The 'good guy' version of this mold turned out to be far better than I'd expected, so let's take a look at his 'bad guy' repaint, and see if he follows the pattern whereby black repaints of any toy are better than the originals.
Vehicle Modes:
So here we have the imaginatively named 'Nemesis Hot Rod' as the character's basic form. Certainly, some of the shortcomings of the original version are disguised on this version - the space between his legs at the back of the car, for example, is simply an area of deeper, non-reflective black. I even get the impression that some of the black plastic is intended to sparkle a little - there's a hint of fine metallic flake - but it's largely ineffective as it's too fine and none of the plastic is really glossy enough to make it work. Also, sadly, they've been just as sparing with the silver paint as they were on the original - where the very ends of his exhaust pipes are painted, the smaller, hinged section in front is bare grey plastic, and the only other instance of silver paint is the small, barely protruding exposed engine block on the bonnet. Bafflingly, the headlights are painted grey, the spoiler and a section of the roof are unpainted grey plastic, and there's a sliver of grey behind both of the front wheelwells where the robot's bicep sections have been molded in grey. As with Hot Rod, the hubcaps are unpainted, but at least this one has the dubious benefit of grey central pegs on its front wheels, rather than red. On the upside, there are no instances of mismatched plastic colours as pretty much everything is black. There aren't even any significant differences in the level of glossiness except where black paint has been used on the canopy.
The highlights of this iteration, then, are the translucent deep orange on the canopy and the 'tribal tattoo'-style flame pattern occupying most of the bonnet. The former looks OK, and fits in with the overall look of the vehicle largely because it looks almost red unless it's actually held up to the light (on the upside, at least it's not the pink-masquerading-as-red Hasbro have used on other Nemesis figures). The latter is probably a stroke of genius. Where the Collectors' Club's SG Hot Rod had a flame pattern that was just an upgrade of the Classics version's - representing a more intense blaze in silver-lined purple - this one looks more like a coat of arms made of axes. It's dramatic and different enough from Evolution Rodimus Prime's paint job, while still remaining recognisably 'Hot Rod/Rodimus', and both the styling and the colourscheme let you know this ain't one of the good guys.
Nemesis Hot Rod still has a pretty ugly vehicle mode, though, and not even the darker, more neutral colourscheme can disguise that. The gaps just below the canopy hinge on each side of the vehicle even seem more apparent here because they appear to glow faintly when lit from above.
Of course, the combined vehicle mode is really where it's at, and Rodimus Unicronus doesn't disappoint in this form. Sure, he still looks like a sporty camper van... but now he's a sinister sporty camper van. A space Winnebago that's intending to hunt down and extinguish all forms of life, before Unicron himself arrives to devour the planet. Frankly, all the same flaws are present here, but he's not saddled with hideous orange paint down his flanks, so he looks a bit classier. Further to the redesigned bonnet decal, the flame stickers down the sides of the trailer have been reworked to look even more aggressive, with a more angular style that ends up looking a bit like movie Grimlock's tail. The sides have patches of grey and metallic purple paint, while the same purple adorns the raised details on the overhanging front of the trailer but, other than that, it's plain plastic throughout. The upper section is molded in a slightly paler, matte plastic, in which the signs of metallic flake are very slightly more apparent, but still not very effective.
As with Rodimus Prime, the back of the trailer is a bit of a mess, but this time it's largely because the larger robot's heels have been molded in the pale grey plastic rather than black. Were it not for that - and the absence of any paintwork on the sculpted tail lights - the rear end might have been an improvement on that of the Autobot.
Exactly the same weapons are included with this version of the mold - even molded in the same colour of plastic... Which is a real shame as they blend in a little too successful with the trailer.
The only real issue I have with the combined vehicle is that its small section of spoiler - the bit that plugs into Hot Rod's roof - was pinned into place at a slight angle, and there seems to be no way to correct it. It's not a massive problem, and it's not as if I'm likely to display him for any length of time in his combined vehicle mode, but it's a disappointing QC issue nonetheless.
Nemesis Hot Rod Robot Mode:
By and large, what we have with this figure is a straight repaint of Evolution Hot Rod, with black plastic instead of red, and grey plastic in place of both yellow and orange. Aside from the design on his chest mimicking that of his vehicle mode, there are only a handful of minor differences between this version and the original. For starters, the whole chest piece appears to be grey plastic painted a glossy black before the 'flame' pattern was added, while the edges of the waist are painted silver to sort-of match the grey central part, where the faux-headlight detail appears. Of course, this doesn't match the vehicle mode, whose front end was just as black as the bonnet, with only the headlights painted grey. He also has metallic purple paint on the lower part of his groin flap, and of course the hinged section of bicep with the elbow ball joint is grey rather than black. His collar is painted silver, to match the equivalent part on the combined form, and the ridged panels on his upper shoulder are also painted silver, rather than the grey of the original.
