Little Helper, Lil' Bulb, or simply Helper, is Gyro Gearloose's assistant, who first appeared in Carl Barks' "The Cat Box" in Uncle Scrooge #15 (September 1956). He is a small, humanoid robot (about 20 cm tall), constructed from pieces of metal and a lightbulb, which serves as his head.
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.
Despite Helper regularly appearing alongside Gyro in the original comics, and even having a prominent cameo in the theme song, he did not appear often on the DuckTales cartoon (though, perhaps true to his printed roots, he appeared more frequently in the comics spun off from the show itself).
Contents
Appearances in Disney Afternoon media
TV episodes
- "The Money Vanishes" (1987)
- "Dough Ray Me" (1989)
- "The Big Flub" (1989)
Comics
- "Flights of Fancy" (1988)
- "The Great Bubble Gum Disaster" (1989)
- "Seeing the Blight" (1989)
- "The Eek Machine" (1989)
- "The Bedeviled Dime" (1989)
- "Kingdom Of The Ants" (1989)
- "Gyro's Marvelous Picnic Machine" (1989)
- "La bande à Piktou" (1990)
- "The Beagle Boys' Scientific Crimewave" (1990)
- "Shipwrecked" (1990)
- "The Dream Scheme" (1990)
- "Honey, I Shrunk the Ducks" (1991)
- "The Duck Knight Returns" (2010)
- "Dangerous Currency" (2011)
