Infinity Stones have had many hiding places over the millennia. Considering the stones grant their bearers total mastery over Space, Time, Reality, Power, Mind, and the Soul, it’s understandable that those charged with keeping these items safe would want to make them as secure as possible. In Avengers: Infinity War, for instance, Thanos wound up finding Infinity Stones in the Tesseract, the Eye of Agamotto, and even poor Vision’s forehead.
In the comics, however, the Infinity Stones (called the “Infinity Gems” in many storylines) have even weirder hiding places. While many stone keepers have displayed their gems on their foreheads, others have been known to swallow their gems – and one even decided to hide his gem somewhere few would dare to look.
This creative individual turned out to be Pip the Troll, a friend of Adam Warlock, the powerful being who managed to wrest the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos at the end of the original Infinity Gauntlet comic book saga. When Adam was ordered to forsake his godhood and find new keepers for the Infinity Gems, Pip ended up becoming one of his beneficiaries.
Adam’s other choices included Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, and the psychic warrior Moondragon. Gathering all of these members on a distant planet, he gave Gamora the Time Gem, Drax the Power Gem, and Moondragon the Mind Gem, while keeping the Soul Gem for himself. Pip, meanwhile got the Space Gem while an unknown beneficiary gained the Reality Gem.
Originally, Adam placed each gem on the foreheads of his chosen group. However, although Gamora, Moondragon, and Adam left their Infinity Gems there, Pip and Drax had different plans. Drax ended up eating his Power Gem while Pip… refused to say where his Space Gem was, only claiming that wearing a gem on his forehead wasn’t his style. When Gamora tried to ask just where Pip chose to keep his gem, Adam simply told her it was best not to ask.
Regardless, Pip clearly did have the Space Gem as he soon exploited its powers to teleport onto highly secure bases and do some joyriding in stolen jets. He eventually calmed down and joined Adam and the rest of the newly christened “Infinity Watch” on some more serious missions – but the whereabouts of his gem remained a mystery.
It wasn’t until the events of The Infinity War that Pip finally revealed where his Infinity Gem really was. During this sequel to The Infinity Gauntlet, Adam decided he needed to temporarily re-create the Infinity Gauntlet and requested the gems back from everyone. At this point, Pip revealed he kept his gem between… his toes. While this wasn’t where many fans speculated Pip’s highly secure hiding place was, even Thanos admitted few people would dare to look in that smelly spot.
Eventually, the Space Stone passed to different hands, depriving Pip of its amazing teleportational abilities. One can only hope, however, that whoever got it next gave the stone a thorough cleansing before handling it. Indestructible artifact or not, the Space Stone has likely picked up some unique smells thanks to where it’s been.