Probably the most interesting change is in the stickers, where the designs are overall pretty similar to those of Hot Rod (albeit a little more angular on the shins), but the sets of chevrons are inverted - all pointing down rather than up - and in shades of purple on the silver backing. The upside-down exclamation mark design toward the top of the shin stickers has been carried over, but is rounded on this version, and there's a trapezoid cut out at the top, just below the knee, with a red triangle which wasn't present on the original.
Disappointingly, while Nemesis Pax got a unique head sculpt, Nemesis Hot Rod has not - it's exactly the same helmet and face, perhaps even the same colour paint on the face, just with red eyes. He also has a more extensive application of metallic purple over the forehead and crown, covering his 'eyebrow' design and the central crest, where Hot Rod only got the front of his central crest painted grey. I've found on mine that the paint on the very tip of his chin is very prone to getting scratched during transformation - the small patch of bare plastic visible in my photos below has since extended right the way across the chin. I think it's a shame that Hasbro didn't give him the battlemasked face seen in Machinima's terrible animation... but, then, I'm still more upset that he doesn't come with the integrated forearm guns of the animation model... Or perhaps I'm just upset that the animation model took such unncessary liberties...
Rodimus Unicronus Robot Mode:
Here's where things get a bit more interesting because, while he is still largely just a repaint of Rodimus Prime, Rodimus Unicronus features paint applications and stickers unique to this iteration, and is overall a bit more subtle and consistent than his good-guy alternate. For starters, the shoulders - being the backs of the smaller robot's legs/rear end of the car - reveal both silver paint applications of the indented panel and a pair of silver-and-purple linework stickers just below/outside that panel. The cuffs are painted grey and, aside from the silver exhaust pipes on his forearms, that's the extent of it on his arms.
His chest is basically just the bonnet of the car, with the silvered engine block becoming the combined mode's collar, while the groin plate and the details on the tops of his feet feature applications of the metallic purple paint. Additionally, each shin features a pair of unique stickers, the lower featuring almost G1-style tech detailing in black and purple, while the ones just below the knees are more obviously decorative and, bizarrely, feature his name printed in a box at the top.
Inside his chest resides the Matrix of Chaos - basically the same pieces of plastic as comes with all the other Leader class Prime figures, but the Matrix itself is here molded in the same dark translucent orange as the car's canopy, with its container painted black, and the frame molded in the pale grey plastic. As mentioned above, the included weapon is identical to that of Rodimus Prime and, unlike Nemesis Prime, he wasn't packaged with any additional accessories like a sword.
The head sculpt is the pièce de résistance, being a completely new design rather than a straight repaint of the original. It's larger, bulkier, more angular... and features a bold red wraparound visor and the glorious horseshoe robo-'tache that led some fans to immediately rechristen him Rodimus Motörhead, in honour of Lemmy, the singer from the eponymous band, who sadly passed away mere days before the end of 2015. Shattered Glass Rodimus had similar facial accoutrements, but made a point of the fact that they were just drawn/painted on... On Rodimus Unicronus, both the 'tache and the chin-bump are three-dimensional, almost giving them a life of their own. Since the face - what's visible, that is - has been painted grey, it's difficult to be sure whether the ridge on his chin is meant to indicate where his mouth is, or if that's invisible due to being directly in line with the bottom of the horizontal portion of his moustache... though it could easily be that the recessed section was intended to represent his teeth, bared in a threatening grimace. The 'eyebrows' and central crest are again painted metallic purple, cementing the idea that this represents an evolved form of Hot Rod's head, rather than an entirely different head.
This figure absolutely did not disappoint - I got exactly what I wanted out of a Shattered Glass-alike Power of the Primes Rodimus, but the original was already better than I'd expected. Sure, it's a shame that the seeming attempt at giving his black plastic a bit of sparkle was a failure, but the subdued colourscheme at least conceals the worst of the mold's faults to a degree. I had exactly the same issue with the combined robot's shoulders pegging into place on Hot Rod's knee joint but, again, shaving a bit of plastic off each end of the tab solved that perfectly.
I've also got the same weakness at the knee that appeared on Rodimus Prime but, again, it's not so bad that he'll tip over - forward or back - as long as he's balanced well enough which, given the range of his joints and the stability of his feet, is rarely a problem.
Ultimately, this is just as flawed a figure as the original, but the new head sculpt and the fact that black repaints are invariably awesome combine to make a figure that, again, exceeded my expectations. I'd certainly rate this one higher than Takara Tomy's Masterpiece Black Rodimus Convoy, with its weird mixture of blue and teal parts among the black, grey and purple. Granted, Hasbro probably could have added a bit more colour to this one, even just more of the metallic purple, or more silver paint instead of the grey, but he looks good as he is. Of the two versions, I definitely prefer this one.
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