Toy Review - Siege Apeface

APEFACE
Series - Generations
Sub-line - Siege
Sub-sub-line - War For Cybertron
Size/class - Voyager
New/remould/redeco - new
Wave - 5
Released here - ???
Approximate Retail Price - $50
Approximate Size - 16.5cm to top of head, 19.3cm to tip of nosecone
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - jet, robotic ape
Main Features/Gimmicks - Headmaster Triple Changer
Main Colours - purple, off-white, black, maroon

PROS
+ A well sculpted and well articulated figure
+ I like how the ape feet tab into the wings rather than just hanging loosely like they do on the G1 toy
+ The biggest improvement is losing that gigantically heavy backpack. Part of this was done by having the ape arms become the robot legs instead of just being kibble.
+ Both Apeface and "Spasma" are well balanced.
+ Both robot and ape modes are better proportioned.
+ I really like the Titan Master as it looks a lot more like G1 Spasma which TR Apeface failed to do. It's also more functional than TR Apeface since it can become both the robot and ape heads. It's also a far more G1-accurate looking head, although I must admit that on a technical level, the sculpting on TR Apeface is better (not a fan of those black eyes though).
+ Really nice use of Z-joints, double joints and strategic tabbing. The way that the robot arms fold up is reminiscent of Siege Spinister.

CONS
- That cheap looking off-white. Why not grey? :confused:
- The jet mode looks ridiculous; there is no way something shaped like this could fly in atmosphere. The silly amounts of air resistance alone...
- The "battle damage" looks terrible and is extensively splattered on the shins, shoulders and nosecone. Even if you like these effects, the sheer inconsistency in application still looks bad. All of the splatters are on bumpy surfaces, making them a massive pain in the backside to remove. I've done two rounds of extensive scrubbing with my Apeface and still couldn't get all of the marks off. Removing the marks from the nosecone can be problematic as you want to avoid removing the Decepticon insignia and the beige paint decos on the sides.

OTHER (things that might be seen as pros or cons depending on your tastes)
* Part of Apeface's superior balance does come at the cost of having the nosecone not being able to fold down, and as such it does stick out in an unsightly way. But given that it serves a practical purpose of improving balance, I can overlook it.
* The ape mode head is split into two parts -- the eyes and top of the head are formed by "Spasma," while the lower part of the head is formed by a mask.

https://i.ibb.co/Hxj5RdF/SIEGE-Apeface01.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/w0g5SWc/SIEGE-Apeface02.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/bB4tNpS/SIEGE-Apeface03.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/D8VnQ6P/SIEGE-Apeface04.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/b5zGSQd/SIEGE-Apeface05.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/yk9Xgbs/SIEGE-Apeface06.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/8cvTQxR/SIEGE-Apeface07.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/3WnyGBR/SIEGE-Apeface08.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/5cjJVWW/SIEGE-Apeface09.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/StN8YTP/SIEGE-Apeface10.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/R4XYZzY/SIEGE-Apeface11.jpg

I have mixed feelings about this guy. On one hand, the mould is mostly good, but the deco really lets it down. The battle damage is atrocious, the legs look like they're covered in silver freckles and the damage on the nosecone just cuts off with a straight edge, it looks absolutely silly. Now usually this wouldn't be an issue except that on this particular figure it's a pain to remove. I may as well have been using water trying to remove it on mine last night. I also take issue with the cheap looking choice of off-white plastic for it. I've decided to hand it over to a friend to customise into something I'd expect of Takara during their Legends days, then I will like this figure a whole lot more, but it really shouldn't be necessary.

What are you using to remove the battle damage?

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Originally Posted by SMHFConvoy

What are you using to remove the battle damage?

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Rubbing alcohol. It seems to vary depending on the figure. So far I've noticed Springer and especially Apeface have been the hardest. Astrotrain was super easy, as were various other Siege figures that I've removed damage from.

Ggrrr, Apeface's battle damage certainly is a pain in the diodes to remove.

https://i.ibb.co/VQL8MTV/SIEGE-Apeface12.jpg
Left: unaltered Apeface
Centre: after two rounds of scrubbing
Right: after a third round of scrubbing... I gave up on the shins and painted them black

That clag white.... I will never complain about Hasbro Grey again

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

after a third round of scrubbing... I gave up on the shins and painted them black

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Totally don't blame you. Looks quite nice now.

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Originally Posted by Lint

That clag white.... I will never complain about Hasbro Grey again

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You win this thread, sir. :)

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

CONS
- That cheap looking off-white. Why not grey? :confused:

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The plastic choice seems down to necessity, TFWiki says "Apeface's white plastic is actually super-dense nylon, which is necessary to prevent the tabs from breaking".
As I understand it using this material means it's harder/costs more to paint, I don't really know, but it does make him look a little like something from Shapeways rather than Hasbro.
I found this thread over on TFW, he looks much better spending the extra money on a coat of paint, so it might be worth the cost/effort to do so.
Also found this PSA over on reddit, the wing accessory is made of translucent plastic and the connection points are too small/wing pegs too large, so be careful as others have had the pegs break off in the ports.

