Wario Land Oddities: From Cap, to Helmet... to Cap?

In Wario's very first appearance as the main villain of Super Mario Land 2, the big guy fully embraced copying his rival as part of his attempt to usurp him. This is immediately evident in his look: he has the mustache, the buttoned-up overalls, the gloves, and of course a cap with the first letter of his name, all distorted from Mario's cleaner appearance to emphasize his more malicious role. Later games such as Mario & Wario and Wario's Woods, where he also took on the role of antagonist, would also use this design. However, once Wario Land 1 finally rolled onto the shelves, Wario starts the game by charging into a wall, losing his cap in the impact. He then grabs a explorer's helmet to wear, altering his regular design for the rest of this new game.
However, despite the next Wario Land game (VB) also using this design, it is suddenly reverted to his classic design in Wario Land II (though it is still depicted on pictures found in his castle), and for the rest of the series. I always found that quite odd, because I think the explorer helmet very naturally sets Wario and his platformers apart from Mario, while also feeling like a way to wordlessly contextualize that his rivalry with Mario has subdued. This can also be said about his WarioWare design, and while Wario Land II also included another permanent redesign to his character (that being shorter sleeves) it is much more subtle compared to a different hat, to the point where it is also included in his main design also found in spinoffs to this day. My only theory to why they gave him the cap back, which is most likely true, is that the spinoff games including Wario continued to give him a cap regardless, so they likely reverted his design in the Land games to keep it consistent.
Still, when it comes to Wario's Land designs, I would say I prefer the explorer helmet to the yellow cap. It acknowledges him as more than a doppel of Mario, fits his role in those games better, and sets them apart from Mario's more speed-focused titles. I want more opinions on this pressing matter! Would you like to see the helmet make a return in a potential Land sequel, or even be included in a character redesign? Personally, I'd like to see a combo of short sleeves + explorer helmet in a new game.

I'd definitely like to see the helmet/explorer hat return in some sense. Though I think another reason it appeared was to contrast with the powerups in said games, which are all hats. The helmet feels like an obvious downgrade from the viking helmet used for the bull powerup, and the jet/dragon hats. I think they used it so it felt like collecting a mushroom in Mario rather than seeing your whole design shift when you got a powerup.

I also really like the helmet and I think it should return at least as a comestic in a new Wario(not Ware) installment. As for the short and long sleeved, I somehow never noticed he used to have longe sleeves from ML2 to VB-WL and only got his sleeved trimmed afterwards. This is probably due to me not growing up with the Wario Land games because I usually noticed this kinda stuff (I know exactly how Somic's design evolved lol).

I don't think I have a preference for the sleeves.

There's also Wario's cock-eye (or is it lazy-eye, Idk) that could be brought back. DK and even Yoshi to a lesser extent reverted back to their older design so Wario could potentially do the same.

Addition that I initially forgot about: Wario also wears the helmet in one more game released two years after its debut and one year after VB Wario Land, that being the Japan-exclusive Picross 2 for Game Boy. Notably, he is a main character of the game alongside Mario, who dons an archaeologist outfit with a similar hat.

Giving Wario the helmet in this game is obviously a case of matching the setting better (compared to the prequel which also featured him and Mario in their regular designs), but it is interesting how they didn't give him a more complex design on par with Mario's here.

I miss the explorer hat! I know Wario works extremely well with pirate theming and stealing, adventuring, Captain Syrup, etc., but there are so many diverse worlds he goes to, and in particular Shake It feels like a world tour, not to mention so many treasures and artifacts look like he got them from all over the world, which makes me want to call him an explorer or adventurer. I'd even argue that he fits the bill better than Mario!