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Gyro Gearloose




Gyro Gearloose Alias: Dr. G


Eyes: Black
Hair: Brown
Race: Chicken


Occupation: Inventor
Marital Status: Single
Known relatives: Ratchet Gearloose (grandfather)
Fulton Gearloose (father)
Newton (nephew)
Group affiliation: D.I.A. (Duckburg Intelligence Agency), a division of S.H.U.S.H.
Base of operations: Duckburg


Story: Gyro Gearloose is the brilliant and slightly absentminded inventor in Duckburg. He is also a former secret agent for the D.I.A. (Duckburg Intelligence Agency), a division of S.H.U.S.H., under the secret name of Dr. G. With the help of his assistant Little Helper and his Thinking Cap, no invention is impossible to help other people.

Gyro's primary adversaries are the Beagle Boys and Emil Eagle who often tries to steal his inventions and use them for their nefarious deeds. This of course always ends in disaster for the Beagle Boys and Emil Eagle.

Gyro often works for Scrooge McDuck when the Beagle Boys or Magia de Spell tries to steal Uncle Scrooge's money or first dime. Usually this means either hiding the money in some ingenious way or making a new spectacular security system [1]. He has also worked for the organizations S.H.U.S.H., an organization so secret that it has not been revealed what the acronym S.H.U.S.H. means. Here his skills were put to use for the government, especially against Dr. Nogood and the agents of F.O.W.L. (Foreign Organization for World Larceny) [3]. Later Gyro got another connection to S.H.U.S.H. as he created the suit of power armor that Fentom Crackshell used as the hero Gizmoduck [6].

Donald Duck once inherited a house (by mistake) that had belonged to the famous gentleman-burglar Fantomius. He found the burglar's diary and all his secret tools and in the beginning he used the equipment to get revenge on his uncle Scrooge, and to get his rival Gladstone Gander away from Daisy Duck. Later he changed and became the superhero Paperinik (Superduck), at which point Gyro Gearloose became the supplier of many of the gadgets Donald used as Paperinik [4].

Gyro Gearloose also played a role in the origin of Supergoof. Goofy accidentally drank a cup of super fuel and thought he had gained super powers. He stripped down to his underwear (long johns) and put on a cape (an old potato sack) and went after the villain The Phantom Blot as Supergoof [5]. Shortly after Gyro gave him a cape which gave him some super powers so he could really be Supergoof [5]. The cape was only used briefly as Goofy discovered the super goobers which gave him real super powers [7].


Equipment: Gyro Gearloose has a small helper robot, Little Helper, and a thinking cap to help him invent things.


Continuity: Disney
Publisher(s): Disney
Dell Comics
Gold Key
Whitman Publishing
Gladstone
Egmont
First app.: Walt Disney Comic #140 (1952)
Creator(s): Carl Barks
Country of origin: USA USA


Background notes: Gyro Gearloose started out as a small supporting character in a Donald Duck story. The great potential in the character and his inventions quickly made him popular. After 50+ years he is still popular, and has been a major part of the development of Disney characters. When DuckTales began in 1987 Gyro Gearloose and Little Helper were quickly put in the stories. Gyro's voice was done by Hal Smith who also did the voice for Flintheart Glomgold on the show.

In the picture on this page, I have made Gyro Gearloose thin like he has been most of the time, but in some of the older stories, he is sometimes shown as more chubby. Even though Gyro Gearloose is a chicken, the Brazilians call him Professor Pardal, making him a sparrow. The reason for the change in species and Disney's accept of the change has not been published anywhere to my knowledge.


Related links/characters:
- Disney Characters
- Beagle Brats
- Beagle Boys
- Daisy Duck
- Donald Duck
- Emil Eagle
- Fentom Crackshell
- Gizmoduck
- Grandpa Beagle
- Huey, Dewey, and Louie
- Little Helper/Li'l Bulb
- Magica De Spell
- Matilda
- Newton
- Scrooge McDuck


Cross cultural references:
If you enjoyed this character/series, you might enjoy
Mr. Clever: Another inventor of silly things.
Professor Balthazar: Another inventor of silly things.


References: 1: Donald Duck comics
2: Donald Duck #102
3: DuckTales episode 41
4: Italian Donald Duck comics 1969 ff
5: Phantom Blot #2
6: Super DuckTales
7: Super Goof #1