CLASS OF 1984 Code Name: DEEP SIX

I never, personally, owned a Deep Six and SHARC as a kid. However, some of my friends did, so I had enough experience playing with the figure and vehicle to know that I liked the SHARC and hated Deep Six. The original Deep Six action figure has probably the least play value of any G.I. Joe figure ever created. In my opinion, that the figure is so lame is expressed by the fact that you have to lay the figure face down in the SHARC. It is like Hasbro had to design the SHARC around how lame the figure is. By the time Hasbro updated Deep Six to a better articulated "action" figure, I had already grown out of collecting toys.

Now, I think Deep Six as a character portrays an important role on the G.I. Joe team. So, I wanted to make sure that I included him in my roster of characters. I definitely wanted a better articulated Deep Six, and (if possible) a custom that required little to no painting.

I've been sitting on this DC Mr. Freeze action figure to use as a base for a Deep Six custom for quite some time, maybe even a couple of years. Also, I thought the upper body of ROC Heavy Duty would make for a cool looking diver's suit. However, those calves/boots had to go!

I Dremeled out/off areas from both the Mr. Freeze chest and Heavy Duty torso to not only make the pieces fit but to give the character the proper height. I added some shots of hot glue to the shoulder joint to fill in the gap of the Joe arms used with the DC body. Also, swapped out Heavy Duty's calves/boots with 50th Torpedo. The sheen of the plastic isn't quite as shiny, but it works fine for me. Finally, I glued an Eel backpack to the back of the figure and cut off the knife sheath from the 50th Torpedo belt and glued it to the figure's calf.

Interestingly, I think this build not only works for a Deep Six, deep sea diver, but also for an astronaut figure! I have also customized my SHARC with a cockpit/seat from an X-Wing Fighter. This allows a regular figure (NOT this Deep Six custom - too big) to sit facing forward. I'll post pictures of the custom SHARC soon.