This was the fourth and last X-Men appearance in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, since the last time they were seen in The Education of a Superhero (1983), Wolverine left, while Thunderbird has joined the team. There is no mention of Videoman, an original character from this series that was supposed to have joined the X-Men.
The episode was planned as a pilot for an X-Men TV series that was not produced. The group would finally get their own TV series almost a decade later with X-Men: The Animated Series (1992).
Thunderbird's power are different from what he possesses in the X-Men comics. His shapechanging abilities are an invention of the cartoon. Probably because otherwise he'd only have superhuman strength, which would make him too similar to Colossus
The two men who attack the lab wear uniforms resembling those worn by the techno terrorist group AIM.
The character design for Cyberiad is very close to that of the DC Comics' character Thorak.