McGillicuddy was an intergalactic junk trader and explorer. He had come across the Steel Pillar of the Wikkit Key being sold on the black market by an eery El Nath named Feyt Ach Eez. The creature then told him to go to Kakrafoon, to “see the Disaster Area concert.” It was he who rescued Marvin the Paranoid Android from a fate in Kakrafoon’s sun and fixed him up with a new leg (in fact the Steel Pillar). He delivered the robot to a Mind Zoo to get rid of him as soon as possible.
Much later he found the wreckage of the Searcher in the Asteroid Belt and used pieces of it, a wrecked droid of his own, and a barrel of Norb’s Nails to build Norby, whom he called Macko. McGillicuddy had always been planning on having more adventures but waited too long and died of old age first. On his deathbed he sent Macko to an auction, hoping he would be in good hands.