I caught onto the Uncanny X-Men middle way through the Chris Claremont run; got my first of these comics (#151 vs. the Hellfire Club and Shaw's Sentinels) as a back-issue sometime around 1982. The stories that began a few years later marked the beginning of the end of that era. The eventual battle between the X-Men and hybrid Master Mold/Nimrod in issues #246-7 particularly struck a nerve with me as one of my favorite X-Men, Rogue, was sucked through the Siege Perilous portal along with the robot monstrosity--ironically as Nimrod was instigating Master Mold to destroy itself. All of this culminated in the Reavers' crucifixion of Wolverine on an X and "killing" of nearly all the X-Men through the portal, with a new breed of unlikely heroes such as Jubilee taking up the torch and most of the original members re-emerging as we know them today. Besides, what's not likable about giant mutant hunting robots?!

I started with a BAF Series Sentinel and completely disassembled it using the "Heat and Pop" and "seam incision" methods (for cracking open the torso). Destroyed the lower torso for fodder and room to build out a battery enclosure in the chest cavity. I cut two pieces of composite dowel from a driveway reflector to serve as a superstructure and then sculpted these around a battery compartment for two "AA" batteries. I drilled two 1/4" holes into his waist to set the dowels and sculpted and then sculpted some more until I had fashioned a new lower torso and anchored the chest cavity to it. The lighting itself is a strand of LEDs powered by the compartment which is accessible through a flap in the front middle torso. The On/Off switch is accessible through a flap on his back. The lights run through the chest and up into the head through two small holes. I also cut holes for the eyes and mouth to give a more realistic look.

In addition to a lot of freehand sculpting details, I sculpted fodder from a plastic drain stopper, Sentinel tentacles, the destroyed torso, and pieces of a Mojo BAF tail in lots of areas. The chest light/beam prism is part of the actual driveway reflector. I finally painted with many different coats of Citadel, Gundam markers and DecoArt acrylics well-drybrushed to obtain a brushed metal look. Finally, the disintegration beam and ice blast are both hot glue effects fashioned around the tentacle connectors.