And the hi-res photos of this gallery have helped change my mind. I'm a lot more interested in Apeface now.

 

Thanks for those pictures.

A few thoughts... (Hopefully coherent)

Robot mode is an excellent update of the the G1 original.

The Ape mode doesn't have the bulk of the original, but still looks good and I really like the improved articulation. The range of motion on the head really helps

The Jet mode... is disappoining, to put it mildly.
The G1 Apeface vehicle mode was a brick with a mess of kibble in the rear, but it still manages to look more airworthy than this incarnation.

I think that this mode would have been improved if it had a wider wing span or intakes on either side of the faux cockpit,

I hope some Third Party company comes some up with some collapsible extensions, or replacements for the wing in the jet mode

The Heas (titan?) master looks rather silly from the rear in robot mode.  

No you're not. That's probably the best feature of the vehicle mode

 

So in plane mode, he's a box with wings and nosecone.

In robot mode, he's still a box with arms and legs and a huge backpack to the point of a shellformer.

edit: I forgot to mention the gorilla mode... and well, good thing I did, it's just bad and I'll be polite and leave it at that.

Note that it's not that I'm hating on this figure,, I'm just stating what I'm seeing here... he gives me the vibe of being leftovers from early Combiner Wars with those empty sockets and just doesn't look at the level of the Siege figures at all, more like over-cartooned.

Reminds me of RID Twinferno with the dragon hands, for the over-cartooned look.

Then again, the G1 version wasn't a figure that I cared for at all either.

So he's an easy pass... I just really hope Snapdragon will be better.

 

Snappy is the only one I'm really interested in, on account of my G1 copy surviving the 30-some-odd years since his original release (albeit very yellowed and with a borked wing).

 

That gummy bear looking mushy wire plastic kills this dead. It looks so soft and translucent. I can't get past it.

Fantastic otherwise. Oh well.

 

Don't smoke never have its a disgusting habbit

 

I've never liked that plastic and I lament the loss of the usual Siege articulation (waist, ankle rocker) but I'm still picking up as I don't like the KFC product either.

 

This guy has so much charm I can\'t help but love him. Love what they did with the head master dude and how he looks. Love the jet form and the gorilla form too. It\'s silly looking, but in that charming way. He\'s like a pug, and that\'s awesome.
Now all we need is a Armada Sideways headmaster and we\'re gold.

 

Personally I sorta like the pearly white plastic, tho it wouldn't necessarily be my first choice for this character. His modes are kind of lumpy but I think it suits the character. My major complaint is also that the vehicle cockpit isn't the true cockpit. Overall, yeah, I'm picking this toy up for sure. I don't mind the silver sparkles, Apeface is a goofball-looking jerk and he's generally a weirdo Decepticon. I hope they get creative with redecos.

 

this bothers me hugely as well, especially given Titan's Returns mostly managed decent cockpits on deluxes! Even something like Blitzwings "cheater" cockpit would have been much preferable to this.
Still, he's a lovable oddball to me from the latter G1 days, so i'll get him, but i think he could have stood another design pass.

 

Already got Apeface on pre-order since day 1.

Sign me up for Snapdragon and Minerva. If they do Minerva they should do her justice though. Since we get Seacons, have a Star Convoy and are leaning into Japanese continuity as well as some Armada stuff.
Still some non cartoon figures to go, like the firetruck, forgot the name.

 

Seeing how they did Springer, you would think they got it nailed in terms of design choices, but going G1 for Apeface never was the option to begin with. The insane amount of kibble on that thing is horrible. S3 figures are notoriously simplified compared to S1+2. Not to be a divider when it comes to people who like this or that character, yet the esthetic choices for the 3rd season figures is vastly different. Cyclonus and Scourge also have a weirdness to them, still like them though. A friend of mine had them all and they are eye catching. But just not what you had with S1 figures like Hoist for example. So much more playability.

 

I hope this is okay to post this picture here; I do so completely acknowledging the credit to Fabian Wong, aka Unicron Nemesis via Flickr:

[Transformers Classics] Decepticon 14 Horrorcon 01 - Apeface 03a-1 by Fabian Wong, on Flickr

Maybe it's just his mad photography skills, but this photo put me at ease regarding the simultaneous lifeless and gaudy white plastic. I mean, I was going to get it anyway, but still those earlier pictures had me worried.

 

by another design pass, I meant solely for improving him, not actually changing the design. Incorporating the cockpit into the, well actual cockpit (especially since that piece is just hanging on the back in both modes!), making the ape mode a little better, etc. He just feels a tad 1/2 baked (3/4 baked?)

 

Always was the case for this figure. A Ape that goes to Jet to figure. And they did try to catch some of the toon asthetics for the the robot. I feel they should have nailed the ape at least. The Jet always was the 3rd mode for him.

 

I love the angle and lines of his leg into his foot. Well done.

 

A concern for me, regarding the plastic (which does indeed look more aesthetically pleasing in these photos, although the same could be said for virtually anything when Unicron Nemesis is behind the camera!) is how poorly it matches with the white paint applications on the front of the fuselage;


[Transformers Classics] Decepticon 14 Horrorcon 01 - Apeface 02-1

Also, this photo demonstrates that even in the hands of an excellent photographer, the plastic retains its capacity for swallowing sculpted detail.

 

AFRICKINMEN!

 

Fair enough. I think I overlooked the photo you are pointing out because I'm over the jet mode. It would be nice if all the white on the figure were that particular shade of light grey, but alas...

 

I feel like if the plastic was a different shade, I think it'd look pretty sharp, I remember the convention in hand pics made Apeface look much nicer than this. Times like this i wish the brand unification never happened, Apeface needs the Legends treatment badly.