Ab initio molecular orbital theory is used to characterize a series of metal-substituted benzene and cyclopentadiene structures, with the heteroatom taken from the block in the periodic table bounded by groups IV-VI and periods 2-5. Structures are predicted with the 3-21G* basis set and SCF wave functions. The calculated bond lengths and bond angles are in general within 0.04 A and 2°, respectively, of the available experimental values. As a measure of the de localization stabilization, !::.£and t::..H0 values for the appropriate bond separation and superhomodesmic reactions are calculated with 3-21 G* Hartree-Fock energies for these compounds and some smaller acyclic structures.