A pair of commissions from  tato

So I'll have to admit to having a notable infatuation with the character. Granted, this isn't entirely about the character's appearance. I had actually enjoyed the series initially on the Sega Master System as a console frequently rented when visiting my grandparents place. The first game was a competent if unremarkable Mario clone, but the series would really find it's footing (and suck in my interests) with the latter more Adventure/RPG centric titles starting with Wonderboy in Monsterland and Wonderboy in the Dragon's Trap (The latter gaining some significant notoriety in recent months thanks to it's sublime remake). Truthfully I never realized his rather compromising attire existed until seeing the Arcade game very late into my teen years. And yes the fact that what he's wearing IS a diaper is confirmed in an interview with the game's designer which can be found here.

These two pictures were done years apart from each other, incidentally being the first and the last pictures I've had done of the character by Tato. The headband with the horned design was my initial interpretation of the original sprites, however more recently I figured it'd be more appropriate for him to wear the diadem as part of the Legendary Armor which is a bit more signature of the series as a whole (even if it's appearance is largely based on The Dragon's Trap's concept art rather than any in game appearance).

As for the diapers themselves, I imagine in the real concept it was more to keep him looking decent until you can find armor in the game (which isn't even a possibility until the 3rd stage and even then in a hidden shop), so in reality I very much doubt it's for necessity. Not to say I havn't toyed with the idea in other commissions however. That part was also considered when I thought I'd see how he'd take to wearing disposables over his cloth, which I doubt he'd care much for as a hero who needs to be more mobile than hampered by a soddened garment.