The base truck mode is the same as Jupiter. All the armor parts attach to give him more bulk. It's a nice idea, but it was not implemented very well. The tabs are too weak to hold all the various pieces securely together. Things are constantly popping off somewhere or another. I believe the front and middle to back sections are supposed to be at an angle to each other. On my copy, they follow the same slope. If I press down on the back, things will start falling off. The crotch piece is supposed to tab in there, but I have to leave it out as it always falls off. It still rolls very well on three pairs of plastic tires. His hammer is part of the "glue" holding things together, but I couldn't figure out how to attach his rifle.
Transformation is pretty much what I remembered of Jupiter, down to the annoying feet that have to be fed through his legs. You cannot keep the armor pieces on through transformation even if you are aiming for the armored robot mode because the armor pieces require some parts-forming themselves. For the unarmored robot mode, you need to swap out the armor for the smoke stack pieces or his shoulders will be bare and hollow.
His unarmored form is basically an off-white version of Jupiter. It is still an awesome figure. The paint is not as striking as Jupiter's, but the highlights are still clean and pop off the figure. He has metallic painted eyes instead of light-piping. My only criticism would be that hole in his crotch where his armor attaches. Articulation is exactly the same as Jupiter and doesn't change much to his armored mode.
Attaching all the armor parts is far less finicky in robot mode than it is in truck mode. It does require pushing those feet back through the shins and removing the four black thrusters to plug in his larger feet. The crotch armor pegs into that unsightly hole in his crotch.
Armored mode looks absolutely wonderful. His chest is very evocative of the character. I like how his shoulder pylons are not ridiculously elongated like on the Combiner Wars version. He doesn't dwarf Optimus Prime like his Masterpiece counterpart does, but is still larger. I love the Fall of Cybertron aesthetic, especially as Planet X has given us in their entire line up. Apollo is no different with the cleanly applied paint and line work. My only complaint is that his neck flap doesn't peg in anywhere. It just sits loosely on top of the torso.
His head is on a ball joint while his neck is on a hinged flap. He can look up, but not down without raising the flap and breaking the form. His shoulders are on swivels and double hinges. He can only raise his arms up and outward well shy of 45 degrees. He swivels at his biceps, wrists, waist, and thighs. His elbows are single-jointed and can only curl about 90 degrees. His thumbs are on ball joints and are hinged at the lower knuckles. The rest of his fingers are single-pinned and articulate individually. None of the knuckles are hinged, but his fingers are all curved. He has a waist swivel, but it is impeded by the ab portion of his armor. His hips are on universal joints. He can perform a full front splits, but his crotch armor prevents him from performing a side splits. His knees are single-jointed. They can't quite curl to 90 degrees. His feet are on tilts while his toes are hinged.
His accessories include his rifle, his hammer, all his armor parts, a baggie of bits to attach to his body, and the Matrix of Leadership. Both weapons have some blue highlights and molded details. Both sit in his smaller unarmored fists just fine, but sit loosely in his armored fists. The Matrix is gray plastic with a plastic jewel in the middle.
Apollo will stand on my Planet X shelf. It is a fine piece that I waited a long time to get. Planet X is one the first third party companies I purchased from and will happily continue to do so. Bring on the Insecticons!
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