Q Force Deep Sea Defender (1983 Action Force)

I’ve covered Action Force, GI Joe’s sort-of cousin from across the pond, several times. Up till now, the figures I’ve covered have been members of the Red Shadows, the UK exclusive enemies of the 80s Action Force team. Much like Cobra, the enemy forces were both a strange and terrifying lot, with shadowy leaders, robots and even a fishman.

The forces of good were, for the most part, more realistic. The team didn’t employ any robots or mutants, but they did have their own space force years before GI Joe. The entire Action Force was actually divided into several teams, including Q Force, a sea-based detachment. The Deep Sea Defender, was a member of this group of nautical operatives.

Clad in the standard bright Q Force colors of yellow, red and blue, he may look familiar to history buffs, as his look is based closely on the deep sea diving suits of old. The mold is a repaint of the earlier Deep Sea Diver, itself a throwback, like many of the Action Force figures, to the twelve inch Action Man figures of previous decades. Speaking of homages, I’ve always thought that the head sculpt inside the helmet bears a large resemblance to the old 12 inch figure heads.

Accessory-wise, American Joe fans will recognize the backpack, a red remold of the JUMP jet pack. Here, it stands in as breathing apparatus, I assume, although the aerial that connects to the pack via a clear hose makes me wonder what else it’s meant to do. The hose actually connects to the peg that originally functioned to plug into a GI Joe figure’s back. That’s right, the backpack attaches backwards. How was that accomplished? How about a simple blue rubber band?

Lest you think that Action Force in the beginning was too staid or generic in relation to GI Joes in the US, the figures did include a form of the classic file cards. Deep Sea Defender did have a code name: Leviathan. He’s slow moving, but a quick thinker. An appropriate moniker, I think.

While many American GI Joe collectors have focused on obtaining the exclusive recolors of Hasbro GI Joe molds, I’ve become fascinated with the five-point articulation Action Force figures. Its simplicity of design in comparison to the Real American Heroes does not diminish the range’s quality in my eyes. Most of the sculpts are quite detailed and attractive, and the construction style allows for a more natural portrayal of the human form. There are so many unique and interesting concepts to be explored with Action Force, and I hope to move on to more of them in the future.

12 comments

  • While not something I’ve ever focused much on, it’s always interesting to see Action Force stuff here. I like how, while they were tied to G.I. Joe, they still created their own unique mythos and characters rather than nowadays when toylines are brought over to other countries and the story is rigidly the same. I always like seeing action figures of that old-school diver looking. Its distinctive and pretty cool in my opinion. I think that’s why, even though I never liked a lot of the Joe divers, Deep Six v2 caught my attention a little bit more.

  • “All i need is two stout men to work the bellows” [Grandpa Simpson]

    Is his accsessory a fishing rod? So he can go fishing at the bottom of the sea?

    Over here, we got all sorts of stuff back in the early days. We got Action force stuff, US A.R.A.H stuff and A.R.A.H stuff on Action man/Action force cards. Many of the commercials were redubbed to give them a more internation flavour [i dont know why]. If you ever see the Australian dubbed Sergeant Slaughter commercial that Liftticket and Hawk seem do be doing Crocodile Dundee impersonations.

    I confess i have never been too interested in action force as i havnt read many of the comics. The only comics of it i have read are short promotional ones included in Valor annuals and they left much to be desired. I cant take Iron Blood seriously. He looks too much like an extra from Plan 9 from outer space

  • Dreadnok: Spirit

    I don’t like how his right arm is bent in a pose instead of being straight like the other arm, but it’s a nice looking figure. I think it’s clever that they used a JUMP for the breathing apparatus. I can’t tell what that other accessory is, but I assume that it’s not a fencing foil.

  • There was meant to be “You’ll notce” inbetween “commercial” and “That”. Sorry for any confusion

    Also. Why did the Australian video company who got the rights to the sunbow home video tapes back in the day [over here] rename COBRA QUAKE “Wild Weasel”? I dont remeber Wild Weasel doing much in that episode

  • Does the deep sea really need defending? From what, polluters?

  • Yeah, that head sculpt looks a lot like Joe Colton and the other ’94 tribute figures. Gotta be inspired by the 60’s Deep Sea Diver. It’s weird how they got the JUMP to fit in backwards, though.

    Action Force figures from this era do a nice job of bridging the gap to the RAH stuff between the old style Fisher Price/Kenner articulation combined with early 80’s Hasbro accessories. If I had the extra income, I would add these guys to my collection. In the meantime, there’s always http://www.bloodforthebaron.com.

  • @Skymate: Hasbro probably wanted to sell more Rattlers down in Oz, so they highlighted Wild Weasel in the title.

    I wouldn’t mind seeing those redubbed commercials if only to hear the Joes speaking with Aussie accents. That would be a cool change of pace from the usual.

  • Nice figure for aquariums!

    😉

  • @Clutch just go to youtube and type in “Australian G.I.JOE toy adds” I beleive someone did upload the Ozzy version of the Sergeant Slaughter commercial. There is also a small series called “O- ring a bell” there which is entertaining and informitive. I beleive the link to some of those commercials may be there.

    I remember at primary school, all my freinds used to refer to the brand as “International heroes” I would usually respond with “Their American heroes, dummy”

    Also some of the Transformers episodes were retitled as “The Imobilizer” became “Wheeljack saves the day” [which couldnt be less fitting as he’s rendered imobile most of the episode] and Hoist goes Hollywood was renamed “Megatron makes movies” [ in which apart from now being hillariously ironic] Megatron does the exact opposite of making films.

  • Action Force was how I got into GI Joe…. My collecting habit started with Star Wars and progressed from there…

    There was also a weekly comic…

  • Rob, did you drill a hole in his back to attach the pack via the peg properly? Thats what I did with one in my collection….also, I made a custom where I took the figure apart and carefully Dremelled the helmet halves off, sanded down the collar and re-glued the helmet back together – and bingo! Removable helmet! I also made a MUTON BARON IRONBLOOD disguse version, and other variant MUTON’s….see here….

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/talkingcommander/albums/72157631522458953

    The bent right arm Dreadnok Spirt mentioned was purposeful….it was so the original Series 1 Deep Sea Diver could hold his Mallet in both arms properly….

    • I used a bit of poster tack to stick the flat side of the pack to his back, since I didn’t have a fancy blue rubber band to do the job as originally intended. The JUMP pack peg was used to connect a tube to the rod.

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