The theory also falls apart because Dr. Claw gets away in the Clawmobile at the same time Chief Quimby congratulates Gadget. Someone will come along and say that someone else is piloting the car, but it stands to reason that NOBODY touches Dr. Claw’s keys!

However, character designer Brian Lemay, on his official website, posits the following (courtesy his FAQ page) :

“I do have my own theory on The Claw though. Here’s how I see it: We all know that Inspector Gadget is a robot, here’s how I think he came into being. The real live Inspector Gadget was caught in the middle of some police force conspiracy and was set up to “take the fall”. In the ensuing explosion that was meant to kill him he was actually horribly disfigured and crawled away a la the Phantom of the Opera. The police force, in order to cover up the mishap secretly created the new robotic Inspector Gadget to take the real Gadget’s place. The real Inspector Gadget sunk into a terrible psychotically maddened state sought to destroy his artificial replacement and it has since become an obsession. The voice is a result of the explosion effecting his vocal cords.”

I myself have another theory: Dr. Claw is really Rupert Murdoch, causing trouble as usual (judging from the action figure’s likeness, of course).

[...]From the archives: The Secret Identity of Dr. Claw « The Journal of Cartoon Overanalyzations[...]…

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