Kirby

Kirby is a green and gray upright vacuum cleaner that appears in the 1987 animated film The Brave Little Toaster and its sequels.
==Personality==
In the first film, Kirby reluctantly joins the appliances on a mission to find Rob, who is referred to them as "the Master". While seemingly being cantankerous and bossy towards the others, he actually cares very much about them and risks his life to save them more than once. Kirby cannot help but keep up appearances, considering that he is independent and often held back by the others.
==Relationships==
Being grumpy and stubborn, Kirby doesn't hang around much with the other appliances until near the very end of the first movie. He utterly despises Blanky and his overly-emotional personality. However, Kirby starts to soften up as the film progresses. In the movie's sequels, he is more laid-back and closer to his fellow appliances.
==Appearances==
===The Brave Little Toaster===
On a bright and sunny morning in the Cottage that was the childhood home of Rob McGroarty "The Master", Kirby is awakened by the Air Conditioner, who exhales a speck of dust, which he vacuums up. Then, much to his astonishment, he sees Radio and Lampy the gooseneck lamp coming down from upstairs, fighting with each other, who both get covered up in Blanky the electric blanket. Later, he passes by Toaster, accidentally vacuums up half of Blanky, putting an end to Lampy and Radio's fight, and falls down. Toaster says "Good morning" to everyone, and they all respond, except Kirby, who still had Blanky stuck in his mouth. So, Lampy and Radio get Blanky unstuck, and Toaster lifts Kirby back up, which he thanks the latter for.
Now all together, Toaster asks what they should all be doing. Kirby responds that they should be doing what they have done for the last 2,000 days: chores, which Blanky feels unsure about. Toaster assures them that it will be fun, but Kirby says it's supposed to be work, not fun. Blanky says doesn't like to work without the Master, so Toaster decides they should play a game with only one rule: don't stop until the house is clean. Radio gets them started by playing the song "Tutti Frutti", and they all set to work. Kirby does a lot of vacuuming, as that is his function. When the song is nearly finished, they stop working, and start dancing, except Blanky, who is up to something, which Toaster notices, and tells them to stop.
Blanky says "A car," much to their wonder, meaning that he thinks the Master is coming, so they all make a tower out of a trunk, stool, and stuff for him to get up to the attic. As he climbs, he thinks he's going to fall, but Kirby tells him to keep climbing, and Lampy to turn the light out of his eye. Blanky reaches the attic and looks out the viewport. He thinks he sees a car taking the Master home, but it was all only his imagination, so he comes down from the attic, sadly. Then, Blanky goes upstairs to get the Master's framed photo, which he brings down, and cries. Kirby, annoyed by Blanky crying, comes up to him, and tries to take the photo away from him, but Blanky tries to stop him, so the two engage in a tug-of-war. Toaster tells them to just put it away, but they still keep fighting, and finally the photo flies out of their grip, lands on the floor, and breaks with the glass shattered and the framing badly damaged, much to their despair.
While sadly looking at the photo, something starts blowing it out of the broken frame. It was the Air Conditioner laughing at them for no reason. They all start talking to him about how they loved the Master, who never played with him because he's stuck in a wall. This makes him really angry, that he explodes, much to their horror. Then, they hear something outside, Blanky thinks it's a car, but Kirby didn't want to hear another word about cars. The sound comes closer, making them think maybe the Master or somebody is about to enter the cottage, so they all go to their places. But it wasn't what they thought, so they all look outside and see a real estate agent putting up a sign that said FOR SALE on it. This makes them believe their Master had abandoned them and would never come back, much to their sadness, so Toaster decides that they should go out and find him in the city.
