The story of Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear from the 2010 Disney/Pixar movie Toy Story 3.
Lotso's backstory
Getting Replaced
| “ | Yeah, I knew Lotso. He was a good toy, a friend. | „ |
| ~ Chuckles tells Woody about Lotso. |
Lotso first started out as a Christmas present for a young girl named Daisy and instantly became her favorite toy. Lotso enjoyed every moment he and his owner spent together.
Lotso finds out that he has been replaced.
One day, Daisy took Lotso and two of her other toys, a baby doll named Big Baby and a clown named Chuckles, out for a little drive with her parents and stopped in a field for some playtime. After lunch, she fell asleep and her parents took her back into the car, accidentally leaving Lotso, Big Baby, and Chuckles behind. The three toys waited for a long time, but Daisy never came back for them. Eventually, they decided to go back to Daisy on their own. They walked all the way back and finally made it back to Daisy's house. Big Baby lifted Chuckles and Lotso to the window where they saw Daisy in bed, only to discover that she had bought another Lotso toy, possibly because she and her parents had gone out to look for him but weren't successful because he had already left to go back home.
Seeing this, Lotso felt heartbroken and crestfallen, and the pain led him into an obsession with harming other toys he blames for this tragedy. He told Chuckles and Big Baby that Daisy had replaced them and forced them to leave. However, Chuckles saw through the lie and told Lotso that Daisy only replaced him because she loved him so much, but Lotso furiously shuts him up and insisted that Daisy replaced all of them before he harshly drags Big Baby away from the house. Taking advantage of the childlike toy's sweet nature, Lotso continues to lie to him for an unknown period of time while also making him his pawn/main enforcer.
Beginning His Rule
| “ | We were lost, cast off, unloved, unwanted. Then we found Sunnyside. But Lotso wasn't my friend anymore. He wasn't anyone's friend. He took over Sunnyside and rigged the whole system. | „ |
| ~ Chuckles finishing the backstory. |
Lotso walks to Sunnyside.
Lost and unwanted, the three toys hitched a ride on the rear bumper of a truck. After a long drive through the rain, the truck hit a bump and the toys fell off and landed in front of a daycare center called Sunnyside. Lotso went inside, took over the daycare, and turned it into a prison for toys. He ruled with an iron fist, having toys he considered inferior or even nadir be tortured and misused by the toddlers in the Caterpillar Room, and having them thrown out into the garbage chute when they finally got broken, while he would be played with nicely in the Butterfly Room. During his regime, he only spared toys he considered useful while luring new toys with his charisma. However, it is implied that he let toys who proved loyal to him join them.
He made Big Baby his right-hand man and recruited a doll named Ken, a rock monster named Chunk, an insect warrior named Twitch, a robot named Sparks and an octopus named Stretch to help them run Sunnyside, while Chuckles decided he wasn't going to have any part of Lotso's empire which resulted in Lotso disowning him as a friend. One day Chuckles got his side torn, but a Sunnyside student named Bonnie Anderson found him, took him home, and repaired him. Chuckles says other toys weren't so lucky, implying that Lotso had them thrown out in the trash chute-possibly to their deaths or had them beaten/tortured to death. Chuckles then told the toys that Bonnie owned about his story with Lotso, resulting in said toys becoming wary of the daycare and the bear.
Toy Story 3
Welcoming Andy's Toys
| “ | Well, hello there. I thought I heard new voices. Welcome to Sunnyside, Folks! I'm Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, but please call me Lotso. | „ |
| ~ Lotso's first lines in the film. |
Lotso is first introduced riding over to Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Bullseye, Rex, Hamm, Slinky Dog, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Barbie and The Aliens in his dump truck. He greets them in a fake friendly manner and shows them around Sunnyside with Big Baby and Ken. He assigns Andy's toys in the Caterpillar Room, knowing that the toys will be treated abusively by the toddlers.
However, Woody, thinking that his friends were being selfish by staying escapes to go back to Andy before the bell rings. He makes it outside where Chuckles' new owner Bonnie finds him and takes him. This would later drive Lotso to upgrade the security of the daycare to ensure that any other toy wouldn't escape as he did.
The Real Lotso
| “ | I think this potato needs to learn himself some manners. Take him to the box. | „ |
| ~ Lotso ordering Big Baby to place Potato Head in solitary confinement. |
The toddlers within the Caterpillar Room play very roughly with Andy's toys. During this playtime nightmare, Buzz sees Lotso and his friends being played with nicely by the kids in the Butterfly Room resulting in him realizing what was really going in.
That same night when the kids have gone home, Buzz goes to ask Lotso to transfer Andy's toys to the Butterfly Room. When Lotso comes into the library, he acts like the space ranger's capture is wrong and unties him, Buzz kindly asks Lotso to transfer him and his friends to the Butterfly Room. Lotso agrees to transfer Buzz, knowing he'll be a good addition to his gang but refuses to let his friends come. Buzz insists his friends don't belong there so Lotso tells him that "for the good of the community", he needs the toddlers to play with the newer toys. But Buzz refuses to abandon his friends saying they're a family that must stay together. However, Lotso now angry still thinks Buzz is too useful to give up and orders Big Baby to hold Buzz down. The Bookworm then gives him a Buzz Lightyear action figure manual, which he uses to reset Buzz to his demo mode. This makes Buzz think he is a real space ranger again (he originally believed so in the first Toy Story movie as well as Utility Belt Buzz from Toy Story 2) and Lotso has Buzz believe that his friends are minions of his arch-enemy The Evil Emperor Zurg.
