He is a perennial fixture of the group's artwork, appearing in all of their album covers (as well as most of their singles) and in their merchandise, which includes T-shirts, posters and action figures.

Although he is occasionally described as "zombie-like" in the press,[2][3][4][5] Eddie assumes a different guise relating to the themes of individual albums and their corresponding world tours, and has appeared as a cyborg, an Egyptian mummy, a lobotomised mental patient, a cloud, a samurai warrior, and a soldier.

[7] At the end of their live set, during the "Iron Maiden" song, a fish tank pump was used to squirt fake blood out of the mask's mouth, which typically covered their then-drummer Doug Sampson.

[9] After this initial incarnation, Beazley constructed a larger mask out of fibreglass, equipped with flashing eyes and the ability to release red smoke from its mouth.

"[11] After seeing some of his artwork on a Max Middleton poster, Smallwood set up a meeting with Derek Riggs and asked to see some of his other illustrations, in the midst of which was the band's first album cover.

[13] The classic "walk-on" Eddie was created for The Beast on the Road tour by Dave Beazley after seeing a pantomime version of Jack and the Beanstalk, which used similar giants, consisting of "basically a bloke on stilts but dressed up to look about ten feet (3 m) tall.

[17] Since then, Eddie has assumed a different guise for each cover, such as a "mummified Egyptian god" for Powerslave,[17] a lobotomized mental patient for Piece of Mind,[18] emerging from a grave in Live After Death,[18] a tree monster for Fear of the Dark and a cyborg for Somewhere in Time.

[24][25] During The Final Frontier World Tour in 2011, after Iron Maiden did not perform "The Trooper" in Belfast, Blabbermouth.net reported that there had been speculation amongst fans that this was due to the artwork's use in murals.

"[30] Mick Wall describes Eddie as "the immortal soul of Iron Maiden, the defining symbol of the eternally youthful, blissfully uncompromising spirit of the band's music.