Allegiances: Decepticon
Size: Leader
Difficulty of Transformation to Nemesis Pax's Robot Mode: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Nemesis Prime's Robot Mode: Hard
Difficulty of Transformation for Decepticon Giza: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Black, milky gray, and some red, silver, transparent cherry red, metallic dark purple, and metallic teal
Rating: 8.0

(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to PotP Orion Pax/Optimus Prime. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of PotP Orion Pax/Optimus Prime here.)

    As you'd expect from a Nemesis repaint, he's mostly black, with some gray, red, and teal. However, the amounts of these colors is a bit different for this version. In truck mode especially-- but also true for the other modes-- there's a LOT of black. Normally, I'd be all "include more of the teal, red, and silver to help mix things up", but honestly? Having thus much of the toy one color in truck mode works FOR the toy, as it helps minimize some of the extra bits on the cab by having them all blend together into one mass, as opposed to the Optimus Prime color layout for this mold, which differentiated more of the parts from each other and thus made it more obvious how bad the cab was. Plus, the back of the cab is often under the "shadow" of the trailer, making it easier to overlook. This goes for the top of the trailer, as well. Yeah there's a couple of metallic teal paint apps up there, but it's still basically all black up there. There is some gray plastic in on the upper legs of the individual robot mode, but that's very minimal for truck mode. There's some great paint apps on the front of the cab, though, with a lot of silver on the grill and nearby parts, as well as metallic teal headlights. The windows are transparent cherry red on the front and a more normal shade of red on the sides-- the difference being that you can open up the front windows to reveal Nemesis Prime's dark Matrix, which is painted lovely shade of dark metallic purple around the transparent red center. Little of the rest of the truck has paint, though the sides of the trailer have foil stickers that basically replicate Optimus' stripes, but with a Decepticon symbol near the front instead of an Autobot symbol. Wish they had done something more creative, there. "Nemesis Pax"-- the made-up name of the "normal" robot mode-- is still mostly black, though the gray plastic on the upper legs and in the middle of the arms makes itself better known here, with some silver on the abs and waist and some nice teal and transparent cherry red on the chest. There's also a small Decepticon foil sticker on his left shoulder and some small grill-detail stickers on the lower legs. Nemesis Pax's head has a mold change. He looks much like Optimus Prime, what with the silver masked face, side antennae, and all, but the center of his forehead has several spikes on it, almost like a semi-mohawk. It's a nice twist for what is normally just a mold change-less redeco. In the combined "Nemesis Prime" robot mode, there's definitely the least amount of black out of all of his modes-- though he's still certainly mostly black, which again helps minimize the kibble, like the Nemesis Pax parts behind his main body and the trailer panels on his arms and legs. The upper legs are again milky gray (along with the smokestacks on the shoulders), but there's some silver paint on the waist, abs, and lower legs. Some metallic teal is on his lower legs and waist, but man I wish they had used this is more in this mode to break up all the black at least a little more. There's small foil stickers of Decepticon symbols on his shoulders, piston-like details on his lower arms, and small colored bits on his knees and feet. Again there's a head mold change here, with a more evil-looking, slanted Prime face, complete with larger side "chin" guards and narrowed red eyes on his silver plated face. Interestingly, it's the exact same design as that used on the Transformers Club exclusive Combiner Wars Toxitron, which makes me think Hasbro had more plans for that CW mold that never panned out. Anyways, the whole package looks very good overall in the combined mode, what with the kibble minimized and an otherwise good color combo. Oh, and there's also the extra weapons...

    Nemesis Prime comes with a couple of additional accessories-- a good deal, since he's the same price as your regular PotP Leader-class toy, so they're basically free. They homage multiple past "Nemesis Primes". He has two large dual-blaster cannons, which can be plugged onto the lower arms of his "evolved" robot form. Unfortunately they can't be plugged into vehicle mode, unless you fold forward two of the side panels on the trailer-- they DO look good sticking out the sides near the front top of the trailer, but then you've got big see-through blocks of the trailer behind them, which certainly don't look great. The guns themselves have some excellent mechanical detailing on them, with some nice large "bolt" detailing near the back end, and some intricate circuitry details beneath them. They're an homage to the very first toy to be named "Nemesis Prime", the Armada toy, who had similar weapons on his forearms. Nemesis Prime also comes with an extra sword, with lots of really nifty angular details molded into it, with the blade itself painted red. It can store on the top of his trailer, on either side of it. Last but certainly not least, Nemesis Prime comes with a little weapon/bird partner called Decepticon Giza. Why Giza? It's the name of a similar weapon-partner that came with the Japanese "Arms Micron" version of Prime-Universe Nemesis Prime. It's a very simple toy-- in sword mode, it looks similar to a large saber-sword weapon, with some surprisingly intricate little segmented details near the hilt. The part above the hilt is a bit larger than normal before we get to the blade, since that's where the bulk of the bird mode body hands out, though it's collapsed into a sword-looking silhouette. Still, you can make out the bird head on the back, which is up against the back of the blade-- with the red eyes the only paint on the otherwise completely gray figure, a stern look on its face, and a small "mohawk" on the back-- it has a lot of character. To transform Giza to bird mode, you simply fold back a small locking piece on the rear of the sword, and then separate the blade vertically into two halves, which rotate around to become Giza's wings-- that's it. It's a pretty neat little feature, with Giza's little foot being able to tab into the hole on one side of Nemesis' "normal" sword, allowing them both to fit onto the top of the trailer. The blades make for nice wings, even if, given the way feathers are on birds, it seems like the curved portion of the blade should be facing in the opposite direction. They give Giza an impressive wingspan, though unfortunately they're also the only points of articulation on the toy-- two points at each wing, with the rotation point moving both wings as one. So given its simplicity, Giza really treads the boundaries between accessory and bonafide extra figure pretty narrowly. Still a nice addition, though.
    PotP Nemesis Prime/Pax comes with all of the same design issues that plagued PotP Optimus Prime, most notably the awful cab mode. However, the reduced number of colors actually HELPS the toy more than you'd think, since with so much being black it makes the extra kibble look less egregious, as it doesn't stand out as much. The trailer-combined "super robot mode" also looks a lot more unified in its color scheme, as well. The extra weapon accessories, especially Giza, are also a nice bonus. Recommended over PotP Optimus-- just keep in mind he still has the design issues, they're just mostly "painted over", so to speak.
 

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Review by Beastbot

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