Eliminating all in his path in the Allspark Studios this week is none other than Decepticon evil clone, Nemesis Prime! Will he be the doomsday of your toyshelf, or will he spend his time cosplaying as his Autobot opposite? Tune in after the break to find out!

The first time that I saw Nemesis Prime online in his combine mode I was awestruck. The black, silver, and teal color scheme always looks intimidating on an Optimus Prime mold, but this one looked down right menacing. The wrist blasters added to the forearms reminded me quite a bit of the Hero Optimus Prime mold from G2 that was repainted into Nemesis Prime during the original RID toyline as an exclusive for KB Toys. That just made me want this figure even more.



Vehicle Mode

There’s nothing significantly different in this mode from the original release of this mold. It’s basically Optimus Prime and his iconic trailer. Other than the coloring differences, the twist comes with the add-on guns that Nemesis will use in robot mode. The wrist blasters attach to the side of the trailer. To do this, you must flip out the panel on the back end of the trailer, exposing a circular port upon which you can attach the guns. It is not completely clear from the image on the package, but this does leave the trailer with open holes on both sides. One could imagine that this is a tactical decision, allowing for smaller Decepticons to use those holes as spots from which to attack Autobots from within the safety of the trailer, but it breaks up the illusion of this being a tractor trailer’s back end. It doesn’t bother me that much, but I can see where this could be a point of contention for some fans. I think I might just stick a couple of Decepticon Mini-cons in there on the off chance that I leave him in vehicle mode on my shelf at some point.



Small Robot Mode

When Nemesis originally appeared online, I thought I was going to have a tough time separating the smaller robot from the image of Orion Pax that I had in my head. Even though this smaller robot form was clearly intended from the get go to be Orion, between the colors and the stickers and the new head, I don’t really have a tough time seeing this as Nemesis Prime’s smaller form. Is the figure a little monochromatic? Yes, but honestly the new head really pulls off owning this mold as a small Nemesis Prime. It really pushes the image over the top when you throw in his iconic bright red energon sword. This is 100% Nemesis Prime.



This is where I would be remiss if I did not bring up some minor changes in QC at this point. Most of the robot joints are nicely tight. Everything stays in place as expected. There are two points that worried me a little bit as I was transforming him. The robot head sits extremely snug on the neck post. The first time that I turned it I was afraid I was going to twist the post right off. While it seems to have loosened up a little bit during this photo shoot, it is way tighter than I am comfortable with. Additionally, the robot mode feet are looser than they are on my Orion Pax. They are not at the point that they just flop around, but they may need some tightening in the future. All things considered, this is still better overall in terms of quality control than my American Orion Pax or the Japanese release (yes, I bought one to test the difference between the two).



Combined Robot Mode

The larger form of Nemesis Prime just looks like he wants to kill everything in sight. He is massive, “heroically” built, and armed to the faceplate. Furthering the sinister look of this figure are deep blood red windows, a purple black and red “Dark Matrix of Leadership”, and another new head sculpt that features a thinner profile face with sharp, pointed angles, especially on the eyes. Creepy.



Joint quality on the larger combined mode is phenomenal, especially considering the design flaw of the shoulders. If there was only a way to 100% securely tab the shoulders into the side of the robot, this would be nearly the ultimate Optimus Prime or Nemesis Prime mold. Despite that one flaw, the rest of the joints are nicely tight, and the figure balances extremely well due to the ball joints in the angles. It may not be perfect, but it’s close.



The weapons included with Nemesis Prime really push him to the top of the “evil Decepticon” pile. The wrist blasters are huge, and basically look like they belong on a tank. The Optimus Prime blaster and the red energon sword wrap up all the aspects needed for Nemesis Prime, but there is one nice additional weapon that brings the value of this set even higher. Giza is a sword that converts into a Decepticon raptor. You can imagine Nemesis throwing the Giza in sword mode at an enemy who tries to block the attack, only to have Giza transform to raptor mode, fly around to another side and then embed himself in the enemy’s back in sword mode. Pretty wicked, and having “Mini-con” partners that form weapons is something I hope becomes a mainstay for the series, especially with the new toyline bringing back Targetmasters.



Recommendation

Power of the Primes Nemesis Prime is an extremely nice repaint of a very well-designed mold. I give it a 9.5/10, with .5 points deducted for the shoulders in combined mode. Between the surprisingly distinct small and combined forms, and the addition of Giza as a companion and weapon, there is a lot of value in this set. At $49.99, it’s just barely above retail price for a mold this size, and if you are an Amazon Prime member, you can preorder him at this listing and wait for him to ship when they get more stock. I highly recommend this mold for fans of black repaints, exclusives, or Optimus Prime molds in general. The figure is simple enough that younger fans will enjoy it, and complex enough that older fans will find it fun as well.





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