A deadly robot that first appeared in Marvel Comics' Avengers #54, published in July, 1968. Ultron's original design/concept was the product of the combined talents of Roy Thomas (writer) and John Buscema (artist). Accidentally created by the Avengers' resident genius, Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym (a.k.a., Ant-Man, Giant-Man/Goliath, Yellowjacket), in an experiment involving his own brainwaves and robotic artificial intelligence, Ultron quickly turned on his creator and has been a constant threat to Earth's superheroes, and the general populace, ever since. Ultron's ultimate goal is to eradicate all organic life, or, failing that, transform it into mechanical constructs like himself.

Ultron is nearly impossible to truly defeat, as he keeps his memory backed up in virtual storage, can transfer his digital consciousness into a variety of electronic devices, and often has replacement bodies standing by if the current one gets destroyed. He's also constantly upgrading his systems, always looking for ways to improve both his offensive and defensive capabilities. As such, Ultron's powers vary, but, typically, he possesses incredible strength (he can lift/press roughly 100 tons), near-indestructibility (his outer shell is often composed of the fictional, ultra-hard metal adamantium or other highly-durable alloys), and he has the ability to emit a wide variety of energy types from his eyes or hands (lasers, concussive blasts, hypnosis beams, etc.) Ultron frequently constructs robotic minions to do his dirty work, although, like Ultron himself, the more sophisticated ones have shown a tendency to rebel against their creator (most notably Vision, Jocasta, and Alkhema). Every time Earth's champions square off against this murderous robot they can be certain that he's added new tricks to his repertoire since the last time they met.

This Ultron figure was made, completely from scratch, in one day. Nearly the entire surface of the figure is covered with metal foil from a Halloween candy wrapper (and, if you're curious, no, I don't still have candy from last year, I just saved the shiny packaging in anticipation of a project like this). The only things that are painted are his red eyes/mouth and tiny bits of silver here and there that I missed with the foil. While the paper-thin metal was tricky to work with (it's prone to tearing and I had to resort to super glue to get it to stay put), at least I didn't have to do much painting for once. Making a chromed figure was something that I've been contemplating doing for quite a while, and Ultron struck me as an excellent candidate for the treatment. I've used metal foil on figures in the past, but never to this extent, and usually on immobile sculptures. He has 14 points of articulation total (neck, shoulders x 2, elbows x 2, waist, hips x 2, knees x 4, and ankles x 2).

There were two Ultron figures in the first incarnation of this challenge, and the rules for this one specifically mention him again. Being a completely mechancial entity that's always improving on his own body and inventing new robots and gizmos, Ultron certainly exemplifies Gears & Gadgets.