Despite the change in the Buckwheat character's sex, Billie Thomas's androgynous costuming was not changed until his appearance in the 1936 film "Pay as You Exit". This new costuming — overalls, striped shirt, oversized shoes, and a large unkempt Afro — was retained for the series until the end. The reason for the change in appearance was so he could portray, in the 1936 "Our Gang" feature film "General Spanky", a five-year-old slave asking men on a riverboat and, subsequently, shoeshine boy Spanky, "You be my master?". In his "Classic Movie Guide" write-up for the film, Leonard Maltin surmises that "Buckwheat's role as slave in search of a master may displease contemporary audiences."