Nemesis Leo Prime

Call him "abmiK." Nemesis Leo Prime has an intense arrogance that drives his goal to replace the Maximals with duplicates that he can command. You have to give the Legacy line credit: after years of nothing but G1 characters, the Transformers design team remembered that they have access to a whole breadth of characters they own and can do things with, and they're actually doing it. Admitting that Super-God Masterforce existed was a major step most fans weren't expecting; now they've gone even deeper with Beast Wars II, the Japanese-original series that was created to fill the gap they needed between Beast Wars Season 1 and 2 to get the show translated. We've kind of reviewed a Beast Wars II figure before? Many many years ago, from the Space Warriors Transformable Beast-Tech Fighter line. That was (a knockoff of) Leo Prime, aka Lio Convoy, which preps us very nicely for today's review: Nemesis Leo Prime, who is literally a knockoff of Lio Convoy. When the Predacons found an ancient device that could make copies of anything, they left it where the Maximals would stumble upon it and take it back to their base. Beast Wars II was a fairly comedic series, so this idiot plan worked. One of the Maximals used the device on Leo Convoy, creating this monochromatic duplicate. Hasbro already made a Leo Prime this year, so doing the black repaint just makes sense. The robot has large, powerful legs, just a bunch of kibble on his arms and shoulders, and then a very blocky chest that honestly kind of presages the way Robots in Disguise Optimus Prime's chest would look a few years later: that is, stylistically related to the G1 figure, but still its own thing. A panel on the left breast can open, revealing a built in Energon Matrix. The figure includes six blasters: two that can store inside the lion's mane (like the 1998 toy's "Lio Missiles"), two that can plug in on various places (the mane, the forearms, the back), and two that can combine into a longer rifle, because the 2023 gimmick is "Evo-Fusion," aka "sticking random things together." Another feature borrowed from the old toy are the flip-out blades under the robot's arms (in the lion's front legs). The robot's articulation is great, with tilting ankles, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, swivel/​hinge hips, swivel waist, hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, and a balljointed head. The kibble's kind of a mess, but that's the way toys were designed back then. Props to designer Umezu Shuhei for finding a way to make the lion's tail look like it's retracted into the shoulder armor, a feature of the cartoon but not the original toy. Deciphering the instructions isn't the easiest thing, but converting the toy is fun once you know how. Raise the back panel, pull the lion head off to the side, roll both shoulder pauldrons back and rotate the piece they're on so the lion head is pointing up. Open the chest (the side without the Matrix panel first), put the robot head inside, lift the arms slightly so you can tip the torso/head combo forward and turn it 180° before standing it up again. Turn the arms around at the bicep, then fold them up to meet in the middle so you can close the former chest-panels together (remembering to flip the hands back so the arms can tuck into place under the lion's chin). Hinge out the fur panels on the arms so you have enough space to turn the lion's shoulders around on their balljoint, plugging them into place on the sides and then turning the forelegs to face the front, before closing the mane up again. Turn the back legs around at the thighs, turn the feet around in the shin, bend the legs to look more animalistic, tuck the robot's heels into the feet, flip the tail out, and push all the flaps of his back into place, ending with the one that tucks under the rear edge of the mane. Although "black repaints" of important Transformers characters are commonplace today, that wasn't always the case. Technically the first would have been G1 Skywarp, but that's really just a character who happens to be black with a shared mold. Next would have been Soundblaster, then the BotCon '96 Onyx Primal, who has the distinction of being the first black Optimus toy. Black Lio Convoy, however, was the first to be an evil clone of the leader, which is the most common trend today. In the single episode of the cartoon where he appeared, the copy Convoy had a grey body and black mane, but every single toy of him until now has reversed that - even the high-end Masterpiece figure, which went so far as to declare itself a different character to excuse the change! Since I got into black repaints with Scourge, I wish there were more teal/pink on the robot mode, but this is accurate to the source material - yes, even the human eyes and the blue claws. The lion mode really is quite nice. The only overtly robot parts are the chest, pelvis, and the spikes on the heels. Despite the dark colors, you can still pick out the details of the anatomy and in the fur, possibly even better than you could on the white body of the normal Leo Prime. I realize it would defeat the purpose of a black repaint, but it would have been nice if this one had a different face. Angrier, perhaps. Or at least something that didn't look like a Frankenhole puppet when the mouth was open. The toy can't perform the "Lion Typhoon" move of the original, where his mane would spin around like a propellor, but you can at least open some flaps for a vaguely similar feeling. Those flaps do let you point the "Lio Missiles" forward, though. Only four of the weapons can be stored in this mode: the two pistols that form one rifle have nowhere permanent to seamlessly rest. The Leo Prime release of this mold didn't come with those, which is why there's no plan for them. Hasbro's stock photos of Nemesis Leo Prime made it look like his black plastic would have a brown tint to it, but the final product is a great shade. Like I said, I personally wish the robot was a bit more colorful, even if that wouldn't have been true to the source material; he looks a bit too dull if you don't know what you're comparing him to. Especially after the great colors on Leo Prime. But this is where Scourge got his colors from, and this is the first time any toy has gotten them right, so I won't complain too much. I've long regretted missing out on Nemesis Breaker from the 2005 Cybertron line, but at last I have a melanistic lion to put in my collection. -- 08/08/23

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