The Forgotten Hungry Hungry Hippos Craze
The Forgotten Hungry Hungry Hippos Craze
1978: The Year Toy Shelves Were Swamped by the Snacking Hippo Sensation
Every time I went to visit my cousins, they would have some new toy or board game to wow me. I distinctly remember going to their house after Christmas and heading to the basement. As I descended the stairs, I heard a commotion. It was a combination of yelling, laughing, and the hammering of plastic. What I didn’t realize was that I was about to encounter Hungry Hungry Hippos for the first time.
I was familiar with the game from commercials that ran non-stop with kids’ programming, but it didn’t do the game justice. I am not talking about the physical game, which was fine, I am talking about the explosion of kid energy that each game brought out. When a new round started, it was like setting off a stampede, and each kid player seemed to unleash some inner monster that had one goal: to get that hippo to eat as many marbles as possible.
If you haven’t played it before, Hungry Hungry Hippos is a fast-paced, action-packed board game designed for 2 to 4 players. The game is set up with a large plastic playing field featuring four colorful hippo figures at each corner. Each hippo is connected to a lever, and players are assigned a specific hippo. The objective is to capture as many of the small, plastic marbles that are released into the center of the playing field as possible.
Players rapidly press the lever associated with their hippo, causing it to extend its neck towards the center and open its mouth in an attempt to "eat" the marbles. Timing and speed are crucial, as all players are simultaneously trying to capture the marbles. The game ends when all marbles have been captured, and the player whose hippo has eaten the most marbles is declared the winner.
The History of Hungry Hungry Hippos
The game got its start in Japan, but would eventually find its way to America thanks to Fred Kroll. After serving in World War II, Kroll became part of the Pressman Toy Company. He would leave them to found his own company, Fred Kroll Associates. While there, he would help to develop the now classic board game, Trouble.
Later, on a work visit to Japan in the Seventies, he discovered an exciting game that was being made by Tokyo's Agatsuma company. Instantly recognizing its appeal, Kroll obtained the global licensing rights and later passed them to Hasbro. Originally selling it under the Hasbro name, eventually switching it to Milton Bradley, they would introduce the game as Hungry Hungry Hippos, to the United States in 1978.
Released just in time for Christmas 1978, the toy was a big hit. Which was no small feat. The toy shelves in 1978 gave it some impressive competition. Other toys you could find on shelves that year include: Merlin, Simon, Alphie, Battlestar Galactica, and a little toy line called, Star Wars. This was also a big year for electronic games, with many people in newspapers citing as the dawn of an electronic age in toys.
Despite this, Hungry Hungry Hippos managed to become very popular. In a 1978 article in the Star-Telegram, department store manager Joe Thompson said about the game, “What I have heard with everyone calling, it is one of those games that no one seems to have in the area.” Hasbro had invested a good deal of money into television advertising aimed squarely at children, and it had paid off that year. Thompson continued, “I don’t think they were expecting the demand. Apparently they didn’t think it would take off as big as it did.”
It’s hard to find sales figures for the game, but you can find evidence for its popularity when browsing old newspapers. If you turn to the 'Letters to Santa' sections, that used to be very popular, you will find thousands of kids of all ages, asking for Hungry Hungry Hippos. And it doesn’t end in 1978. Demand for the game seemed to always climb around the holidays, and I found frequent mention of it well into the 1980s.
For the first few years, the game was generally priced at about ten dollars. This would drop during sales and holidays. Between 1978 and 1980, I wasn’t able to find a store selling it for less than $7 or more than $11. Adjusted for inflation, that would be between about $33 and $51 today. So not the cheapest toy out there, but a bargain compared to the electronic toys. And a real bang for your buck when I consider how much play time my friends and I got out of the game over the years.
The Hippos have names. They have been changed now, but the four hippopotamuses in the original version of the game were Happy Hippo (pink), Henry Hippo (orange), Homer Hippo (green), and Harry Hippo (yellow). My friends and I would fight over which Hippo to play. It originally started with picking your favorite color or name. However, as Homer Hippo got used frequently and his mechanism weakened, we moved onto lesser-used Hippos like Happy. It is amazing just how much abuse we heaped upon this game, and it was so well-built that it kept being playable for years.
If you had an original version of the game, you might be playing it a decade later, but even if it broke, you could get a replacement. Hungry Hungry Hippos hasn’t just endured over the years, it has thrived. From its initial popularity in the United States, it was exported around the world. While language and small design changes have been made to the game, the basic gameplay is exactly the same. A kid from 1978 could play it and not even realize that it is a different version.
From its creation in the 1970s to its continued popularity today, Hungry Hungry Hippos illustrates more than just the success of a children's game. It highlights that an innovative toy doesn’t need to change much, even in an ever-evolving toy market. The game's straightforward mechanics and the thrill of competition have kept it relevant and beloved across multiple decades. Its persistence in the face of technological advancements and changing play patterns among children underscores its unique charm. It stands as a shining example of how a simple concept can endure and thrive, capturing the hearts of successive generations.
My brother and I had one, and played it a lot. We played with friends, but also just the two of us. We did have to play it in the playroom in the basement, instead of the family room because of the noise. It was so much fun though.
My button mashing tendency with video games today began with lever mashing the hippos when I was a kid. Man, that hammering of plastic could get loud!