[Joe Moore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by En Sabah Nerd

Okay, for the sake of the movie and what not, I buy that. I guess it is still weird then that whoever designed the terminator would be all "hey, let's give it skin that ages." Certainly then the other creator would say "why would we want a robot that looks like it ages? I see very little applicable need or reason for that." To which the other person replies "I have two reasons for this decision: plot and convenience."

Well, they are meant to be infiltrators, Terminator's that can blend in with real humans (which was a problem with the T-600's who had synthetic skin). Having that skin be able to age, scar, heal and bleed like a real human would go with the with the notion that they are meant to appear as human as possible.

Once these models were uncovered by humans, and they were able to more easily identify them, Skynet evolved the Terminator's into the T-100, which could alter its appearance as needed.