Tobey McCallister III

"Oh, you think you're so smart, don't you, WordGirl? With your superpowers and your vocabulary skills..and your luminous smile! But you can be beaten, just like everyone else! I'm going to prove I'm smarter than you, and then you'll be mine! All mine!"

- Tobey to Wordgirl, in Tobey or Consequences "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

Theodore McCallister III aka "Tobey" is a 10-year-old villain in ''WordGirl. ''He is voiced by the comedian/actor Patton Oswalt. He is approximately Becky Botsford's (AKA WordGirl's) age and is home schooled, though in later episodes he appears to be in Becky's school. He is a boy genius that specializes in building enormous robots, which he uses to destroy the city. His robots seem to be 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 also rather charismatic, though his charms fail to have any effect on Wordgirl. Tobey is clearly evil, but his motivations for being so are rather unique for a villain. Most of the villains on the show 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 posesses a Wordgirl scrapbook with newspaper clippings and other miscellanea, as well as a Worgirl 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 the episodes "Department Store Tobey" and "Have You Seen the Remote?". Despite these hints of a more positive relationship with Tobey, Wordgirl dislikes the latter's destructive tendencies and instead has a crush on the ambitious school reporter, Todd "Scoops" Ming.

Physical appearance


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 Botsford, he wears white knee-length socks with vertical stripes along the collar's circumference.

In his robut-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 robuts 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 Botsford 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 Huggy) and states that they look exactly alike. Becky and Tobey play a parody of Battleship with toy robots connected to their gigantic conterparts 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.

The only time Tobey's crush for WordGirl had ever been discovered was 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.

Tobey's mother, Claire McCallister, is the only authority he dreads, and when she is made aware of his mischevious 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. 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/High Fat Robbery
 * Book Ends/Mr. Big
 * Tobey's Masterpiece/Chuck-the-Nice-Pencil-Selling-Guy
 * Granny Mayor/Tobey Goes Good
 * Shrinkin' In The Ray/Department Store Tobey
 * Princess Triana and the Ogre of Castlebum/Heat Wave, Crime Wave
 * Have You Seen the Remote?/Sidekicked to the Curb
 * Mousezilla/Villain School
 * Tobey's Tricks and Treats
 * A Vote for Becky/Class Act
 * The Two-Brains Boogie/Field Day Fun With Robo-Tobey
 * Road Rage, Anger, and Fury/By Jove, You've Wrecked My Robut!
 * Becky and the Bard/Monkey-Robot Showdown

Trivia

 * Tobey is the only Wordgirl villain who has a crush on Wordgirl.
 * He is one of the two villains who has his mother in the show, 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 wear a bow tie, the other being Dr. Two-Brains. (Tobey's is red, Dr.Two-Brains's is purple.)
 * In Go Gadget Go, Tobey is shown to be left-handed.
 * Many Wordgirl fans speculate that Tobey's mother and father 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 fell 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 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.
 * It is possible Tobey also has a crush on Becky (WordGirl's secret identity). In the episode, "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 he wanted to spend next Thanksgiving with the Botsfords again.