Tobey McCallister III

"I have to hand it to you, WordGirl, you were right about me. I hadn't changed into a no-good do-gooder! It doesn't pay to be nice! After all, I try to be nice, not destroy things, and look at what happens! You end up losing to an egg-slicer!" — Tobey, in Tobey Goes Good

"Hello, common folk!" — Tobey to Becky, in By Jove, You've Wrecked My Robot

Theodore "Tobey" McCallister III
Name	Theodore "Tobey" McCallister III
A/K/A	Tobey
Gender	Male
Age	10
Occupation	Evil Boy Genius Student
Alignment	Bad
Homeland	Fair City
Race	Human
Friends	Victoria Best Birthday Girl Becky Botsford
Family	Claire McCallister (mother) Tobey McCallister II (father) Tobey McCallister I (grandfather)
Abilities	Genius intellect, brilliant mechanical skill, able to create fifty-foot tall destructive robots
Voice Actor	Patton Oswalt

Theodore Tobias "Tobey" McCallister III is a character in WordGirl.

He is approximately Becky's age and is home schooled (though in later episodes, he appears to be in Becky's school).

Tobey is a sophisticated boy genius that specializes in building enormous robots, which he uses to destroy things. His robots seem to be used mostly for destructive purposes, but they have shown a wide array of abilities, such as food-making, cabin-building, checker-playing, painting, competing in athletic events, etc.

Personality

Tobey is a brilliant schemer and a smart student, but extremely non-athletic. He went as far as to have a robotic duplicate win a field day contest in "Field Day Fun with Robo-Tobey," only to be disqualified when the ruse was revealed. He is very reserved and quiet most of the time, except for when he loses his temper and sets his robots on people. He is shown to be very smug, considering himself superior to others because of his intelligence, and is often rude or insulting towards them. Tobey dislikes losing, and will often become agitated when he does.

Tobey is also rather charismatic, though his charms fail to have any effect on WordGirl. Tobey is clearly bad (though not necessarily evil), but his motivations for being so are rather unique for a villain. Most of the villains on the series attempt to steal money, food, or other valuable items. Tobey, on the other hand, has an obsessive crush on WordGirl--though he would never admit this to anyone and has argued more than once to the contrary--and often concocts mischievous and destructive plans simply to impress her or win her heart. He often demands that if he can defeat her with his robots, she must tell him her secret identity and / or go out for ice cream with him. Tobey possesses a WordGirl scrapbook with newspaper clippings and other miscellanea, as well as a WordGirl doll that lies on his bed. Though he and WordGirl frequently argue, they occasionally show they do actually have a great deal of compatability together, such as in "Department Store Tobey" and "Have You Seen the Remote?".

Physical appearance

Tobey in his working outfit

Tobey is a 10-year-old boy with short blonde hair that sticks up in the back, pale skin, glasses, and a well-built stature. His typical outfit consists of a blue shirt with an orange vest over it, a red bow tie, brown pants held up with a darker brown belt, and brown shoes. Like Becky, he wears white knee-length socks with vertical stripes along the collar's circumference. 

In his robot-building outfit, he wears the same outfit, with a few additions. Most noticeable is his white apron with the design of one of Tobey's standard robots on the front, with two pockets in the front, one of which containing a screwdriver and a hammer. On top of his glasses are what appears to be a pair of goggles with one the right lens blue and the left lens red. On top of Tobey's head is an elaborate helmet with a bright green chinstrap and two bright blue and red buttons on top.

Appearances

WordGirl's first encounter with Tobey occurred during the original WordGirl shorts. At first, WordGirl simply knew his name from the label on the bottom of one of the destructive robots' feet, which she found after she destroyed them. Later, when she returned home, Tobey (whose mother works with Sally at the district attorney's office) was at her home for a scheduled "playdate" by both their mothers. Tobey noticed that Becky was in posession of his lost remote, and when he voiced this fact the two children deduced the other's villainous and heroic identities respectively (though while Tobey admitted to his identity, Becky denied being WordGirl). To try to prove Becky was WordGirl, he snatched his remote back and summoned one of his giant typical-style robots and gave her a limited amount of time to either stop the robot or have her house destroyed. Becky employed a backup plan, in which Bob dressed as WordGirl and, while Tobey was distracted with the decoy, she destroyed the robot. Tobey decided that Becky was not likely WordGirl and the two have been in a sort of rivalry since.

Another time when Tobey deduced the truth about Becky was in the episode "By Jove, You've Wrecked My Robot," in which he comes over to have a playdate with Becky and tells her that if she tries to turn into WordGirl, he will use his robots to destroy the city. Becky continues to deny being WordGirl, even after Tobey shows WordGirl some Polaroids of WordGirl with Becky's shoes on (due to a lapse in judgement by Captain Huggy Face) and states that they look exactly alike. Becky and Tobey play a parody of Battleship with toy robots connected to their gigantic counterparts in the city, and Becky eventually has to result to cheating through Walkie-Talkies with Huggy. Tobey does not appear to care when this is discovered, he knows that Becky is WordGirl because she hasn't yet attempted to defeat the robots. WordGirl sends Bob off to defeat the robots for her, using a WordGirl doll to fool Tobey's surveillance cameras. Tobey admits that Becky is not WordGirl, much to her relief.