Is there any prospect of this releasing here at retail?

According to a video review, the primary flaw with Apeface is his upper chest section doesn't dock particularly well when he transforms into either ape mode or jet mode. The review showed the clip holding up his ape head disengaging several times.

These are my personal concerns:

1. No nosecone compartment for Spasma to pilot the jet. Instead, he's inside a rear compartment hidden under a spoiler wing. Seriously, what is the point of making that compartment with a transparent plastic cover if the spoiler wing completely covers it??? :confused:
2. I don't like the ape mask, would have preferred it to be disengaged so he's truly headless.
3. As already mentioned, the battle damage is silly. Like the former example, I'll probably paint those panels black just to remove the paint effect.

Overall, I'm not terribly interested in this figure, I'm just buying him as a precaution, in case they release Snapdragon later, to make the pair of BeastTripleChangerHeadmasters.
I know from bitter experience if I change my mind later, the scalpers will ask an exhorbitant amount for a 25$ toy, so it's better to buy them at sale price even if I'm uncertain and avoid not being able to get the toy long after the release wave is discontinued.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tilarta

1. No nosecone compartment for Spasma to pilot the jet. Instead, he's inside a rear compartment hidden under a spoiler wing. Seriously, what is the point of making that compartment with a transparent plastic cover if the spoiler wing completely covers it??? :confused:

[...]

Overall, I'm not terribly interested in this figure, I'm just buying him as a precaution, in case they release Snapdragon later, to make the pair of BeastTripleChangerHeadmasters.

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I've seen people use the beast head mask thing as a seat, and you can fit a fully curled up Titanmaster in under the canopy. It looks sort of goofy but you get that 'head visible through the cockpit' action like on TR Megatron.

Also I believe SnapDragon was a part of the Walmart leaked listings over the weekend.

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Originally Posted by Tilarta

According to a video review, the primary flaw with Apeface is his upper chest section doesn't dock particularly well when he transforms into either ape mode or jet mode. The review showed the clip holding up his ape head disengaging several times.

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Mine works fine in ape mode, although it was a bit tricky to work out at first. The jet mode I find is harder to dock in, and even when I did it it just looks stupid. Gah.

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Originally Posted by Tilarta

These are my personal concerns:

1. No nosecone compartment for Spasma to pilot the jet. Instead, he's inside a rear compartment hidden under a spoiler wing. Seriously, what is the point of making that compartment with a transparent plastic cover if the spoiler wing completely covers it??? :confused:

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That's actually a really good point and it was something that bugged me about the toy when I first handled it but I forgot to mention it in my review (oops). :p I think that the cockpit should be in the actual front section of the jet, even if it means Spasma docking in in head mode into the ape-mask. Having it up the back is silly, but you're right, having the stupid shield cover up the window is even stupider. Although even without the shield Spasma can't see anything other than directly up. It's just a daft idea. At least TR Astrotrain/Sentinel Prime have their cockpit in an elevated position with a clear front view for the pilot.

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Originally Posted by Tilarta

2. I don't like the ape mask, would have preferred it to be disengaged so he's truly headless.

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I agree, but it's a necessity to make Spasma easier to fit into the ill-placed cockpit. But yeah, you could just include the ape head entirely into Spasma, that way you don't need to accommodate space to fit the mask in jet mode and just have a proper cockpit up the front of the plane! Two birds with one stone!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tilarta

Overall, I'm not terribly interested in this figure, I'm just buying him as a precaution, in case they release Snapdragon later, to make the pair of BeastTripleChangerHeadmasters.

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Headmaster Horrorcons they're called. :) And as SharkyMcShark has said, Snap Dragon has been revealed in a leaked listing (although with the name separated into two words now, I guess for trad

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tilarta

I know from bitter experience if I change my mind later, the scalpers will ask an exhorbitant amount for a 25$ toy, so it's better to buy them at sale price even if I'm uncertain and avoid not being able to get the toy long after the release wave is discontinued.

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This is a Voyager Class figure so you're not going to find it for $25! (can't even find a Deluxe for that price these days)
I think I paid about $75 for mine including shipping.

I didn't mean a Voyager class figure, I was referring to Combiner Wars Rook and Blades. Couldn't find a Blades for sale, but found a few Rooks, listed at a minimum of 200$, one was $400.
Saw a Rook for sale at 25$, but took long deciding to buy him and by the time I did make the decision, he was long gone from the shelves in the toy store.
Tried for a Transformers Prime Bulkhead before them, was equally unsucessful at finding a reasonable price.

Sometimes I wish there was a market specifically for Transformer enthusiasts, not scalper greed monkeys. One where the prices of discontinued products was set fairly, simply because it's a for a fan, not an investor.

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Originally Posted by Tilarta

Sometimes I wish there was a market specifically for Transformer enthusiasts, not scalper greed monkeys. One where the prices of discontinued products was set fairly, simply because it's a for a fan, not an investor.

