Thanks Skyhawk. You're right, its not all that sinister. I'm trying to do a couple of mods to make it look a bit better. I've straightened out all of the pivots and can do some very crude animations through keyframing but haven't figured out how to bone the thing without distorting it yet. I'm reading through Dan Alban's LW 8 book and going to watch the vids.
I should have learned bones 2 years ago but have let that all slide. Trying to catch up now.
Here's how its developing. I'm going to replace the hands and do a bit more detailing on it.
Sandy