NOTE: THIS IS FOR THE LE ONLY
Once the mode lights for X-Men were completed, I retired for the evening, but I did not have a fitful sleep. After tossing and turning through the night, the plaintive howl of a distant Tibetan wolf finally pushed me from my restless bed as the pale beginnings of light chased the inky blackness from the sky. I returned to my X-Men machine, convinced that there was still something missing, some harmonious way I had not yet seen. And so, I drew the crisp early morning air into my lungs, held it - then purposefully pressed the flashing Start button as I exhaled, intent on discovering the way that yet eluded me.
During that miraculous game, as the vision-impairing ice bridge moved across the playfield, it ironically drew my gaze to the X-Circle in a way it never had before, allowing me to see as if for the first time. In that moment, I realized what was still missing. Of course! The character mode inserts were all still white on that X-Circle as well as on the corresponding lit shot inserts for each character! They were lacking color to differentiate them and, in turn, differentiate the shots!
And so, I excitedly began assigning colors in my head for the character shots. Blue for Beast, of course, yellow for Wolverine, red for cyclops...this truly was the harmonious way that had eluded me, and now the colors were all falling into place! It was perhaps the most exciting 42 seconds of my sunset years. But then, the real work began.
I designed four bracket types to allow all character lenses to be color coded, Type A, Type A2, Type B, and Type W, 8 brackets in the full set (Storm remains white and does not need a bracket). I also designed a large wheel that rests neatly in the space beneath the X-Circle under theplayfield, allowing all the characters on the circle to be optionally colored to match the inserts as well! It was the harmonious way I had been searching for, completing the look of X-MEN LE, and now I present it for you to enjoy as well.