Lotso and his gang then return to the Caterpillar room where Jessie and the others tell him they're leaving (not being clear whether it was just to leave the Caterpillar Room or Sunnyside) but Lotso tells them they just arrived showing no sympathy on what the kids did to them. When Mrs. Potato Head complains to him about her ruined purse, Lotso insults her and removes her mouth. Jessie tells her friends they're going home but Lotso tells them they're not going anywhere. At that moment, Buzz enters and attacks his friends. Lotso, Buzz, and the rest of the gang then imprison the toys inside basket cells, while Big Baby puts Mr. Potato Head in "The Box." Lotso then has Buzz explain some of the camp rules to the toys. Along with informing them the luxury from the Butterfly Room isn't free & that they need to earn it. In order to ensure that Andy's toys will obey his many other rules, Lotso gives them a warning and tosses them Woody's hat (which he left behind in his escape) making them believe Lotso killed Woody. Lotso then says goodnight to Andy's toys while he and his henchmen return to the Butterfly room, leaving Buzz behind to ensure that they don't escape.
Meanwhile, at Bonnie's house, Chuckles and the rest of Bonnie's toys tell Woody about how Lotso really runs Sunnyside and why he does it. The following morning at Sunnyside, Lotso and his gang return to the Caterpillar Room, where they retrieve Buzz and return Mr. Potato Head. Lotso then tells Andy's toys they have a destiny while he and his friends return to the butterfly room. At the same time, Woody seeks back into Sunnyside in Bonnie's backpack to save his friends.
Foiling An Escape
| “ | What? You want your Mommy back? She never loved you! DON'T BE SUCH A BABY! | „ |
| ~ Lotso mentally abusing Big Baby. |
Woody meets a Chatter Telephone toy who tells him he shouldn't have come back because escape is virtually impossible and that in order to escape Sunnyside, he must defeat the Monkey who controls the security cameras and then travel across the playground to the garbage chute. He then finds his friends, who are thrilled to see him alive and well and give him back his hat, they make a plan to escape Sunnyside and get Buzz back on their side.
During the escape at night, after Woody and Slinky defeat the monkey, Mr. Potato Head checks if Lotso is sleeping, and surely enough, he is. Potato Head sees Woody, Barbie, and Slinky with Buzz's manual and signals to them that Lotso is sound asleep. The toys then arrive at the garbage chute and slide down it only to find the evil Lotso and his gang waiting for them at the dumpster and blocking their path, with Stretch appearing behind them. It is also revealed that they tortured the Chatter Telephone toy until he told them where they were. Lotso tells them that Andy doesn't want them anymore however Woody tells him that's a lie. Lotso then tells Woody that he's a piece of plastic that was only made to be thrown away.
At that moment, Lotso hears and sees a garbage truck approaching and asks Andy's toys to come back into Sunnyside, but Jessie angrily states that Sunnyside isn't a family but a camp and criticizes Lotso for running it like such, calling him a liar and a bully and saying that she would rather rot in the dumpster than join any family Lotso runs, followed by Barbie agreeing with her. Lotso signals Stretch to push the toys into the dumpster when Ken arrives and begs Lotso to spare Barbie. Lotso teases Ken for loving Barbie, telling him there are "hundred million Barbie dolls like her", but Ken disagrees with him. Angered by Ken's redemption, Lotso throws him across the dumpster to Andy's toys so he can join her. Ken then explains that what Lotso has done to Sunnyside is terrible and that he was lying to them the entire time. Lotso then asks his cohorts if anyone agrees with Ken.
Lotso breaks down after the toys learned about his past.
When nobody answers, Lotso tells Andy's toys that no kid has ever loved a toy when Woody suddenly reminds Lotso of his old life with Daisy. However, as Lotso tries to ignore him, the two get into a heated argument. Woody points out how since Lotso was replaced, he believed that no one could have Daisy, and his twisted worldview is his way of compensating. He tells Lotso how she loved him and tosses the pendant to Big Baby, who picks it up, looks at it and sniffles. Outraged at how Big Baby is still emotionally attached to Daisy, Lotso yells at Big Baby, saying she never loved him, then snatches the pendant out of his hands and smashes it to pieces with his cane, making Big Baby cry. Lotso then orders a now reluctant Stretch to push all the toys into the dumpster, pokes Big Baby hard in the chest with his cane, calls all his henchmen dummies, much to the shock and disgust of the other Sunnyside toys, who finally realize that Lotso has been abusing them, and finally proclaims his true thoughts: that all toys are trash waiting to be thrown away. Suddenly, Big Baby lifts Lotso up and carries him over to the dumpster. He throws the wicked bear into the dumpster and slams the lid on him as revenge for taking him away from Daisy, much to everybody's surprise.
