Little Helper, Lil' Bulb, or simply Helper, debuted in the story "The Cat Box" in Uncle Scrooge #15 (September 1956). Helper is a small, humanoid robot (about 20 cm tall), constructed from pieces of metal and a lightbulb, which serves as his head. He acts as the assistant to the inventor Gyro Gearloose.
In the Donald Duck comics, he is often shown as an inventor himself, sometimes copying Gyro's inventions. A few stories have given Little Helper prominence, such as when a movie director is shooting a film in Duckburg about an outer space giant attacking Earth, which is in actuality a robot programmed to destroy houses on a set. However, the robot walks off start and starts destroying actual houses in Duckburg, to include one with Gyro and the director inside. At the last minute when the two men are near death, Little Helper disables the giant robot's machinery. Gyro is given a medal for saving the director, and Little Helper is given a medal for saving all of Duckburg.
Little Helper never speaks, but occasionally uses thought bubbles. He enjoys chasing mice and helping Gyro clean up the unusual consequences of his inventions.
Helper's origin is given in the story "Gyro's First invention" (written by Don Rosa), which appears in Uncle Scrooge #324 (December 2003) as part of Gyro's 50th anniversary. In this retelling, Gyro accidentally passed on some of his intelligence to Donald Duck's desk lamp. Gyro added small metal arms and legs to the lamp, so that it could move about. Little Helper lived up to his name, helping his creator with his inventions.
In the Italian comics, where he was featured prominently, his name is Edi, in reference to Thomas Edison.
Appearances[]
DuckTales[]
Little Helper occasionally appeared alongside Gyro Gearloose in the animated series DuckTales. He is called Little Bulb in the series, which is compatible with the Brazilian name for the character - Lampadinha - informal diminutive of Lâmpada (lamp), in Portuguese. However, despite his prominence in Gyro's comic stories, as well as being prominently seen in one shot of the theme song, Little Bulb's only major appearance on the series was in "The Money Vanishes", though he also briefly appears in "Dough Ray Me" and "The Big Flub".
DuckTales (2017)[]
Little Helper, this time known as Lil' Bulb, reappears in the reboot series. He first appears in the episode "The Great Dime Chase!" as a multi-purpose assistant Gyro tries to present to Scrooge McDuck. After the idea is rejected by Scrooge's Board of Directors (primarily due to Gyro's history with malfunctioning robots), Louie convinces Gyro to let him borrow Lil' Bulb to recover the Number One Dime Louie lost. As Louie carelessly mistreats Lil Bulb during the assignment, Lil' Bulb's negative feelings corrupt it and it merges with the coin-sorting machine to upgrade into a larger, dangerous mech that chases after Louie for the dime. During the chase, Gyro saves Louie by distracting the robot, where it turns out that Lil' Bulb was malfunctioning from a 75-watt bulb (he can only handle a 50-watt bulb); he replaces the bulb, returning Lil' Bulb to its dutiful state. Despite the incident, Gyro keeps Lil' Bulb around and is inspired to begin Project Blatherskite.
In "Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!", as a result of "Bulb Tech" failing, Scrooge encouraged Gyro to develop something to appease the Board of Directors. Unbeknownst to either of them, Gyro's intern, Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera, seeking to help correct the problems with Lil' Bulb's design, posted the blueprints on an online forum. This allowed Mark Beaks to copy them and use them in order to create a robot driver, B.U.D.D.Y. Gyro eventually recognized his technology at work and fired Fenton for his infraction. However, after B.U.D.D.Y. followed Lil' Bulb's example and became evil, Fenton was able to stop it, prompting Gyro to keep him on.
Chip 'n' Dale: Park Life[]
Little Helper appeared in "The Martian Chipmunks", where he is seen sitting on a tool box when Gyro was getting ready to launch a rocket in space. After Gyro hits the launch button, a telescope containing Chip and Dale lands on the rocket and destroys it, which startled Little Helper and Gyro. They both then watch as telescope goes into space. This later happens again in a later scene.
In "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'", Little Helper appears running in a hamster wheel to power a leaf blowing machine invited by Gyro. Soon a cart full of old animals comes down a hill and knocks the part of the machine Little Helper was managing off. As the cart keeps rolling down the hill, Little Helper struggles to hold on until he eventually lets go.
Gallery[]
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