However, Kirby despises the plan and thinks that they should stay and wait for somebody to buy the cottage and become their new master, but Blanky didn't want a new one, he wanted their own. This made Kirby feel sorry for himself, that he tells the others that he knows he's going to regret his actions, which make them all excited. Then, they discuss how they're going to get there. Lampy comes up with three ideas and Radio comes up with one, but each proved unsuccessful. However, Toaster comes up with a final solution: Kirby pulls them on an office chair with wheels. Their plan nearly succeeds when Kirby's cord gets unplugged from the wall. Toaster thinks they need a longer cord, but Radio say they need an alternate power source. So, they find a car battery, attach underneath the office chair, and Kirby plugs himself into it. Now all set, Toaster decides this is it, and Kirby asks Blanky if he's ready to go, which he is, as he keeps the Master's photo tucked in himself, so they open the door and leave the cottage for the first time.
When Kirby moves along the grass, he thinks it's a shag carpet because it feels different. Then, they enter the wilderness, and Toaster can't see the road anymore. They seem lost at first, not knowing if they're heading the right direction, but Radio sends his signal to the city, and the result is North by Northwest. Now excited to hopefully find their master, they all celebrate by singing their own song called "City of Light". After their song ends, night is falling, and they come up to a thick brush. Kirby puts his vacuuming setting from low to shag, which gets them through quickly, and then they come to a clearing, where they all stop to sleep for the night.
The next morning, they continue their journey through the think brush, and finally find their way out. Then, they come to a meadow, where they find a lot of singing animals. Radio taps his antenna on Kirby's head like a drum, but Kirby didn't like it, so he tells Radio to cut it out. They spend all afternoon in the meadow with the animals, until they are finally ready to continue their journey. Then, they enter deep dark woods, as night is falling, and Kirby starts slowing down. Toaster asks Kirby what is happening and the latter says that the battery is running low, so they should give it a rest, and tells Lampy to turn out the light.
And as night is falling, they look for a place to sleep. Lampy thinks maybe they could sleep in a tree, but it has a spooky jack-o-lantern face on it. Then, they feel stuck, unsure what to do, and Kirby starts fighting Radio for no reason, as Toaster tries to stop them, but Lampy tells them to look at Blanky, who is hanging on a tree branch, shaped like a tent. So, they all take shelter under Blanky, and fall asleep. But after a while, a storm comes up, and Blanky blows away. Lampy shines his light, but it was too dim, and Kirby realizes that the battery has gone dead. Lampy decides to make a sacrifice by turning himself into a lightning rod to recharge the battery. His plan works, but his bulb breaks, and it knocks him unconscious.
The following morning, they continue searching for Blanky, and find him stuck up in a tree. To save Blanky, Kirby throws his cord over the branch, plugs it into the battery, and pulls himself up like a grappling hook. When he makes it to the top, Blanky jumps on his face, and they come back down safely. Now all together again, they continue their journey out of the woods, leading them to a cliff at a waterfall. The waterfall makes Kirby feel dizzy, that he starts chewing on his cord. Lampy tells Toaster to get the cord out of his mouth so he won't swallow it and Radio says to switch him off. Toaster does so and pushes Kirby around, finally getting him back to normal. Then, Kirby wonders how they're going to get across the waterfall to the cliff on the other side.
So, they make themselves into a chain by tying all their cords together. Kirby swings his cord across and Toaster makes it to the other side. But the waterfall makes Toaster dizzy as well, that he loses his grip of the chain, where they all come back to Kirby, and fall off his cord into the water below. Kirby, now feeling helpless, knows he must save his friends, so he jumps off the cliff and into the river below. First, he finds Blanky, then Lampy, and Radio, who had mistaken him as a whale. Then, he asks where Toaster is, and Lampy replies that he sank. Toaster, on the river floor, finds his friends floating above him, and he joins them. Finally, they make it to the shore, and Kirby lets them off. Radio awards Kirby for saving them by putting a leaf on his face, pretending it's a medal, which he immediately blows off.
