Hello again everybody!

I'm back for another Transformers review.. Being so content with how much I enjoyed alternity Cliffjumper, I decided I must add more alternity characters to my collection. A quick browse of the internet showed me that tfsource had a holiday sale on the diamond black Megatron.. SWEET! That's too good to pass up I thought!
On the same day I posted a request on the forums for a Silver Convoy or a Ultra Black “Nemesis” Convoy. Of course the community being as great as it is netted me a great deal on Ultra Black Convoy from TFW's Anabolik!

And today, I got home from running some errands and two packages had arrived.. As if fate itself had predestined Nemesis Prime and Megatron to arrive to kick the #@%! out of Cliffjumper. But enough blabber, if you clicked this you probably want info about the toys!

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Again while the alternities are expensive "toys" (Are they really toys? I wouldn't buy them for my kid If I had one!) they are absolutely stunning and detailed car modes. Megatron (left) being a Nissan 350Z and Nemesis being the oh so powerful Nissan GT-R (I'd still rather have an R34!)
While Cliffjumper had a load of detail on his car mode I was a bit disappointed to see rims as they were. It almost felt like putting them on was an afterthought. However Nemesis and Megatron don't disappoint as even the brake rotors have a very detailed paint job!

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Nemesis (the GT-R) ends up being a tad bit longer then Megatron, however it is completely acceptable since the GT-R actually IS a larger car then the Nissan Z. The fact that the cars are transformers is a bit more noticeable on Nemesis than it is on Megatron as the panels to Nemesis as they don't feel like they sit together quite as nicely as they do on Megatron.

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However there's no denying that the two cars look menacing and quite intimidating when placed together and overall do a good job in alt mode giving the Illusion that they are small model cars.

Now thus far I've said nothing but good things for Megatron and really focused on Nemesis.. But that's because there really hasn't been much that Megatron has given us to complain about!

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That is until you turn to the back and see a nice chunk of Megatron's waist armor hanging out the back. It's not the worst thing int he world to see, but it does detract from the illusion of Megatron not actually being a robot.

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The underside o the cars in both cases don't show TOO much robot Kibble. Megatron definitely shows a lot more with all his red armor and blades present, but neither is too bad ultimately. On top of that, I'm not sure how the general populace of these forums like to display their transformers, but I can assure you in my case.. It's not like the picture above!

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Overall I really do enjoy the car modes of these two and they definitely leave me sufficiently content for the alt mode by doing a good job conveying that the ascetics of the car were really taken into account when building these figures. But enough about the alt mode! Lets take a look at the bot modes!

But before we do, I'd like to point out that Cliffjumper was hard as heck to transform with very stiff joints. This actually isn't the case at all. Their transformations are pretty straight forward (only prime's feet had me confused for a few minutes).

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Megatron in bot mode looks great!
Many of the pictures I saw online showed the armor more of a rusty orange color, but upon seeing it in person the color is more red, which makes a much more vibrant contrast to the black body of the car. The swords are a nice touch (there's two of them) and really give Megatron a nice samurai feel. However with this in mind I'd like to talk about the head for a second.. I'm not feeling it.. It doesn't say Megatron to me. The face itself is really the problem. It's not a bad looking face or anything, it's just not Megatron. With the Samurai Motif going on I would have really been interested in seeing a version of him with a skull face for a nice Bludgeon look. If the character wasn't so darn expensive I'd give that a try!

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The back of the seats fold out to be a little knife however I really can't find any pose with him that would make me rather have the knives extended than the swords. I really really enjoy the shoulder armor that is made by sliding the door skin upward. IT has a really nice look to it and is a pretty simple yet satisfying component of the transformation!

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The back end has a lot of kibble on it and is way less convincing than Cliffjumper was. However there probably isn't a whole lot that could have been done without trashing the alt mode.

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If you're willing to be a bit patient with him and fidget around with him a little you can get a fair variety of of poses out of him.

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Like I said I definitely feel like I can get the most enjoyment of posing him by utilizing his dual swords. There's just so many ways to bend his knees and position him with the two swords that look very warrior like.