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Fortunately you’ll find people in this community selling older toys at good and fair prices (see Robzy’s current sale for example). EBay prices on many older figures are completely ridiculous. In some cases older toys will be more expensive and worth more than the RRP but Rook is never going to be worth $400!

I see many people like it, but , to me it is too boxy, just a box with nose cone. still prefer unique toys one, much smarter design, even integrated the pilot seat into the transformation, and managed to do the job in a mini scale .

It's a bit of a weird figure but it that is what makes it good kind of. Even though mine has a bent back leg, and some of the tabs are a bit hard to get in. I also don't mind the white plastic and spaceship mode, not as bad as they're said to be online.

Oh and the instructions could be better.

Got mine delivered today and I have to say it's better than I thought. The white looks better in person than it does in photos, HOWEVER it is still pretty horrible to look at. It strikes me as odd. Ok, I get that it might be dense or whatever, but man it looks pretty bad.

Another thing that is horrible to look at is the instruction sheet. Man, this and Spinister made me angry trying to work out what was going on in some sections. One bit I had to rotate the gorilla rear legs somehow, but i couldn't tell if I was supposed to be doing the G-legs of R-arms. FRIKKING USELESS.

I actually don't mind the battle damage on Apeface too much. He's a dirty bad-mannered guy, so it kind of fits. Rest of the colours are pretty nice (bar the white). Sadly my robot face has some red bleeding over the mouth plate.

Jet mode is ridiculous, however the original is as well, so I guess... it's ok (is it really??), although I agree with the others that the placement of the cockpit which is then covered up seems a bit odd. The white looks really bad looking down on the top of plane though. Gorilla mode is good, but getting the neck piece to fit is tricky, then making sure the back panels are all solidly together is a bit of a shuffle. I also found the rear legs hampered by the robot shins, so essentially the rear legs could only move from the knee. DId I mess up? Robot mode is good fun, but he looks like he has big clown shoes on and I don't think his heels are as effective as they should be.

Overall not a bad toy, but not a good one either.
Oh, he's also a LOT smaller than my legends Blitzwing, who is ALSO a triplechanging headmaster, from not so long ago....

I opened my Apeface last night.

What a mess.

The robot & ape modes look nice... although the plane mode is a box with wings, as Gok alluded to.

That ape neck is a pain to align correctly & the various pegs that hold the box that forms the ape torso / plane fuselage together don't clip together well.

I have had absolutely no luck removing the silver paint spray, so while it looks awful on his robot shins, I've just given up.

He does look fairly faithful to G1 though - stupid silver spattering aside - so will display well.

I wouldn't say I regret buying Apeface, but for a toy of this size class I certainly expect better that what feels like an unrefined early prototype (right down to the nylon resin on the white sections).

After playing around with mine a bit more, he's definitely grown on me.

Getting used to the way the gorilla head plugs in and fiddling with that joint on the hinge makes a bit of sense and everything fit a bit smoother. I've discovered his rear legs have a bit more motion now as well (gorilla ones).

Depending on t he lighting, the whit plastic can look O.K. And other times it looks like old chewing gum.

It also looks like the whole toys uses that nylon-y plastic as well. Interesting....

Got my Seige Apeface custom back the other day. Looks so much better without the battle damage and yellowish plastic and really makes me miss the days of Takara Legends redecos. Full credit goes to Alutnarat

https://i.ibb.co/LSw5JwD/94883262-10...52819200-o.jpghttps://i.ibb.co/hHfcNwc/94654487-10...78315776-o.jpg

Looks great. :) Although it does mean that you spent more time and money on customising this. Ultimately the toy should have initially looked better; used grey plastic instead of that "Clag white" and just skipped that try-hard "battle splatter" in the first place. Sometimes less is more. It does make me miss the days of pre-brand unification Takara (TOMY) variants. Legends were a bit different in that they were significantly dearer (and included bonus accessories or partners), but pre-Legends Takara/TOMY stuff would often give us variants at about the same price as the Hasbro versions (e.g. Henkei, United etc.).

That's a great custom. It's what "should" have been... and the fact that so much work was done speaks to how badly they executed what should have been a great toy.

Expect Hasbro to release "clean" versions in the next couple of years... to make more money off the moulds.

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Looks great. :)

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Originally Posted by dirge

That's a great custom. It's what "should" have been...

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Cheers guys!

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Originally Posted by griffin

Expect Hasbro to release "clean" versions in the next couple of years... to make more money off the moulds.

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I'd buy them! Gotta satisfy that OCD.

That looks great.

I've recently become aware that EearthRise Snapdragon is a Voyager class. I'd initially misread as leader. That renewed my keenness for this figure. If it ever dribbles out to retail here I will probably grab it (stranger things have happened - remember the final wave of TLK toys turning up like 18 months late?).

I think its a decent toy that suffers from the original design.

The original figure didn't transform so much as had different parts that opened up in each mode. The Siege Voyager does an impressive job of maintaining this general scheme while also making it more streamlined and in line with the cartoon appearance.