Clones, clones, so many evil clones. Scourge is Nemesis, Nemesis is Prime, Copy Convoy is Black Convoy, Dead Prime is Black Prime, Amazon Prime is Pepsi Prime… So many incarnations. So little time and money. But a clone is a clone.

Whatever the hodgepodge is that forms the disjointed continuity of this character, he’ll always be the black version of Prime. And all that matters is that it’s black- and black is beautiful. The easiest recolor of any TF figure ever, black is the ideal scheme for a multiverse continuity evil Prime. Prior to this release, the first real black recolor of Optimus Prime (not LioConvoy) would be Jafcon Black Prime in 2000, and then the evil ripoffs truly began in 2001 with RiD Scourge. So since then, we’ve always had an evil Prime in the TF lore, and as it Megatron wasn’t enough of an anti-hero rival to Optimus, it’s just a classic storytelling move to create an evil doppelganger character for our main hero. The yin to the yang. You are your worst enemy.

By the time CHUG came around, SDCC was in its prime, and the character Nemesis Prime had already made its way into the standard canon. Honestly, I don’t care whether the black version is Nemesis Prime, Scourge, sleeping / dead Prime, Nucleon Quest or otherwise – I just am always going to love a black repaint of Prime.

This recolor was an obvious choice for a con exclusive, and the Classics / Henkei / Universe / Generations Prime already made for a great base mold. In the Nemesis Prime, this mold really shines and is one of the best figures of that collection. It was actually C.H.U.G. that got me back into buying modern Transformers, because it was the first generation of new Transformers since the launch of Masterpiece in 2001 that finally looked good enough for me to consider it as part of a semi-permanent collection.

Sure, the truck looks good. But we’re not really here for alt modes. 

Now that’s much better… much, much better. As many have said, the gun is garbage but it’s a cool gimmick making the smoke stacks into his blaster. Also, the truck cabs on the arms could have been much better if they were intentionally made into some kind of shield or something, but at least we don’t have any kibble or parts-forming here. The most impressive thing here is, of course, the colors. The metallic teal contrasts really well against the darker aqua tones and those eyes looks truly menacing. This colorway pops and screams “nemesis”. I don’t have the CHUG Prime to compare with, but I’ve seen the pics and it’s definitely night and day.

This guy rocks. Looking back at this release 16 years later in 2024, this figure really stands out as a very Decepticon looking version of Prime and is ostensibly just a really good looking bot. I’m glad I picked him up, despite having no interest in this series of figures. Although Hasbro started churning these exclusives out nonstop as marketing gimmicks, it brings me some hope that Hasbro and Takara will keep putting out good new Primes for a long time. Fingers crossed.