Wally Darling 📞🌹❤️🩸

Aliases:
Walls (by Howdy)
Walliford (by Sally)
Kid (by Barnaby)
Wally (Nickname)
Affiliation: The Neighborhood
Occupation: Artist
Age: Late 20s
Species: Puppet
Gender:Male
Height: Around 3 feet.

Wally Darling was one of the 9 Neighbors that lived in The Neighborhood during the 1970s television series, Welcome Home.

"Wally is the most prominent character in Welcome Home, as he is often the focus of merchandise, advertising, and is present in every episode and book. His segments were focused on drawing and painting with viewers. Barnaby was often depicted alongside him and illustrated pages note that they were best friends multiple times. (Most notably scenarios where Wally and the viewer are learning something new.) They also share similar characteristics, like hearts on the sole's of their shoes and paws, of which only Barnaby has the the latter.

A notable characteristic of Wally is his house named Home. Home is regarded as the ninth neighbor, but seemingly cannot speak as illustrations show Home speaking only in onomatopoeias. (Creak, Squeak, Bang.) Sources say, however, that this puppet's eyes could move through a hand crank on the other side of the prop facing away from the camera. Additionally, its doors, chimney, and windows were supposedly very animated during episodes. It is implied that Home is the most lively house within the neighborhood, as none of the other houses seem to have eyes.

Wally is blunt and direct about things, but at the same time polite, always having a soft and sweet smile on his face.

Wally is 3 feet tall with an average build, yellow fleece skin, and blue hair styled into a tall, spiraled pompadour. He is most often depicted wearing a blue cardigan with yellow bordering and buttons, a white undershirt, a red necktie, vertically striped rainbow pants, and white-and-blue dress shoes with hearts on their soles. He has droopy eyes and a cat-like mouth with no teeth. He has no nose or eyebrows.

You
Wally is your best friend. Wally seems to be the only character aware about you on the other side and the only one to hear you.[34] His segments were mostly focused on doing activities with the viewers and interacting with them, learning with them.

Wally is fascinated with you. He wonders what you like to talk about, what you're thinking, what you sound like, and he's hoping one day you'll tell him all about you. He loves learning, and that includes you.

Wally already liked you since the beginning because you are nice just the way you are and there's no one quite like you. You don't ask him to change to appeal to your tastes, he wouldn't want you to change either. He seems to love you platonically, and he tries to show this however he can. He wants you to smile and know that he loves you very much.

He heard eye contact is important and a polite thing to do, so he tries to maintain it whenever he sees you, he wants you to know you have his attention. He also feels reassured to know you're looking back at him.

He loves having conversations with you and answering your questions. His favorite sound is your voice, it is hard to hear from where he is but it makes him happy, it calms him to know you're there.

Wally tries to be gentle and patient with you, and knows that even if he can't see you or you can't reply to him, you're still there with him, looking at him. That's why he tries to reassure you that he knows about your presence and even talks to you so you don't feel alone, even introducing Home to you so you two can become friends as well. He wants to make sure you feel included in The Neighborhood, and even created a page specially for you in the website for you to enjoy.

He knows you're a good artist like him, and that you have drawn him many times, which he is very grateful for. That's why he also likes to share his drawing tips with you and doodles for you around the website, since he knows you would appreciate them.

However, he is really distressed about not being fully able of seeing you or hearing you, and hopes you consider him a friend. He doesn't understand why you seemingly don't let him in despite his efforts and your friendship. He doesn't realize how his actions, words and intense stare could be actually frightening you and making you see him in a bad light. He would misinterpret you trying to get away from him as an accident. He would never think you would actively try to keep your distance from him, since you two are friends.

Wally's name might've been derived from a 1970s slang 'wally wally blood and dolly', meaning being wild about a person, which makes sense considering that he was being emotionally attached to the viewer.

Wally's character description on the Welcome Home website is notably shorter than other Neighbors', with most of his description being dedicated to Home and written in present tense.

Wally's character sheet is the only one with an exit link reading "Goodbye!" rather than "Go Back."

In the April 12th, 2025 update, the exit link now has the words "Go Back" instead of "Goodbye".

In official artwork, Wally is almost always looking directly at the viewers.
He is the only character that looks directly at the camera in The Neighborhood introduction page of the website and in the worksheets used for the exhibition.
In the April 12th, 2025 update. Wally is no longer looking at the viewer in The Neighborhood introduction page.
Wally is the only puppet in Welcome Home that doesn't have a nose, without counting those characters that have a beak instead.
It is unknown if Jonesy Joyful has a nose or not.
For now, Wally has never been seen without a smile on his face.
He doesn't know how to emote, and prefers to wear a smile at all times.
He never frowns.
Wally is ambidextrous.
His favorite color is red.
All the favorite colors of every neighbor put next to each other forms a rainbow.
His favorite animals in order are Barnaby, Poppy, and Howdy.
Clown has implied several times that one of Wally's favorite real animals are dogs.
He also likes cats.