They all seem lost now, as Radio is unable to pick up any signals. And since the office chair got lost in the river, they now have no mode of transportation, so they all just move along with their cords tied to each other, with Kirby in the back. But Kirby bumps into a root and falls into a mud puddle, starting to sink. He says he knew he shouldn't have let the others drive, however Toaster tells Kirby to inflate his bag so he could stay afloat, but it was too late. Then, the others sink too, except Radio, who plays the song "Mammy" as a rescue signal, which works, as they get picked up by an overweight man named Elmo St. Peters. Elmo loads them all in the back of his monster truck and drives to his parts store that he owned, where he takes apart appliances and sells their parts.
He takes them into his private room and sets them on a table, where they meet a Hanging Lamp, who gives Lampy a new bulb, and a bunch of other Junkshop Appliances. Then, Elmo hears a customer named Zeke arrive. Zeke asks Elmo for a blender motor, which he does have one of, much to the Blender's fear. So, Elmo moves the five appliances to a baby carriage, where they watch in horror as he takes apart the blender and removes its motor. After Elmo leaves the room to go to the front and sell the blender motor, the five appliances wonder how to escape, which the hanging lamp and others think is funny, so they sing a creepy song called "It's a 'B' Movie". After that, the same customer asks Elmo if he also has any radio tubes, much to Radio's horror. They try hiding Radio, but Elmo finds him and takes him to his disassembling station.
Toaster asks Kirby what they should do to save Radio, but the latter doesn't know, however Lampy comes up with an idea: They scare Elmo by combining together to look and sound like a ghost. Their plan works, knocking him unconscious, and they escape in the baby carriage as their new mode of transportation. Along the way, they finally find the city ahead of them. However, unbeknownst to them, the Master, now grown up, is packing for college, and goes with his girlfriend, Chris to the cottage to pick them up for the dorm, not knowing they're gone. This makes Plugsy the shaded lamp and all the other Cutting-Edge Appliances jealous, as they are more modern. In the city, they find the Master's apartment address in a phone book, and ask the traffic light how to get there, which it does.
They arrive outside apartment room A113 and knock on the door, but nobody answers, as they realize the Master isn't there, and it's locked. Radio knocks on the door again, taps the other four appliances, and Plugsy answers, but runs back in to tell the others that it's the older appliances the Master had planned on taking with him to college instead of them, much to their jealousy. They let them in anyway. In the apartment room, they tell the Cutting-Edge appliances all about their journey. After that, they look at the Master's high school graduation photo, and realize that he's all grown up now. This makes them wonder if he still needs them, but they are reunited with their old friend, T.V., who used to live at the cottage too. They ask the T.V. where the Master is, but before he could tell them, Plugsy changes the channel to Spanish, much to their annoyance.
Then, the Cutting-Edge appliances sing them a song called "Cutting Edge" to show them how more modern they are. After that, they knock them out the window and into a dumpster. T.V. helplessly watches them get loaded into a garbage truck headed to Ernie's Disposal, which gives him an idea: When the Master returns, he would make advertisements telling him to go there for the cheapest appliances. The truck arrives at Ernie's Disposal and dumps out the five appliances. They watch as a Giant Magnet picks up scrap metal, drops it on a conveyor belt leading to a Crusher, much to their horror. All the Junkyard Cars sing a song called "Worthless" as they get picked up and head to their fates. After the song ends, the five appliances get picked up by the Giant Magnet, and notice the Master down below, believing he still needs them.
After avoiding the Crusher, they attempt to get the Master's attention, but the Magnet picks them again before he could find them. Before jumping off the conveyor belt again, Toaster whispers them to split up, which they do, leaving the Magnet confused. Then, they freeze again, hoping the Master will find them this time, but Chris calls him to come back to her. They see a shadow coming thinking it's him coming back, but it's actually the Giant Magnet again. The Magnet's sounds wake up Kirby and they make a run for it, but its extreme anger causes them and everything around to cover it all up. Once again on the conveyor belt, the Master finally finds them, except Toaster, who avoided the Crusher immediately.
