Richard "Dickie" Dean was an American boy inventor who lived in a small town called Castleton, near Philadelphia. His father, John, worked at the local chemical factory, and his mother's name was Martha. He was described as a 10 year old in his debut appearance, but he aged over time (not quite at the real time rate, but noticeably enough). He was assisted by his best friend, "Zip" Todd, who was less brilliant but no less brave. In his first appearance, Dicky invented a device that could capture sounds from weeks in the past - an invention that he promptly offered to the FBI. Since then, he occasionally passed on some of his inventions to the federal government. The sheer number of inventions he came up with is too great to list. Some of his recurring inventions included the Sky Bug - a ve