Woody and the gang quickly run across the closed dumpster, when one of the Aliens gets stuck by the dumpster's lid. Woody rushes back to free the alien by slightly opening the lid. But Lotso catches sight of Woody through the opening, grabs the cowboy's ankle and pulls him into the dumpster. Woody's friends rush to save him just as the garbage truck arrives and pour the garbage and the toys into the truck.
The Bear's Trickery
| “ | Sheriff! The button! HELP ME! | „ |
| ~ Lotso calling out to Woody and informing him about the button as he is hanging on the lower lung before he tricks the toys. |
The truck takes Lotso and Andy's toys to the Tri-County Landfill. Once they arrive, the aliens go chasing a giant crane while Lotso and the rest of Andy's toys are pushed onto a conveyor belt. The toys learn that the ceiling above them is a magnet collecting broken metal objects when Slinky goes up towards it thanks to his metal spring body. When Slinky warns them of the convey belt heading to a shredder, the toys each grab onto a broken metal object and hold on to it while it shoots up to the ceiling, seeing the broken metal objects will go right over the shredder. The toys suddenly see Lotso trapped under a golf bag that is going to the shredder.
Woody, who does not have the courage to let Lotso die (despite all the trouble Lotso had put Andy's toys through), quickly drops down to save Lotso. Buzz, seeing the danger Woody has put himself in (and also feeling that Lotso deserved better despite what he did to him), drops down to help him free Lotso. Woody and Buzz pull out one of the golf clubs in the bag and use to pry the bag up enough so Lotso can crawl out. Woody then grabs Lotso's paw and the club pulls both of them and Buzz up to the ceiling, seconds before the shredders chew up the golf bag. They then go over the shredder and lead beside Jessie and the others on another conveyor belt.
Lotso leaves Woody and his friends to die in the incinerator.
After Rex points out a light at the end of the conveyor belt, Woody realizes that the conveyor belt is leading them to an incinerator. The toys try to run away from the incinerator, but the conveyor belt pushes them closer and closer to it. Lotso then notices a ladder leading to a red button that could stop the conveyor belt and rushes over to it. He grabs the lower lung and calls to Woody, informing him about the button. Woody and Buzz see what Lotso is trying to do and rush over and give him a boost. Afterward, Lotso climbs up towards the ladder. When he reaches the top, Woody and Buzz then order him to push the button, but Lotso, out of rage for Woody mentioning Daisy and himself revealing that he tricked them into thinking he reformed, decides not to. He then gives the helpless toys a menacing grin, mockingly shouts a final insult directed at Woody ("Where's your kid now, Sheriff!?"), and runs off, leaving the toys to die in the incinerator and ensuring that they can never return to their owner.
However, the toys are saved by the aliens with the giant crane at the last moment. After the toys emerge out of the furnace, Hamm and Slinky express their desire to get back at Lotso for leaving them to be killed, but Woody convinces them to forget it, believing the bear is not worth it and that the dump is the right place for him. It's at this point where any pity they felt towards Lotso disappeared.
Receiving His Comeuppance
| “ | I had me one of these when I was a kid! [smells Lotso] Strawberries. | „ |
| ~ The garbage man comments on Lotso's scent. |
Meanwhile, Lotso (who is unaware that Andy's toys are still alive) tries to find his way out of the dump and back to Sunnyside, when he sees a garbage truck pulling up toward him, forcing him to go limp. As the truck stops next to him, a garbage man steps out and discovers him on the ground, claiming how he has once owned a Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear toy when he was a kid. The man then straps Lotso onto his truck.
Lotso's well-deserved defeat.
The scene then cuts to Lotso tied to the garbage man's truck's front grill by his wrists and ankles with three other toys he had collected earlier, a frog, a cat, and a white furry creature. Lotso panics as he wakes up to find himself in that predicament, then the frog warns Lotso that he should keep his mouth shut to prevent mud and insects from getting in, and Lotso does so right away, ending with the other toys laughing at him as the truck drives off and takes them away. There is a possibility that Lotso saw how Woody and his friends survived and made him realize that his final plot has ended in failure as he is being driven away but knew he couldn't do anything about it. Another possibility is that he most likely remains strapped to the truck like the other toys and he may spend the rest of his life covered by dust, dirt, mud, insects and/or thrown away into the incinerator for having become too dirty; a fate he more than deserves because of his heinous crimes.
With Lotso banned from Sunnyside, Andy's toys return to Andy, but later have themselves given to Bonnie while Ken and Barbie become Sunnyside's new rulers and make it a paradise for toys where everyone gets a fair share of all the locations, thus ending Lotso's reign of terror, enslavement on toys and psychological abuse once and for all.
Lamp Life
After Woody reunites with Bo Peep in Toy Story 4, at the beginning of the short film Lamp Life, he tells her about everything & his entire story back at Toy Story 3. So it's likely that Woody told Bo about Lotso.