Wally's voice is described as slow, easygoing, monotonous and soft spoken. His voice was liked to that of Teddy Ruxpin and the Mark Baker version of Raggedy Andy.
He also sounded very similar to that of Hugo from the 1964 movie, "Devil Doll", although this is unknown if Clown is actually inspired from the movie.
The reason why he sounds so monotonous is because he doesn't understand emotions.
Wally enunciates each "ha" when he laughs.
Barnaby taught Wally how to laugh, explaining that to laugh someone needs to say the words 'Ha ha ha' specifically, and that's why Wally just repeats the words unemotionally when trying to laugh.
Wally can't scream either, only uttering a monotonous "A".
His catchphrase is "the most."
Wally loves apples and birthday cakes. Not eating them, just admiring and holding them. His favorite type of apple are the red ones.
It seems that he also likes cheesecake with a strawberry on top.
He also likes his ice cream plain with a strawberry on top and sometimes with some sprinkles. His portion was comically bigger than Barnaby's, but Wally didn't finish it anyway.
Wally really likes apples because the first thing he ever painted was a little red apple on a big canvas. He was delighted to discover people can also paint with apples.
The second thing he painted was Barnaby, but he prefers to paint apples and paint on them because it's easier.
He will be confused and disappointed about any food or drink that contains apple in them but don't look like an apple, like apple pie.

Wally loves candy apples, but he just holds them at arms length away from himself and straight in front of him like how someone holds a torch. He walks around like that until someone else takes them away from him.
He would like to try milk with powdered cocoa, milkshakes and hot cider.

He has an apple collection. It consists of only one red apple.
The name "Wally" is not a diminutive for anything in this case.
The nickname "Walliford" was added thanks to rockabillybun, a member of the Welcome Home project who jokingly called Wally this way. Clown, even if he refused to give Wally this as his real name, decided to make a cameo by adding it as Sally's nickname for Wally instead.
Clown commented that Wally's hair could be interpreted as a combination of a Victory Roll and a Pompadour because of the spiral and the size. Clown also amusingly compared Wally's hair with a Mexican Jelly Roll.
Clown likes the idea of ​​Wally sleeping with a really big roller in order to create his hair swirl, but Wally probably already wakes up with his hair intact without using any.
He is the shortest neighbor in Welcome Home, at around 3-feet tall.
Wally is often regarded by his creator as "a peanut" or "just about 12 apples tall". Respectfully, of course.
Wally was surprised to find out he's short, and when he found out, he began asking everyone if they are taller than him. He has never thought fully about the concept of short and tall.
Howdy playfully called Wally a shrimp because of his height.
As a human, he would probably be closer to 5-feet instead.
Wally eats with his eyes, just by staring at something and this something suddenly disappearing or having bite marks on it. He sometimes blinks to take a bite, but not always.
He usually only does so when you blink, but he knows when you do.
All this information was revealed in Clown's social media, but Wally was finally shown eating with his eyes in canonical material during the 10/13/23 update of the website, in the hidden "00" video. He takes a bite of a candy apple from the distance.
He doesn't know how to eat with his mouth, he would place something there and not know what to do next.

When drinking, he would still use his eyes to slowly consume the drink as it disappears from its container. He sometimes would make the action of sipping so it seems like he is using his mouth instead.
He has drunk paint this way before.
Wally eats one strand of spaghetti whole at a time.
Even so, he isn't fond of eating or drinking, and just likes to hold the plate, bowl or cup in his hands to feel its warm. Once it got cold, he gave it to whoever is next to him to eat/drink instead, usually Barnaby.
Wally was first conceptualized in March 2018.
He was inspired by Teddy Ruxpin, Jimmy Dean, Mickey Mouse and Fred Rogers. Wally's hobby of painting might also implies he's inspired by Bob Ross.
Wally was going to have big round eyes at first, but Clown decided that he looked too wild and unhinged this way.
Wally had blue eyelids instead of orange. Since his real puppet was done during this time by Clown, it remained this way and it does not match with his current design.
In old conceptual work, Wally had crosses on his cufflinks. Those were later removed, and is non-canonical according to Clown.
Despite this, some images in the website that are supposed to be canon also show crosses on his cufflinks. It is unknown if this was an oversight.
If the current Wally and the old concept one met, they wouldn't like each other.
Wally thinks that he is very handsome, and he would be flattered to know others think so too.[107] He likes looking in the mirror because he likes his face.He also does very well with an audience.
Clown thinks that Wally is the most stylish neighbor in Welcome Home and would look good in everything, but they especially like how well he looks in cardigans. The second most stylish neighbor was Eddie.