But the Giant Magnet stalks him and takes away his appliances, much to his anger. He grabs onto Kirby, attempting to pull him off, but is lifted off the ground, and dropped on the conveyor belt leading to the Crusher. He is unable to escape as he is stuck under a giant metal board. He calls Chris for help, but she can't find him. So Toaster, the only one who can save him, makes a sacrifice by jumping in the Crusher's gears, jamming it. Now all safe and sound, the Master takes all his appliances back to the apartment, and fixes Toaster. Then, he loads them all up in the trunk of the car, and drives to college with Chris. Finally finding their Master, they all feel excited and celebrate. Kirby teases them by saying they're all a bunch of junk, which makes them laugh. And they set off for their new life ahead of them.
===The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue===
While in college, Rob takes Veterinary Class to become a veterinarian. At the animal lab, Radio looks out the window for the Master, and accidentally knocks down a plant. The other appliances ask him if he saw the Master, and he did. Lampy asks Radio to help him out the window, which he does, accidentally dropping him. Then Lampy rushes over to Rob's dorm to give him light for his college thesis on his Computer and Mouse. Back at the lab, all the animals are introduced: Alberto the dog, Maisie the cat and her kittens, Murgatroid the snake, Sebastian the monkey, and Ratso the rat. Then Radio starts playing music for their song "Remember That Day", while they clean the messy room, and each animal shares their backstory, except Ratso. When Chris tries to pull a bag of kitty litter out of a cage, she accidentally rips it open, leaving a mess, and looks at Kirby, thinking maybe he could clean it up. Kirby asks Toaster why she's looking at him and Toaster thinks it may have something to do with cleaning the cages, but Kirby says he doesn't do kitty litter. However, she takes him anyway, and when Rob comes in, he's surprised to see what she's doing because he told her Kirby doesn't do kitty litter. After they leave, Kirby runs in a closet, and vomits.
When night falls and everyone starts to sleep, Radio decides to play them a goodnight song, but it wakes them all up annoyingly instead, so they all throw clothes at him, but he sticks out his antenna from the pile, waves, and says "Nighty night." Then they all happily fall back to sleep. Later, that night, they hear something outside, Radio, looks out the window, and notices that it's Lampy when he accidentally knocks down a plant on him. Lampy tosses up his cord and Kirby reels him in. After that, he tells them the bad news about the Master unable to finish his thesis on his computer back at the dorm. They decide to let Sebastian test the Lab Computer to see if she has the same problem. When Sebastian starts typing on the computer, she wakes up and invites her older computer friends to sing their song "Super Highway". After they leave, the lab computer starts getting a virus, so the others unplug her from the wall, and she is safe.
Meanwhile, Ratso mentions that there is something in the basement, which might be the cause of all the computer viruses, so he, Radio, Toaster, Lampy, and Blanky all go through the vent to see what it is. But since Kirby is too big to fit in the vent, he stays to watch the animals. When Mack McCro comes in to takes the animals to Tartarus Laboratory, Kirby, hiding his face, hits Mack, and starts chasing him around, much to the animals' excitement, but Mack traps Kirby in a closet, leaving dust to cough on. And Mack started loading the animals in the truck with his henchman, Jim Bob. When the other appliances come back from fixing Wittgenstein, they let Kirby out of the closet, and come up with a rescue plan to save the animals. Kirby pulls them on a cart powered by a Modem to help them get on the road.
The next day, after Rob completes his thesis, he, Chris, and Charlie go to the basement to find that Wittgenstein was the power source, and decide to move him to the Science Museum. Then, he finds Radio, and tells Chris that the WFC-11-12-55 tube is a rare cathode tube and impossible to find. Later, when he and Chris talk about all the animals getting new homes, except Ratso, who becomes their own pet, graduating college, marrying, and their new life ahead of him, he gives her a wedding ring. Then, he starts naming all the appliances they have, and is about to mention Radio, but just then, Chris has a gift for him too, which turns out to be a WFC-11-12-55 tube, that she searched for online and found in Nome, Alaska. He installs the tube in Radio and tests it, playing the song "I'm Into Something Good". Now functioning again, Toaster asks Radio how he feels, and he responds that he's getting cold feelings, which Blanky explains is because his tube came from Alaska. To celebrate their happy ending, they all sing a song called "Hang in There, Kid", and await their next adventure of their new life ahead.
