Quote Originally Posted by Iron Maiden View Post
A lot of people called him Pineapple Thing. I'd heard that one myself back in the day.


That's definitely Walt Simonson on the art so it has to be from his brief run. The Time Variance Authority shows up at the end of the fabled time duel between Reed and Victor in FF#352, which had drawn their attention. Prior to that, Ben was using the Thing suit and was in his human form. But in issue #350 he subjects himself being transformed into the Thing again, but his transformation looks different from both the original and Spikey thing. I don't know if it has an official name. But he did it so that Sharon Ventura wouldn't feel as miserable if he transformed back into the Thing too. I guess Reed just happens to have a device just laying around that can do it because he just goes to their lab and subjects himself to it's effects.
Reed’s had a device called the Stimulator that can re-empower the FF lying around since FF #37, it’s been used a couple of times since but is largely forgotten. Though the device Ben used to turn back into the Thing was something he seemed to just cobble together out of stuff he found in Reed’s lab.