We report a new route to synthesise RM734 and derivatives which forgoes protecting groups entirely and offers expedient access to this important class of materials. As a demonstration of this, we synthesise new RM734-like materials in which we vary the number and chemical identity of the lateral and terminal methoxy groups. The methyl-terminated material and, surprisingly, the variant with no terminal chain at all are both competent NF materials. We report a family of materials with terminal halogen atoms; the iodo-terminated member exhibits the NF phase whereas others exhibit solely conventional nematic phases.. DFT calculations suggest the ability of the iodo-terminated material to form the NF phase results from the presence of a large sigma hole on this material enabling a weak electrostatic interaction with the highly electronegative nitro group on an adjacent molecule; effectively making head-to-tail pairing more energetically favourable than with other halogens. The lack of hydrogenolysis conditions in our synthesis permits us to synthesise RM734-like materials bearing olefins and unsaturated heterocycles, these would be problematic if not impossible to synthesise with the original synthesis.