It's a general rule of genre fiction that the bad guys are cooler than the good guys. That's true in many ways of the Decepticons, who often feature the most intriguing designs of the Transformers. Some of the coolest robots in disguise of all time reside on the dark side, particularly from the first iteration of the franchise, which began in 1984.
But not all Decepticons are as cool as others - in fact, some are decidedly uncool. Here are the five best and worst Decepticons from the first generation of the Transformers.
Best: Laserbeak
The basic fundamental joy of Transformers is taking something really cool and turning it into something even cooler. Laserbeak accomplishes this with ease by converting from a cassette tape - pretty cool back in 1984 - to a flying robot vulture. Most Transformers kept it pretty consistent by switching from basic robots to some kind of vehicle, but Laserbreak breaks the mold from the jump. He also prefigures a lot of the fun the franchise will have with the 90s Beast Wars cartoon.
Worst: Kickback
Early Decepticons explored the animal kingdom a bit more - actually a lot more - than their Autobot counterparts. Case in point were the Insecticons, who all became cybernetic insects. The idea was cool enough, but the execution wasn't always there. Swarms of alien robot bugs ought to have been scary and cool, but villains like Kickback were mostly just annoying. It's hard to imagine how a character styled as smooth talker would fare so well being a giant metal robot-insect.
Best: Starscream
Starscream is absolutely annoying, but with him, it's part of his charm. Constantly trying to worm his way into the leadership of the Decepticons and constantly biffing it thanks to the iron grip of Megatron, his failure is strangely compelling. Sneaky, two-faced, and mostly incompetent, he's the perfect representation of middle-management except in evil alien robot form. He'd fit in on The Office somewhere for sure. Starscream also had the benefit of being a supercool supersonic jet, which made up for a lot of his character deficits.
Worst: Apeface
Keeping the animal theme alive (it's almost like G1 Transformers was suggesting animals were evil or something) is Apeface, a Headmaster Horrorcon Triple Changer with way too much going on. He transformed from a gorilla to a jet because that's a natural transition.
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Having too much going is a Transformers thing - just look at the posters. But while Transformers proved the concept was brilliant, it wasn't foolproof. Apeface made little sense as a toy and didn't look any better. He actually looks more like one of the aliens in Attack The Block than he does a robot gorilla.
Best: Megatron
Megatron remains one of the coolest Decepticons because of his ruthless, cold ambition. His toy mode from 1984 isn't that great - the transition from a silver gun leaves him awkward and nowhere near as imposing as he is on the cartoon. But he makes up for a lot with that huge arm cannon. With a famous voice supplied by legendary vocal talent Frank Welker, and a brutal determination to rule Cybertron, Earth, and whatever else is lying around, Megatron is cool.
Worst: Mindwipe
One of the perennial problems of all Transformers in any era is accommodating scale. Autobots and Decepticons routinely turn into objects much bigger or smaller than them, leading to some serious handwaving in other media. A great example is Mindwipe, an absolute beast of a robot who transforms into a bat. Bats are cool - ask Batman - and robot birds are, too - ask Laserbeak. But there was already a Decepticon bat in Ratbat, and a giant purple robot bat didn't make much sense.
Best: Shockwave
Shockwave contrasted the hyper-ambition of Starscream and ruthless rage of Megatron with cold logic. Plus he transformed into a laser gun. The brains behind the Decepticon effort, Shockwave often challenged Megatron with plots within plots, and when that failed, he turned to plan B which was sheer firepower. But he hung around, even after many of his peers fell in the 1986 animated movie. Shockwave also has one of the most unique designs among the G1 Transformers, with his cyclopean yellow eye and laser emitter hand.
Worst: Rippersnapper
Rippersnapper's basic deal was he was hugely insecure, which makes sense because he was basically a walking shark. None of that works, and if he was going for Jaws, he missed the boat. Rippersnapper was a member of the Terrorcons, though none of them were particularly scary.
Like many other G1 Transformers that arrived toward the end of the line, the concept of 'robots in disguise' became less and less important. The idea Rippersnapper was concealing anything than his massive insecurities was a laugh.
Best: Soundwave
Soundwave is very out of date when it comes to his robot disguise - a cassette player - but the Deception spymaster remains hugely popular with fans. Aloof, super robotic in his voice, and a walking armored car containing several of his most crafty spies and assassins, Soundwave never succumbed to some of the sillier elements the 80s cartoon inflicted on the franchise. His popularity was such that Soundwave went on to be sold in toy stores through 1986, long after his 1984 freshmen class had been retired.
Worst: Scourge
Just as the Transformers franchise was ascending in popularity in 1986, the animated Transformers: The Movie decided to introduce a host of new characters - by killing off all the old ones. Like seriously, it was a bloodbath. Or an oil bath. Scourge is actually leftover scraps Unicron put together from dead Decepticons, but he's not an improvement. He's sort of a washing board spaceship, and his design leaves him with a lot of wasted space and parts. Scourge was later reissued as a "Targetmaster," with a tiny robot who turned into his gun, but this didn't really improve him any.