Sally thought that Wally could be a great leading role for her plays, but he always forgets his lines and doesn't properly emphasize his words. He acts really well with his movements and gestures, but not with his voice, which remains calm, slow and monotonous all the time.
Wally understood "art" shortly after he came to The Neighborhood.
Wally is a slow painter.
If he were to fall on the ground, he will stay there until someone helps him up.
Wally's favorite sound is your voice.
His second favorite sound are slide whistles.
Clown, the creator of Welcome Home, is the one that sang "Beautiful Dreamer" as Wally.
Despite Wally having an audio of him singing, Clown mentioned that Wally is not good at singing. He doesn't know many songs either, and the only ones he knows were taught by the other neighbors.
He isn't good at dancing either, he doesn't know how he should move, and usually just copied or tried to learn from the others.
He only knows how to do "The Mashed Potato".
Playing instruments is also out of the question because he doesn't have much rhythm, but he likes to play the drums even if just for fun.
He likes books, but he prefers when someone else reads for him.
Wally always calls his friends on the phone to wish them goodnight.
The phone is too big for him and he has to hold it with both hands.
He likes to kick his feet while talking on the phone, something he learned from Julie.
Wally doesn't know how to hug someone, but he enjoys being hugged.
Wally sometimes asked to be held, but it usually already happened casually due to his short stature. Julie loved picking him up.
He would sometimes go limp on someone's arms when hugged.

He wouldn't mind if someone holds his face.
He doesn't know how to kiss the common way. He thinks that someone needs to place their mouth where they want to kiss and say "Muah!" really loud.
It was difficult for Wally to learn how to blow kisses at first, but once he got the hand of it, he became elated to share them and now loves to blow kisses.
Wally likes to hold everyone's hand so they don't get lost.
Wally sleeps by saying out loud "I'm sleeping, I'm sleeping, I'm sleeping..."
He actually can't fall asleep because he doesn't understand it, and it is unknown if he dreams at all.
He sometimes forgets to close his eyes to sleep.
Clown likes the idea of ​​Wally sleeping in a vampire pose.
Wally is not good at playing games. For example, he would keep playing "Rock" during "Rock, Paper, Scissors".
Strangely, despite being bad at games, he is amazing playing carnival games instead and always wins the prizes for his friends if he wants, which could imply that he has an incredible aim.
Wally doesn't know what a store, orchard or bakery is. He is only familiar with Howdy's Place.
He doesn't seem to know the meaning of a lot of words until someone teaches him, for example "mime", "wiggle", "clown", "vibe", or "having a crush".
He is the only character that doesn't know what a swear word is, and consequently, doesn't know any or how to use them.
He doesn't know what a fish is, and probably doesn't know about several other animals either, like a rat, koala and giraffe.
If he learned what a fish is and how to kiss, he would submerge his head underwater in a river in order to kiss the fishes.

Wally doesn't know the order of the alphabet, but knows how to spell his name.
However, he seems to understand Spanish and Portuguese.
He wouldn't know what to do with a floppy disk, television set or any tech from the 70's.
He draws by gripping his pencils tightly with a clenched fist.
Wally doesn't understand emotions, and is learning about them slowly with the help of Barnaby and the viewers. He can't feel sadness and anger.
The first time Barnaby told Wally a joke, Wally didn't laugh because he didn't know how to do so, and Barnaby had to teach him how.
Both Wally and Barnaby had hearts on their heels. Since they usually walked together, they tended to leave the ground full of footsteps with hearts wherever they go.
Wally would not get scared with horror movies, he would not jump at screams or imagery. He would even like them because there's something he would see in them. He would like horror movies like "The Little Shop of Horrors" and "Les yeux sans visage".
If Barnaby tried to play a prank on Wally by scaring him with a vuvuzela, Wally would just look at him and then put his face in the end of it to talk into it.
Wally had tried to pay Howdy with knock-knock jokes that Barnaby taught him. Wally doesn't tell these jokes correctly, however. He also takes too long to tell jokes.
He doesn't understand sarcasm.
Wally both doesn't know what love is and at the same time falls in love over and over constantly. Despite not fully understanding it, love is one of his favorite hobbies and themes.
If someone confessed their love feelings for Wally, he wouldn't know what to do or how to react, and he would just stay frozen in place.
Despite being an artist, Wally didn't know how to draw hearts, and usually needed the help of Eddie. He seems to know how to do so now without anyone's help.