Earth Cylon Centurion
Earth Cylon Centurions are the models of mechanical Cylons discovered on Earth some 2,000 years after that world's fall.
Comparable in design to the Centurions created by the Colonials prior to the Cylon War, these robots were built by members of the Thirteenth Tribe living on Earth. Ultimately, these ancient Cylons rebelled against their humanoid masters, instigating a nuclear war which decimated the surface of the planet and its population.
Centuries later, the remains of Earth's Centurions lie among the bones of their creators in an uninhabitable nuclear wasteland. Prior to their discovery by crew members from the battlestar Galactica and rebel Cylon basestar, it was not known that mechanical Cylons existed so far back in history (TRS: Sometimes a Great Notion).
Notes
The design of Earth's Centurions was inspired by the helmet of Japanese samurai and the Centurions appearing in the Re-imagined and Original Series. In an unusual move, the Battlestar Galactica VFX department - namely Gary Hutzel and Pierre Drolet - designed and created a CG model of the Earth Centurion helmet which was then built practically by the prop department. Early designs of the Centurion were deemed too similar to Darth Vader, resulting in the shortening of the helmet before its construction.[1]