The Decepticon Alternators have a new member among there ranks and his name is Nemesis Prime. A twisted clone of Alternators Optimus Prime this evil twin has all the cunning and deception of Megatron but with the strength and bravery of Optimus. Can Optimus Prime face his greatest challenge yet, himself.

The Alternators line has been pretty much left for dead now thanks to Hasbro which is a serious shame as the Alternators line is one of the best toy lines to be produced in years. We are getting a few of the characters but sadly there being sold as ‘exclusives’ what this means in plain English is ‘be prepared to pay threw the ass’ which isn’t very fare to the fans out there who have loved the line and who wanted to complete there collections. Nemesis Prime and Hot Rod(imus) were sold as San Diago comic-con exclusives which basically means that they cost a lot of money if you want to own them. Hot Rod was a repaint of Mirage with a new moulded head while Nemesis Prime was just a plain black repaint of Optimus Prime.

Considering that when Takara released there version of Alternators Optimus Prime as Kiss Convoy you got a few more accessories such as the Audio CD, Melissa and the sword/surfboard you kind of expected that when Takara did there version of Nemesis Prime that he would come with a load of extra accessories such as his ‘Sword Of Fury’ perhaps or a repainted evil twin of Melissa since originally she was planned to come with Nemesis Prime and not Optimus. Sadly however it appears Takara just didn’t seem to care as much about this figure as they did with Prime, the only extra features Nemesis Convoy has over the Alternators version is perhaps slightly better paint application and a few more places of blue on the figure and some die-cast sections. Aside from that you feel slightly cheapened by Takara for there version of the figure and slightly ripped off by Hasbro for a figure that’s basically just a black version of Alternators Optimus Prime. If the figure had come with a PVC Girl or some accessories then you would feel the price was justified but sadly again it’s a no answer.

First sight of the vehicle mode looks even better than that of Optimus Prime’s and it shows that no matter how fantastic a toy Optimus is that all you have to do is make him black all over and the figure just looks even more fantastic. The front and rear window has been re-colored red to suit the figure more as most Nemesis Prime characters are mainly black/blue and red.

The back area of the vehicle has a huge section for items to be placed and also the back door sections fold down so that items can be placed that way as well just like in real life. The only problem with the back door pieces folding downwards is that the vehicles rear spoiler seems to block the path of most things really but this to can fold down but seems rather pointless in all honesty. The lower area of vehicle mode also shows Nemesis Prime’s license plate which is labeled ‘NEMESIS’ and it says ‘California’ above it.

The bonnet of the car can be lifted but not very much it seems, in fact you can hardly see under the bonnet at all in truth. You do get a small gap which you can see the Viper Engine of the vehicle mode which is big and bulky just like the rest of the vehicle. The vehicles doors open and show inside of the vehicle and gives you a good view of the cars dashboard and seats and other area’s inside of the car. Aside from not having pedals (acceleration and brake and clutch) the inside of the vehicle and the dashboard itself are rather impressive. The vehicle even has a gear change stick and the steering wheel can rotate and move to.

The vehicle mode looks oddly like G1 character Trailbreakers and you think to yourself that if Hasbro did a Trailbreaker head for this body then it basically would be Trailbreaker. However they didn’t and instead we have Nemesis Prime which is basically a black version of Optimus Prime which is not really that bad all things considering as pretty much all the Dark Convoy/Nemesis Prime/Scourge repaints have been fantastic and this is another fantastic repaint.

Robot mode looks identical to that of Optimus but remember this is just a repaint and not a remould. The new dark paint scheme does seem to suit the figure extremely well and makes Nemesis Prime look very imposing. There are a few small places that have a blue paint application but not really that many. The only problem with the paint application to the figure is in the waist plate area as it’s just been painted completely black but the screws in the waist area look rather tacky and ugly, the paint application could have been applied better here with maybe a small amount of blue here perhaps? Either way the fact it has just been left totally black with the screws showing is a small disappointment.

