (older) child of a fellow soldier, commanding officer killed in action to whom the elder Flagg was close to and felt obligated to step in to raise. Perhaps he could’ve been say a nephew of Flagg adopted because his parents were killed in action or an accident, adopting him because he’s the next of kin. Or maybe the elder Flagg had a Caesar/Roman emperor complex and adopted a complete stranger to be his handpicked successor.

    I too never saw a problem with multiple generals. There are one, two, three, and four-star generals. Even though Flagg (Major General/O-7) outranks Hawk (Brigadier General/O-6), maybe due to primacy, maybe due to Hawk just seeming older, more of a command presence, I never felt General Flagg was above Hawk in rank. Hawk seemed to be the highest ranking Joe. It felt like above him were generals even higher up and around Washington or something.

  • I seem to remember 1991 jet-pack General Hawk was actually retired in the cartoon, so it would make sense that the younger General Flagg would take the helm.

    Cool figure, looking forward to cracking mine open soon!

  • I seem to remember 1991 jet-pack General Hawk was actually retired in the cartoon, so it would make sense that the younger General Flagg would take the helm.

    Cool figure, looking forward to cracking mine open soon for 3DJoes.com!

  • Hawk got two stars with the Talking Battle Commander figure:
    http://www.yojoe.com/action/92/generalhawk2.shtml

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