History
The Collector usually wears an armor made of Etherion which also allows him to fly faster than most flying beings. It also provided him with a shield visor to cover his eyes from vision-based attack and with camouflaged transmissions so that his other traps, i.e. the Boxers, would not track the Collector himself.[1]
The Collector uses his armor against Alpha Flight
The Collector donned this armor when Alpha Flight raided his starship base on Earth to rescue their teammate Marrina, whom the Collector was "collecting" at that point. Alpha Flight confronted the Boxers and the Collector chose to protect himself with the armor and join the fray. With the armor, he was powerful enough to trick Aurora into a trap, and he even tried to fight Sasquatch.[1]
However, Sasquatch then damaged the ship's power source and released several other captives of the Plodex species. The Collector decided to get rid of the heaviest parts of the armor and use a Kymellian Flute as a weapon to summon the monster Snake-Eyes, but another superhero on the ship, Spider-Man, proved that his agility overcame the Collector's vaunted armor, broke the flute and caused Snake-Eyes to wreak even more havoc. The Collector's armor was fast enough to protect him from personal damage and escape; but Alpha Flight and Spider-Man again thwarted him. Finally, the Collector convinced the heroes to recapture his dangerous prisoners, and then the Collector left the Earth with his ship, probably undonning the armor in the process.[1]