===The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars===
At the McGroartys' new house, Radio plays the song "Bread and Butter" to get everyone up and ready in the morning. Toaster likes the song and they all dance to it as Radio tells Blanky to turn up the volume. Ratso interrupts, but Kirby tells Radio to hit it, so he nearly finishes the song, until they get interrupted again by the Hearing Aid in the junk drawer, accompanied by the Calculator, who were both there when they moved in the house. Then, they look out the window to see the Master and Mistress, now married, come home with something all wrapped up. To their surprise, it's a baby, whom Rob and Chris named "Robbie", although the appliances refer to him as "The Little Master". But Kirby couldn't see because he was too big to reach the counter.
When the Master and Mistress bring their newborn son inside, he starts crying because he's hungry, making them notice that he sounds just like the Master when he was little. But then, the Microwave rudely tells all five appliances that he is needed for usage instead of them because he is a "hot one", just as Rob heats up Robbie's baby bottle inside him. Then they all wonder if the Little Master will like them as much as the Master did. As the days go by, he starts liking them after noticing that they're all alive and plays with them, as he likes riding on Kirby. One night, Hearing Aid sneaks out of the junk drawer quietly, but only Toaster wakes up and secretly follows him upstairs to the attic, wondering what he is up to.
The next day, Toaster explains to the others that Hearing Aid is up to something, and they must all stay up tonight and stop him. But of course, when night falls, they all fall asleep. Then, Hearing Aid sneaks out of the junk drawer again, and goes back upstairs to the attic, sending signals to outer space, trying to get in contact with someone, which wakes up Robbie, who wonders what's going on, and follows the sounds upstairs. Suddenly, Toaster wakes up, surprised to see that Hearing Aid snuck out of the junk drawer again, wakes up the others, and they all go up to stop him, until they notice the baby crawling up the stairs, but are too late to stop him, too. When they all finally make it to the attic, a tractor beam appears, which was supposed to take Hearing Aid, but it accidentally takes Robbie instead, disappearing up in the sky, much to their astonishment.
After accusing and blaming Hearing Aid for the loss of the Little Master, they connect green wires from him to Calculator to see where the Little Master has gone, and the result is Mars. After wondering how to get there, they use the computer to contact Wittgenstein for help. Radio tells him that they need travel arrangements, which turn out to be a laundry basket, ceiling fan, microwave oven, and microwave popcorn, so they set to work. When removing Fanny the ceiling fan from the ceiling, she starts telling them what she likes about the Little Master, but Radio cuts her off because they all know she's his biggest fan. Then, they attach her underneath the laundry basket.
With their flying machine all set up, they put the popcorn in the Microwave, it starts popping, Fanny starts spinning, and they all take off. As they're going up, they all wave goodbye to Ratso down below, who stayed to be safe from outer space, and to watch the baby monitor in the crib while the Master and Mistress are asleep. Then, Calculator tells them to hold on to their tubes, bulbs, knobs, and wires as they're about to be boosted into hyperspace. While flying in outer space, they see nothing at first, but later, a bunch of balloons show up and sing their song "Floating" as some of them explain how they left Earth. After that, they start approaching Mars, which looks scary to them at first, but Blanky, thinking the popcorn is done, turns off Microwave, and they all start plummeting down on the planet fast, as they make a bumpy landing.
They are later welcomed by some satellites and Viking 1, accompanied by a Christmas Angel named Tinselina, who introduces them to the Wonder Luxe Appliances. Then, they notice a shark-like missile pointed up, which the Wonder Luxe appliances say is for the self-destruct of the planet Earth, much to their horror. Tinselina tells them the history and why they were sent to Mars. While looking for their Little Master, they ask where he is, and they say he is their prisoner. They find him in a bubble, and he is excited to see them. Then, they are taken to the Supreme Commander, who appears to be a giant refrigerator. The Supreme Commander welcomes them and tells them to enter a campaign with him, but they tell him that they came to Mars for their Little Master, not to join him. Toaster volunteers to enter the campaign, wins, and becomes the new Supreme Commander.
