From left to right: Louie-Bloo Raspberry, Strawberry Short Kook, and Sir Isaac Lime.
In 1970, during a bid to attempt to compete with Jel Sert's Fla-Vor-Ice brand of freeze pops, lesser-known company National Pax decided to take their own stab at releasing the product. With six mascots, and "six zippy flavors", Otter Pops were created.
Otter Pops consisted of six original flavors, each attached to a character named for that flavor: Strawberry Short Kook, Louie-Bloo Raspberry, Little Orphan Orange, Sir Isaac Lime, Alexander the Grape, and Rip Van Lemon. In the late 70s, Rip Van Lemon would be retired, being replaced by the now-permanent character Poncho Punch.
In 2003, with an overhaul of the website, the "Otter Popstars" were created. Not only were the character designs refreshed, but the characters were also given a band, with three full songs: "Save the Day" (which received a music video), "Place in My Heart", and "Viva Amore".
In 2018, four new characters were introduced to the Otter Pops family. To represent the Tropical flavors (which originally used images of the existing characters, despite different flavors), the characters Major Mango, Anita Fruit Punch, DJ Tropicool, and Cosmic Coconut was introduced. This change also saw the gender balance of the characters become completely even.
The Otter Pops brand was bought by Jel Sert, its competitor, in 1996. The year before this saw a petition and protest against the brand for attempting to replace Sir Isaac Lime with Scarlett O'Cherry, a character that existed in the short-lived "Otter-Ade" drink mix spin off. The petition proved successful, and Sir Isaac Lime remains a character, and a flavor, to this day.
The Otter Pops brand contains examples of:
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal:
- Sir Isaac Lime has the least amount of accessories of the characters, wearing only a pair of glasses.
- Scarlett O'Cherry only wore a hairbow and sash belt.
- Animal Facial Hair: Sir Isaac Lime, Louie-Bloo Raspberry, and Rip Van Lemon all have facial hair. The former two have a mustache, while the latter has a beard. The other male otters have standard animal whiskers, something the girls lack. Poncho Punch was briefly given a mustache and goatee in 2003, though later switched back to having whiskers.
- Animal Lover: Little Orphan Orange is a kind-hearted animal lover, who wants to help all of the animals in some way.
- Animated Music Video: "Save the Day"
, the only of the three Otter Popstars songs to get a music video. - Artsy Beret: Louie-Bloo Raspberry wears a beret, both to combine his French design and his artistic endeavors together.
- The Baby of the Bunch:
- Little Orphan Orange is the smallest and youngest of the Otters, with boundless youthful curiosity given to her in personality.
- Downplayed with Cosmic Coconut. She's still a tweenager, so she still has much to learn, but she's also older than Little Orphan Orange.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Anita Fruit Punch wears a rash guard top, beach shorts, and a sun visor, but no shoes.
- Brand Name Takeover: The term "otter pops" has slipped into lexicon to become synonymous with the term "freezer pops" in general.
- Character Catchphrase:
- Anita Fruit Punch has the rousing sports call of "Anita fruit punch and I need it now!"
- Cosmic Coconut's is "Why not?", fitting her curious nature.
- Color-Coded Characters: Each of the otters are associated with a color. Some characters share elements of the same colors, but utilize them differently, or multiple at once.
- Strawberry Short Kook: Red.
- Louie-Bloo Raspberry: Blue.
- Alexander the Grape: Purple.
- Little Orphan Orange: Orange.
- Sir Isaac Lime: Green.
- Poncho Punch: Pink.
- Major Mango: Mango and Army Green.
- Anita Fruit Punch: Cyan.
- DJ Tropicool: Yellow and Purple.
- Cosmic Coconut: White and Orange.
- Rip Van Lemon: Yellow.
- Scarlett O'Cherry: Red, Light Yellow, and Powder Blue.
- Ditzy Genius: Sir Isaac Lime is a brilliant scientist, but still misplaces his keys on the regular.
- Failures on Ice: As seen in a 70s commercial for the brand, none of the Otters are graceful in ice skating.
