Clip, also known as Experiment 177, is an illegal genetic experiment created by Jumba Jookiba and a character in the Lilo & Stitch franchise. According to her original creation, she is designed to consume Uburnium, the most powerful and economical fuel source in the universe, and drive prices through the roof. Unfortunately, the word "Uburnium" was the same word used for "hair" in Jumba's native language. Thus, Clip instead eats hair and, if left unchecked, grows larger with all that she consumes. Her one true place is at the beauty salon as a professional hairdresser.
Background
Physical appearance
Clip is a small, yellow hairball-like experiment with a pink bow, large dark blue eyes, a thin mouth, and long, sharp scissor-like claws.
Powers and abilities
Clip can use her sharp claws to safely cut off all of a victim's hair in seconds, which she will then eat. She is able to roll into a ball, like Stitch, and glide. She converts the hair she eats into her own, which causes her to grow slightly with each feast. She also has the talent to envision the most fitting haircut for any organism, as well as cut and style it.
In the Stitch! anime, it is also revealed that Clip has the ability to fly in a fashion similar to levitating.
Appearances
Lilo & Stitch: The Series
Experiment 177 was the 177th genetic experiment created by Jumba with Hämsterviel's funding, and immediately ate most of Jumba's hair upon her creation. She was originally designed to consume Uburnium, an efficient fuel source, in order to cause an energy crisis. However, as Uburnium was a very similar word for "hair" in Jumba's native language, the result of the genetic experiment was a hair-eater. 177 and the other first 624 experiments were deactivated and smuggled to Earth by Jumba during his mission to capture Experiment 626.
All of the experiment pods were released and scattered across the island of Kauai.
At an unknown point after this, Experiment 177 was activated.
177 went on a hair-eating rampage around town, devouring hair from people's scalps. Lilo and Stitch later discovered 177 and were able to capture her in a hatbox outside the hotel before Gantu could. Lilo then took 177, named Clip, back to their house and showed her to Jumba. However, upon seeing Clip, he was displeased and demanded Lilo to keep that thing away.
Jumba explained that he had originally designed Clip to consume Uburnium, a rare space fuel, yet Uburnium was also the same word for "hair" in Jumba's native language. Thus, he had accidentally created an experiment that ate most of Jumba's former hairstyle (leaving him bald with only three hairs), which since caused him to become grouchy. He then decided to disassemble Clip as revenge, but Lilo suggested that Clip should be rehabilitated.
The next day, Lilo and Stitch attempted to deliver Clip to the beauty salon to benefit its hair problem, but ran into Mertle and the hula girls before they could do so. Mertle insulted Lilo's hairdo and gave her a bottle of conditioner "for taming wild, unruly hair". This angered Lilo enough that she resolved to punish Mertle by using Clip on her.
Later, Lilo and Stitch stealthily sneaked into Mertle's house and planted Clip under her pillow. That night, however, Mertle was away at a sleepover, so Clip feasted on the doll's hair instead, which tasted awful. Gantu then opened a window and tried to grab Clip inside, but the latter escaped and ate Mrs. Edmonds' hair just as she entered Mertle's bedroom. After evading Gantu, Clip hitched a ride on a bus, where she devoured all of the passengers' hair.
The next morning, Lilo ran to hula class to witness a bald Mertle, but found nothing different about her hair, much to Lilo's disappointment. Mertle then revealed that her mother had gone completely bald because she got freaked out (attacked) by a yellow furball (Clip), making Lilo realize her mistake. After being informed, Jumba agreed to help Lilo find Clip.
Lilo, Stitch, and Jumba burst into the Edmonds' home to recapture Clip and unintentionally ambushed Mrs. Edmonds, yet calmly sorted things out with her. Mrs. Edmonds didn't seem to mind about her baldness when Lilo tried to apologize, and the former even admitted that she felt like the real her. She also complimented Jumba's haircut, and his Afro unexpectedly grew back, much to his delight.
Later, a hairless squirrel and a terrified Gantu evaded Clip (who had grown into a massive hairball from consuming so much hair). Stitch managed to save Lilo and Jumba from Clip but got his rear end shaven in the process. Gantu tried to outrun Clip, but tumbled down a hill and onto a small stage where a hula demo was held. The folks were inspired by Gantu and urged him to dance, so Gantu reluctantly complied but didn't seem to mind after a while.
While the three searched for Clip, Jumba got split ends from maintaining his new hair. Lilo offered him the conditioner she got from Mertle and figured out how to tame Clip, deducing the latter struck the beauty salon next. Clip wreaked havoc at the salon, but she was tamed and returned to her normal size when Stitch doused her with the special conditioner and other hair care products.
Shortly after, Clip found her one true place in the salon as a hairdresser, where she gave people the perfect haircut that captured "the real them". Jumba then decided to get his Afro cut and told Clip to do her stuff. After she trimmed Jumba's Afro, the latter was given back his normal three hairs, which was how he liked it.
Clip reappeared in "Elastico" as one of the audience members for Lilo's hula dance.
Clip was one of the experiments in "Checkers" that joined Stitch in a rebellion against Gantu.
Leroy & Stitch
Clip was seen early in the movie giving Victoria a new hairstyle as Lilo was making her rounds with Scrump to make sure all the experiments were happy in the one true place they belonged.
Later, the first 624 experiments, including Clip, were rounded up by Leroy and taken to a stadium to be destroyed. However, Lilo, Stitch, Jumba, Pleakley, Reuben, and Gantu arrived before the experiments could be destroyed.
Clip participated in the following battle between the experiments and the Leroy clones by eating Leroys' fur, and thus embarrassing them.
However, the Leroys soon gained the upper hand in the battle, but were defeated when Lilo, Stitch, Reuben, and several other experiments performed the song "Aloha ʻOe", which caused the Leroy army to shut down due to the original Leroy's fail-safe.
Stitch!
Clip made an appearance in a later episode of the Stitch! anime, along with Shrink, Squeak, Nosox, and Retro. It is revealed that Clip has the ability of flight. Eventually, Clip was dehydrated back into an experiment pod and locked in Jumba's vault. Eventually, Jumba grabbed her pod to help Stitch in his fight against Dark End, but Clip wasn't one of the experiments that was activated.
Gallery
Trivia
- Clip was first revealed in a DVD bonus feature of Stitch! The Movie in the experiment gallery.
- Clip was activated off-screen.
- Clip is one of the rare experiments to not have black eyes like most experiments, having dark blue eyes instead.
- Stitch initially suggested that Lilo name 177 "Hairy", which is coincidentally the name of Experiment 333.
- Clip is one of the very few known experiments we have physically seen created by Jumba. Others include Stitch, Leroy, and several of Jumba's Chinese Experiments.
- Clip expressed disgust after eating the hair of one of Mertle's dolls, implying that she dislikes synthetic hair or cellulose-based fibers.
- It is unknown why Clip pursued Gantu while she was a giant hairball, considering the fact that Gantu had no hair on him whatsoever.
- Clip's weakness to wild/unruly hair-taming conditioner is similar to Ploot's weakness to natural air freshener.
- Clip's pod color is white in the Stitch! anime.
- Clip's ability to fly in the anime may have been a misinterpretation of Clip dashing for hair in the original series.
- Though unconfirmed, Clip can possibly be considered a prototype of Mashy.