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With a lot of patience you can give him some fairly off the wall poses. He's not going to be as pose-able as the freakish 5th grade gymnast that is Classics Mirage, but you can at least do a bit with him while still looking completely bad-ass.

Overall the bot mode on Megatron is satisfying and quite pose-able. It definitely feels like Megatron was made after Nemesis and they took many “design” issues into consideration by adding simple things like heel spurs and such.

The only real MAJOR gripe I have with him is that the feet being as small as they are can be hard to give him balance using only one foot. But as you can see above, it's definitely doable!

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Nemesis looks REALLY nice in alt mode too. The head mold looks very spot on for a Prime character. A big problem I've got with prime is that the extra die cast he's got over Megatron makes him somewhat back heavy. He's got ratcheting joints in the legs but I find it very difficult to get him to stand straight up, as when standing straight up the weight of the die cast pulls him forward, and the easiest way to balance him is to lean him forward.
When Nemesis is being leaned forward he looks like someone who's done way too much heavy lifting in a day and can't stand up straight. I almost feel like I should get him a walker (perhaps from Jetfire?) since when in that pose it looks like he needs it!

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The Prime version of the mold trades the knife for a wrist mounted dual blaster.. It is ok I suppose, but it feels like prime is missing his weapon since he doesn't have his big gun. I can definitely see getting the gear of war upgrade for this guy (and the silver version) in the future. Nemesis totally needs to be holding a big old blaster rifle, not some small wrist blasters. I also wouldn't mind finding a pinkish energy sword for him sometime. But that's another story.

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Posability of Nemesis seems to be a bit more limited than Megatron. First the lack of heel spurs tends to be a bit of a problem. You've got to use the small back portion of the car as a heel spur but generally it feels a bit unstable to give him a ton of dynamic poses.

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That's not to say that some completely awesome, “I'm more awesome than you” poses can't be worked out with this guy, they just tend to be more more in the standing upright and just looking awesome style.

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However.. With the right amount of time and some very careful hand movements, you can get Nemesis standing on one leg as well. Keep in mind when I'm doing this my box is placed on my carpeted floor and then the transformer put in the box, so it's entirely likely to get better and easier results than I'm able to get on a soft surface. Again still nowhere near as good as classics marriage, but it's acceptable!

I do like Nemesis' bot mode quite a bit. My biggest gripe comes from the portion that clips the side and front fenders together and the leg joints. It always seems the quarter panel clips be a tad loose feeling (sometimes you can see a gap or they come apart). The legs as I mentioned (and I'll reiterate it!) are annoying! The die cast portion of the Prime mold tend to make him slip backwards pretty easy, so he's definitely a pain to pose. I can see posing him and not touching him so I don't have to keep trying to get him to stand properly.



Overall, while the alternities are definitely expensive, but they're definitely work picking up if you've got the money. They are pretty intricately designed and just generally feel all around successful.

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I hope you enjoyed this review of Nemesis Prime, and Megatron!

Please feel free to comment or ask any questions. I'd be more than happy to take more pics if it's necessary and answer anything I can to the best of m abilities!

 

i just got both of these yesterday as well from tfsource and love them. just wish they had waist movement. oh well.

 

Yeah you know.. I never really thought about it, but that's definitely what's missing.
With the way the top portion plugs into the waist it makes fofr some poor waist movement..

 

Neat little figures. I'm liking the black megs, but the black Prime's colors seem so boring for this mold.

 

I think nemesis and standard prime look great in car mode.
I think standard prime is the most vibrant bot mode, but silver is the one that appeals to me the most, however I feel the silver also has the weakest looking vehicle mode comparitively (you can see the transformation lines worse than the other models).
Of course I don't have the silver one yet, so I can't 100% back up those statements, only go by what i've seen off the net.

 

Congrats on the figures...but it's not Ultra Black, lol it's Super Black...gosh get it right....


lol j/k lol...

