Smoot died from "coronary artery thrombosis brought about by his pre-existing coronary artery disease". On November 4, Dave Brockie officially announced that the character of Flattus Maximus would be retired out of respect to Smoot. Costume evolution Flattus began life with a helmet with large horns, dinosaur-skull shoulder pads, a painted red face and long dreadlocks. During the 1990 Tour De Scum, Flattus' helmet changed into something resembling the horns of a ram, but this was a short-lived change. Two of Flattus' three appearances in "Phallus In Wonderland" used his "Scumdogs" helmet, the second of the three, the video for "Have You Seen Me?," has him wearing a tuxedo, and no armor whatsoever. The second incarnation did away with the helmet, and the shoulder pads were enlarged. By "RagNaRok," the shoulder pads were brown dinosaur heads instead of skulls, and he had a tail and loincloth, scaly and brown. His face was still red, but was a mask, and his dreadlocks were shorter and stuck out like a palm tree. His shoulder pads changed slightly for "Carnival of Chaos," and would be the last change until after "We Kill Everything" was recorded. "We Kill Everything" has a photo of Flattus, presumably Michael Derks in said costume, and he is more or less the same (it is the same costume), minus the tail and taller. Blair's Flattus is the most drastic change: the shoulder pads became green, with some exposed bone and muscle, but mostly scale. The tail reappears (for the "WKE" photo shoot, Derks did not wear one), and, like the feet, shoulder pads and loincloth, is green and scaly. The face is less comical, red, and more like a bulldog. The dreadlocks are white, and at their shortest. In the "Fuckin' An Animal" video, Blair's Flattus costume featured a tail, though in subsequent tours and videos it did not. Smoot's changes to the costume to coincide with War Party were mostly in the face and hair. The face is larger and more distorted, and the dreadlocks are white and black, and are pulled back. They are considerably longer than before. The tail is gone. The shoulderpads are a bit larger and longer, whereas Blair's were more compact. Beyond Hell-era Flattus has grey shoulderpads, green feet and a slightly redesigned face. The face closer depicts a Cro-Magnon, or Gwar's take on one, which fits Flattus' current description of himself -