- Fake Band: The Otter Popstars, a band consisting of the main six mascots. Despite being a fictional band, three songs have been released by them.
- Flowers of Nature: The flower that Cosmic Coconut wears behind her ear isn't just an accessory. She keeps it there in preparation for her space journey, where she hopes to find a planet with water and cultivate it through space.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: A few of the characters are fully dressed in outfits:
- Alexander the Grape wears a toga, laurel crown, and sandals.
- Poncho Punch wears a poncho, shorts, a sombrero, and either cowboy boots or foot wrappings, depending on his iteration.
- Major Mango wears a full military outfit, including a cap and boots.
- Cosmic Coconut wears a full spacesuit with boots, a flower on her ear, and earrings.
- Gamer Chick: One of the reasons Major Mango is a kid-favorite is because she's a well-regarded e-sports champion with her own gaming channel.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: With the addition of the Tropical characters, the group has an equal five male and five female characters. The two scrapped characters also feature an even number, with one scrapped male and one scrapped female character.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: A few of the characters are only given partial outfits.
- Strawberry Short Kook only wears a skirt, hairbow, and heels.
- Little Orphan Orange only wears a skirt and hairbow.
- Louie-Bloo Raspberry only wears a shirt and beret.
- DJ Tropicool only wears a shirt, baseball cap, sneakers, and headphones.
- Heavy Sleeper: Rip Van Lemon, fitting of the reference in his name. Even being caught up in a bungled up barrel jump does nothing to wake him.
- Iconic Item: Almost every character is associated with an item. The exceptions are Little Orphan Orange, who is associated with her dog, Melon Collie, instead, and Rip Van Lemon and Major Mango, who have no special items.
- Strawberry Short Kook has her apple crate.
- Louie-Bloo Raspberry is associated with a flower he holds.
- Poncho Punch is associated with his guitar.
- Alexander the Grape is associated with his laurel wreath.
- Sir Isaac Lime is associated with his telescope.
- DJ Tropicool is associated with his headphones.
- Anita Fruit Punch is associated with her volleyball.
- Cosmic Coconut is associated with her space helmet and flag.
- Scarlett O'Cherry is associated with her parasol.
- One Degree of Separation: All of the characters are connected to each other in various ways. Be it Strawberry Short Kook having Louie-Bloo Raspberry as the chef during her dinner parties to Sir Isaac Lime being Cosmic Coconut's science idol, each character has various connections in the friend group that helps flesh out their personality.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Anita Fruit Punch is a pro volleyball player that believe in practice and good sportsmanship (and the power of scrunchies).
- Perpetual Frowner: Downplayed. Little Orphan Orange always looks like she's frowning, but that's just how she smiles. She has the tendency to also crack genuine smiles as well at rare times.
- The Runt at the End: Little Orphan Orange is the physically smallest of the characters, made the most obvious during character lineups.
- Scully Box: Invoked by Strawberry Short Kook. Being a movie mogul, while also being short, she has an apple crate as her Iconic Item, both in reference to her directorial and acting motivations, and to cover up her short height.
- Smart People Speak the Queen's English: Sir Isaac Lime is a genius scientist, with the British accent to prove it.
- Triangles Are the Worst Instrument: Through the "Otter Popstars" era of the brand, Alexander the Grape was assigned the triangle as his instrument in the band. During the "Save the Day" music video, he is constantly prevented from playing a single note through the entire song. He gets the last laugh, and the last note, at the end, though.
- Two Girls to a Team: The original lineup had Strawberry Short Kook and Little Orphan Orange as the only two girls in the group, before the addition of the Tropical ones.
- You Don't Look Like You: The 2003 iteration of Poncho Punch radically changed his design from the classic one. He was made taller, given a black outfit, cowboy boots replaced his foot wrappings, he was given a mustache and goatee instead of his whiskers, and he was also colored red, instead of his coral pink color. He would return to his original look with the 2018 overhaul.
- Youthful Freckles: Cosmic Coconut has her face dotted with freckles, which helps her look young and represents her curious personality.
