Hungry, Hungry Hippos

Hungry, Hungry Hippos is a classic toy that everyone knows and likely has played. Produced by Hasbro under the Milton Bradley subsidiary, it was originally published in 1967 by toy inventor Fred Kroll, before being released in 1978. Why it took a decade between those two moments is beyond me. There's not much to say about how it's played; it's fairly straightforward as it's a marble collecting game between 2-4 players, and whoever eats the most marbles with their hippo by the end is the winner. Simple enough, really.

Like Rock-Em-Sock-Em Robots, it is another toy that falls into the grey area of "toy or board game", because it's technically made for multiple players, and it technically sits on a board of sorts, but it doesn't abide by traditional board game rules, and thusly I think it falls more in line with the toy categorization, but that's just me, personally. And, also like Rock-Em-Sock-Em Robots, it's garishly colored like a childs crayon drawing because if it isn't bright and obnoxious, it won't catch the attention of the dumb kids they're marketing it towards, apparently.

There was, apparently, talks of a feature film based on the toy in 2012, with production slated to begin in 2016. As of this post, I don't think anything has yet come of it. And really, thank goodness, because what kind of goofy ridiculous garbage would that be?

Watch me say this, and then the movie comes out and wins an Oscar for best animated feature. I'll eat my own foot if that happens.

Despite me just saying the colors are garish, they sort of have to be, because to be anything otherwise would be easily ignored. This paint job at least makes it stick out, and thus makes it more memorable. But I have to admit, this is one of those toys that definitely doesn't really hold up as an adult. While a lot of the toys I've covered, or will cover, I would still happily engage with today as a 31 year old woman, this is one that I don't really - and never really to be fair - held much affinity for. We never even owned a copy of this toy when I was a little girl, so mayhaps my lack of nostalgia has something to do with that, but that doesn't mean I don't respect its placement in the canon of toy culture.

I do appreciate, however, that on Wikipedia, where it states "skills required", it just lists "Dexterity", which I find absolutely hilarious. Such a basic skill for a kids toy.

It's a well designed toy, for sure. There's no qualms about that. The design of the thing probably makes for some lively play for little kids, all rushing to pound their hippos as quickly as possible and eat as many marbles as possible. I can certainly see why it has endured the test of time. But the coolest part honestly of Hungry, Hungry Hippos is that, once again, like Rock-Em-Sock-Em-Robots, it also got an arcade version.

In 1991, a company called ICE which stands for Innovative Concepts in Entertainment (a more literal acronym I can't even fathom ever having heard) created an arcade edition in which the amount of marbles consumed was displayed at the top of the dome enclosure for each player. The more marbles you consumed, the more tickets you were given. This is totally a toy that works in an arcade setting, and I think that's totally awesome.

It's got great visuals on the side, great colors all around, and it's based on pre-existing IP so you know it'll draw interest from literally anyone who might be even remotely familiar with the toy which is probably literally anyone. I have no idea how long these were around for, if they're still around or where they were mostly placed, but I think the idea is awesome and quite frankly an idea that others toys should attempt to implement for their own longevity. You need to adapt to new mediums for further success and continued relevancy in society. Imagine a public Twister. That would be wild.

So yeah, there's not a whole lot about the toy that I can really say, and there's not a whole lot of interesting or pertinent information out there, sad to say. But it's still a toy that warrants being covered if nothing more than because of its iconic place in the pop culture canon. Despite not being a huge fan of the toy, despite not even really playing with it a whole lot throughout my life, I still give it mad props for taking something so enormously simplistic and making it something everyone knows at a glance. That's not an easy feat to accomplish.

Kroll, who also brought the board game Trouble to the world, died at the age of 82 from a long bout of cancer in a hospital, where - despite his oncoming demise - he tried to figure out how to fix the elevators. If nothing else, the man gave us two absolutely iconic pieces of entertainment, and that's 2 more than most people leave in a lifetime, so I'd say that was a life worth having lived.

Perhaps I'll eat a Hippo in his honor.

I kid, I kid. I wouldn't eat a Hippo.

They probably don't taste very good.