Meanwhile, they are told that the Ex-Supreme Commander has invited them to come inside him. The door opens and out comes a ramp, turning into an escalator. As Toaster gets on it, he invites the others to join him, but they feel unsure about it at first, however Toaster assures them it's safe, so they all get on. When they all make it to the top, inside is an ocean, and Radio spots an ice tray on the shore, which they all board on like a boat, and Lampy spins his cord like a motor. They arrive at an island with an icy mountain, which they all climb up, and the top is another refrigerator. Then, they hear a voice inside it that welcomes them, which Radio tells the Hearing Aid sounds a lot like his. The door opens and reveals who the Ex-Supreme Commander really was inside: the Hearing Aid's long-lost brother. The two are happily reunited and he explains to them that the human touch of the baby's hand was what made him change his mind about hating humans and destroying Earth.
Before heading back to Earth, Tinselina and the Hearing Aid's brother decide to join them. They all board their laundry basket, load another batch of popcorn in the Microwave, and take off, saying goodbye to Viking 1 and all the Wonder Luxe appliances. All of a sudden, the Hearing Aid's brother noticed that he forgot to deactivate the missile that was sent to destroy Earth as it was getting ready to launch, and only he knows the abort code. Knowing Earth must be saved immediately, Toaster jumps off the laundry basket, rushes him over to the missile's launching station, and he successfully deactivates it. The others cheer, but since they don't have enough popcorn for another ignition sequence, they can't go back down and save Toaster along with Hearing Aid's brother, so they all form a chain, and their rescue plan succeeds. Afterwards, Tinselina gives up her real human hair and goose-feathered petticoat to put in the Microwave, as they are organic, which makes Fanny spins faster, and they are all headed home.
On the way, Toaster sings a song called "Home Again", and they all daydream of all their usages of the Master and Mistress, to which Kirby's is of him being used to vacuum the floor. When they all land back on Earth, Radio uses his antenna to pop Robbie's bubble, setting him free. But since it's morning, they all hurry back in the house to their places, and send Robbie, who had learned to walk, up to his parents. The next day, it's Christmas, and before opening presents Robbie says his first word: "Toaster" to his parents, and brings all five appliances in the room, much to their surprise, and they say: "Like father, like son." Then, the Christmas tree is all lit up, with Tinselina, now a new Christmas Angel on the top, which Robbie says is "Pretty." And they all live happily ever after.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*Kirby is named after Jim Kirby, the founder of the brand "", but in the novella by Thomas M. Disch, he is named after William Henry "Boss" Hoover, the founder of the brand "".
*His character seems to be based on a Kirby Dual Sanitronic 80 vacuum cleaner from the '60s.
*On nearly every VHS and DVD cover for all three movies, Kirby's head is incorrectly colored pink. In the films, Kirby's head is gray.
*Kirby appears to have aquaphobia, as during the waterfall scene in the first movie, he has a seizure and tries to suck up his own cord before Toaster has to (temporarily) deactivate him.
*It is revealed in The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue that if Kirby sucks up kitty litter, he will get nauseous and end up vomiting, which he does off-screen.
**It is also revealed that he likes to dance but gets embarrassed when others are watching him.
*Kirby is the final voice role for Thurl Ravenscroft.
*In Thomas M. Disch's original novella The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars, Kirby stayed behind with Lampy while the other appliances went on with the mission. In the film, they join them on the quest.
*There is a cameo of Kirby and friends in the series in the episode "Christmas in Oz".
*He shares the same name as the video game character in which he's also named the vacuum cleaner due to his sucking ability.
Category:The Brave Little Toaster characters
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Category:Machines
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Category:Animated characters
Category:Anthropomorphic characters
Category:Non-Disney characters