The main problem with the figure is the same problem that Optimus has, the fact the waist plate area completely blocks the way for the legs to have any room to move. The legs can bend at the knee section and they do have rotation in the upper thigh area but because the bastard waist plate sticks in the way it makes it impossible for either Prime OR Nemesis Prime to really have room to move there legs without the chest area shooting upwards from the movement. The arms also suffer from a similar problem because while the elbow sections move and the upper area sections move the damn shoulder area is in a fixed position which makes both the moulds have a small amount of movement with the arms in general.

Nemesis Prime comes with his Viper Pistol which is basically just his Engine that transforms into his Pistol which can be held in either of his hands. The Pistol is nice but you just feel like saying ‘were the hell is his Sword Of Fury’ and you feel that for such a menacing character that the Pistol really does not do the character justice. When we were given RiD Scourge he came with a ton of weapons but then Armada Nemesis Prime came around and he only had his Mini-con Run-Over as a weapon (aside from the wrist blasters) which felt slightly cheapened, now were given Alternators Nemesis Prime but yet again feel slightly let down when it comes to weaponry because if you take RiD Scourges ‘Sword Of Fury’ and place it in Alternators Nemesis Primes hand you find it fits perfectly and suits the character really well and it just seems a shame Hasbro and Takara didn’t give Nemesis Prime a sword of his own because the Pistol looks rather rubbish in comparison, at least Takara tried to make Kiss Convoy seem better by making the surfboard transform into a kind-of sword….even if it did look fairly poor and crappy at least it was another accessory Convoy had and at least it looked good with Melissa and in the trunk of Vehicle mode.

The general overall look of the robot mode is that Nemesis Prime looks very imposing and can have a fair few poses to put him into. You can chose to NOT unfold the waist area and you get a slight bit more space to actually have freedom for the legs but this can make the chest area push outwards sometimes. While you may get slight more freedom for the legs the chest area may suffer as it has no real connect points to it. There is a modification you can do that makes the thigh area stick out more but it depends of if your wanting the toy to be in mint condition (considering it’s a rare and expensive exclusive) or if you just want to keep him forever and modify him because the lack of leg freedom gets on your nerves. Aside from that the rest of the figure looks really good and the colors suit the body well.

The Transformation of Nemesis Prime can be rather difficult at first but then most Alternator figures are like this to begin with. The legs fold inwards and click together while the arms slide and bend upwards and click into the chest area. The chest area itself moves and folds outwards and then clicks into the center of the vehicle mode. Now this all seems simple enough aside from the fact you need to 100% make sure you get the shoulder sections to ‘click’ into place so that the bonnet of the vehicle will actually click and connect to the sides of the vehicle and come down. Nothing serious as most Alternators have a small problem when transforming and connecting all together, Prowl for example has a pain in the ass Engine which is difficult to get into the vehicle and then close the bonnet down on, shockwave has a difficult time making sure the bonnet section doesn’t come off when transforming, Jazz has a problem with the arms popping off when transforming and Grimlock and WheelJack have problems moving the head into place when turning into vehicles.

The Hasbro version of Nemesis Prime came in the new ‘gold fish bowl’ type packaging and was sold in vehicle mode with the bottom of the packaging showing the figure in both robot and vehicle mode. The Takara BT version came in pretty much the same style aside from lots of purple coloring on and around the packaging itself. Melissa never came with either of the releases and she was sold with Kiss Convoy instead, she is only used as an extra in this gallery/review. It seems rather sad that Nemesis Prime didn’t come with an evil version of Melissa as it would have been very easy to make Melissa look slightly gothic perhaps and then Nemesis Prime could have had an evil twisted twin of Melissa called something like Elissa perhaps? Sadly it never happened.

In general the figure is fantastic despite its flaws and the fact that if you want it you have to pay a lot for it. This is one of the last Alternators done in the line and is worth every penny as he is a fantastic edition to the Alternators line and if you have all your Alternators lined up in vehicle mode it looks even better with Nemesis Prime over in the Decepticon corner along with Shockwave and Swindle and MP05 Megatron. The figure may be difficult to find for a cheap price and he has missed a lot of great options that both Hasbro and Takara could have added to make him even better but still with what your left with is pretty damn fantastic.