Mathematica's Shapes and GraphicsComplex data

Question

Is there a way to get at the data points that form shapes generated by Mathematica's native commands such as Sphere, Cylinder or Cone?

Usually 3D graphics objects like these can be generated using ParametricPlot3D, and the resulting -Graphics- object can be perused for data points used by the GraphicsComplex command to generate the surfaces.

The previously named native commands however seem to be much lighter computationally, and it would be great if these objects could be addressed directly at their constituent data points in order to be able to build complex geometries from simple components.