The original light blue and still used Happy Hippo characters were created by the French designer André Roche for Ferrero chocolates in 1987 and became famous worldwide mostly through their repeated appearances in the "Kinder Surprise" chocolate egg, one of them 2002 in an authorized parody (named "Hipperium") of the George Lucas' "Star Wars"-trilogy, 2009 in a Europewide campaign presenting a casting contest under the name "Happy Hippo Talent Show".
The toys are designed by both inside designers and external freelancers (for example the French artist André Roche based in Munich) and manufactured by many companies worldwide, such as Produzioni Editoriali Aprile, a small company based in Turin, Italy, run and founded by two brothers, Ruggero and Valerio Aprile.
It has been drawn alternately by the Studio Ortega (Barcelona) and the Atelier Roche (Munich), which also realized from 1976 amounts of illustrations for books and diverse merchandising items.
André Previn | André Breton | Andre Agassi | André Malraux | André Derain | Kevin Roche | Roche | Victor André Cornil | Carl Andre | Andre Ward | Fabrizio De André | André the Giant | André Heller | André Gide | André-Gaston Prételat | André | Andre Norton | André Masséna | André Guignard | André Franquin | Andre Begemann | Peter Andre | Andre Williams | Andre Ware | André Leon Talley | André Le Nôtre | André Glucksmann | André Charlot | Philip Roche | Henri-Pierre Roché |