Tobey's crush for WordGirl was pointed out by Dr. Two-Brains in the episode "Mousezilla" which was commented on as a "silly schoolboy crush". Tobey had tried to deny it but was proven otherwise when he tried to stop Dr. Two-Brains from crushing her with Mousezilla's whiskers by stating "Uh, surely there's a more diabolical way to teach her a lesson." Whether Dr. Two-Brains still holds this over his head or not is unknown. The Narrator has also made a point of Tobey's crush, in both "Tobey or Consequences" and "Best Fanclub Meeting Ever".

Tobey's mother Claire McCallister is the only authority he dreads, and when she is made aware of his mischievous deeds she often takes him by the ear and leads him away to be punished, ignoring any excuses he may give. When his mother's imminent wrath is seen, it is the only time Tobey drops his affected British accent. There is no sign of Tobey's father in the show, though he must have one due to being the third Theodore McCallister. 

Tobey has said he got his start from a robotics kit, which included his first remote (and a tracking device for said remote). There must have been some reason for Claire McCallister to consider giving her son a kit, especially one that allows him to become a villain, but no explanation is given in the show. Though, it could be very well likely that it was his father who gave him the kit. In "Oh, Holiday Cheese", Tobey's robot puts the star on a giant holiday tree, earning him approval from his mother.

In the episode "Monkey-Robot Showdown", we see a piece of Tobey's childhood where Tobey had lost a game of checkers to Violet, thus giving the reason why he doesn't compete in the game at his current age anymore.

Episodes

(This list does not contain Tobey's cameos or appearances in shorts, and may not contain all episodes.)

• Tobey or Consequences
• Tobey's Playground Calamity
• Tobey's Tricks and Treats
• Tobey's Masterpiece
• Tobey Goes Good
• Department Store Tobey
• Talent Show Tobey
• Trustworthy Tobey
• Wordgirl vs Tobey vs The Dentist
• Field Day Fun With Robo-Tobey
• Monkey-Robot Showdown
• The Robot Problem
• Wordbot
• Go Gadget Go
• By Jove, You've Wrecked My Robot!
• Have You Seen the Remote?
• Mousezilla
• Princess Triana and the Ogre of Castlebum
• It's Your Party and I'll Cry if I Want To
• Best Fan Club Meeting Ever
• Win a Day With Wordgirl
• Guess Who's Coming to Thanksgiving Dinner
• Book Ends
• Patch Game
• A Vote for Becky/Class Act
• Cherish is the Word
• Ms Question's Riddle Rampage

References

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Tobey as a Toddler

Trivia

• Tobey is the only WordGirl villain who has a crush on WordGirl.
• Tobey often speaks with a posh, upper-class English accent; however, it is sometimes revealed that this accent is fake.
• He is one of the two villains who has his mother in the series, the other being Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy. But while Chuck's mother is not shown, Tobey's mother appears in several episodes.
• He is one of the two villains who wears a bow tie, the other being Dr. Two-Brains (Tobey's is red and Dr. Two-Brains' is purple).
• Tobey enjoys lapsang souchong tea, as shown in "The Robot Problem".
• In "Go Gadget Go," Tobey is shown to be left-handed.
• In "The Rise of Miss Power", Tobey shows fear of his mother; just mentioning her is enough to scare him.
• Many WordGirl fans speculate that Tobey's father and mother divorced, hence why he makes no appearance in the show. There is no evidence, however, to support this theory.
• Tobey's infatuation with WordGirl while treating Becky with nothing but curtness and disdain is similar to how Lois Lane falls madly in love with Superman while rudely rejecting Clark Kent.
• He is the fourth WordGirl villain and the first villain to be a child.
• In the episode "Guess Who's Coming To Thanksgiving Dinner", he admits that he doesn't know what reluctant means. This is the only time he needs a word to be defined for him.
• He is one of the few villains that never go to jail (due to being a child), however there is an exception for the movie The Rise of Miss Power, where he is seen in a jail cell.
• Tobey has a crush on Becky (WordGirl's secret identity). In "By Jove, You've Wrecked My Robot", he states he believes Becky is WordGirl is because of her appearance: "The same sparkling smile, the same ruby lips, the same... I realize I've said too much." He also shows Becky a friendly smile at the end of "Guess Who's Coming to Thanksgiving Dinner", stating with great enthusiasm that he wants to spend next Thanksgiving with the Botsfords again.
• In "Cherish is the Word", Tobey says he considers Valentine's Day to be "an ugly example of consumerism gone awry".

Villains

Ability Villains The Birthday Girl • The Butcher • Colonel Giggle Cheeks • Count Cloudy • Energy Monster • Lady Redundant Woman (Dupey • Evil Malicious WordGirl • Royal Dandy) • Victoria Best (General Smoochington) Gadget Villains Amazing Rope Guy • Captain Tangent (dogs) • Chuck (Brent) • Doctor Two-Brains (henchmen • Squeaky) • Glen Furlblam (cats) • Granny May (Eugene) • Tobey McCallister III • Seymour Orlando Smooth (Chip • Harry) • Mr. Big (Leslie) Tobey's Robots Artsy • Checkmate 3000