A brief, ill-considered attempt to make the Thing more interesting during a story arc where Reed & Sue left the FF & he took over. Made him much stronger around the same time that the Hulk was made weaker, leading to a predictable crossover where the Thing actually beats the Hulk (at first; Gray Hulk uses a little stragety to beat him in round 2)

Problem was, not even John Byrne (pic 3) could draw him this way without making him look like even more of a rock-pile than he already did. The idea was abandoned after about a year; reverted to his old look/strenght level.