I have A-01 Super Black Convoy, and I like him quite a bit, but I agree with your gripes about all the diecast in his spine. It makes him extremely back heavy. That, and the fact that if you want to pivot his shoulders backwards, his chest splits into two pieces, are my only real gripes about the figure. Oh, and I'm glad they ratcheted his hips, but they should have used stiffer hip ratchets. It's crazy how loose Convoy's joints seem compared to Bumblebee and Cliffjumper. I feel like I'm gonna break A-03 all the time because the joints are so stiff, yet...Prime's hips aren't even tight enough to help him stand straight up. I have found if you want to pose him standing up straight...turning one of the knees to the outside can help quite a bit.

 

I'll definitely keep that in mind! Prime definitely is wobbly comparitively. Those ratchets definitely could be stronger..There's so many times you pose him one way and then he starts slowly moving the other way..

Sorry Super black!!  
I could have sworn there was ultra something when I was looking at them all..  

 

Well, I decided to part impulse buy and part Christmas gift to myself Alternity Black Convoy.

I figure I'm probably not going to get a better price for some time and I did work on the comic translation for the figure.  

 

I hate to back to back post, but mine arrived today.

I've read about QC problems, but thankfully mine seems devoid of them. It took a bit of figuring out his feet, but once I got that worked out, it was fun times. He's got a complex yet not too complex transformation about him that I really like and is engineered with enough leeway as to make it not fustrating to accomplish. (I'm looking at you, Alt Grimlock!)

I'll note that I found that by keeping the bumper/exhaust panels perpendicular to the knees made the figure a lot more stable for posing and just plain standing around as opposed to the more angled setting.

My only nit with the figure really is that he suffers from Animated Ultra Magnus syndrome in that his shoulders are too far back. It doesn't really hinder him, but it looks odd when his arms are straight out, just like it does on Ani UM.

Overall, it's a fantastic figure, but I don't think he's quite worth the high pricetag. I got him because of the aforementioned work in translating his comic and because I'm a Black Convoy collector, but I'm not sure he'd be worth it to someone not in that predisposition to enjoy the figure on a special level. If he were $30, I'd so go for it, but at close to $50, not so much unless you have an affinity that bias' you.

 

I bought Megatron simply to repaint as Razorclaw. With a new head and some paint touchups he becomes totally awesome. I also like the spine construction.

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/radicons-customs/281675-alternity-razorclaw.html

 

Not to monopolize the thread, but just to make sure, they don't come with the little collector card like older figures did, right? I just realized this was my first Takara purchase in a very long time that didn't have the playing card sized momento with tech specs, bio, and pictures of the product.

 

Congrats on the purchase  
I must try that positioning of the panels.

I agree. He does have certain poses and angles that aren't very flattering.

That translation really showed your awesome writing sense. Made a huge difference in making that comic cool.

 

I'm considering getting Diamond Black Megs but if I do I might want to swap the head. I'm not sold on the original. I will have to wait and see it.

 

As someone who's got Diamond Black Megs.. I'm not sold on the head either..  

If I could safely find a bludgeon looking head I'd totally swap it..
But I don't particularly want to risk megs in the process.

 

Alternity series do not come with cards  

 

Picked up Nemesis Prime/Convoy a few days ago, really love this color set more than the silver! The gloss of the car, the minimal color in bot mode, the menacing red eyes, it all comes together so nicely.

I have to get the blue Meg first, but I might breakdown and get Black Megs too.

 

Very cool review.

And stop making me want Alternities!   I can't afford them, and your reviews are such a corrupting influence!  

 

Hahahahaha..
Too bad these forums don't have a "rep" button.

My reviews are a way to make other people succumb to the misery of empty wallet syndrome based on my choices..  

I'm glad to see it works.. lol

 

My diamond black megatron finally turned up today. Very nice, but both of his front wheels weren't mounted on the rivets/pins properly and they wobble like hell.

Now to scrape up the £37 for Cliffjumper or Bumblebee.

 

So I got a Blue Megatron, and his torso won't peg down.

Does the Black Megatron suffer from this too? I would consider getting a Black Meg if he locks together better in bot and alt modes.