Who was that masked foursome?

Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer Urban Legends are revealed over at Comics Should Be Good. When the FF adopted more traditional superhero suits in issue 3, they were originally set to wear masks. This idea was thankfully scrapped before it reached the printer. It seems unnecessary to sport a mask when you're on a first name basis with the commissioner (in the above panels).It surprised me to see that Ben Grimm's helmet made an appearance. In the 90s, during Tom Defalco and Paul Ryan's underrated run on the series, the Thing adopted the helmeted look to hide some Wolverine-inflicted battle scars. I always wondered why the statues of the early FF (where Ben gets this accessory) featured a helmet-wearing Thing...