Rico is the head of demolition and storage for the penguins. He has feathers resembling a Mohawk on his head and a scar across the left side of his beak, but it is unknown how he got it, since he didn't have it in the first three Madagascar movies. It is shown in A Christmas Caper, which (presumably) took place before the movies, but does not appear in the movies at all.

Rico holds a variety of items in his gut, which is a virtual 'hammerspace' as many of those items are bigger than him. While inside his digestive system, Mort finds a spiral staircase and an elevator. In The Big S.T.A.N.K. he choked up an air-to-ground missile and launching platform. In The Red Squirrel it was ringing payphone.

Unlike the other Penguins, Rico usually makes grunting noises rather than speaking actual words (though his speech has improved steadily since Season 2). Rico also cries very much like an infant.(as seen on Smotherly Love, What Goes Around & More.

CharacterEdit

Rico isn't too bright - while he never performs actual actions of stupidity, he is much more comfortable taking orders and being the muscle of the team, often used as a threat by Skipper in interrogations. According to Skipper, he never disobeyed an order, not even the time he told him to suck the cobra venom out of his left buttock. He has a psychotic love for violence and destruction, looking on to such scenes - whether programs or real life - with a vacant expression of amusement. He also thinks about fish a lot.

Generally referred to by Skipper as a world-class psychopath, Rico has an appetite for destruction that has an unfortunate tendency to cause as much trouble as Kowalski's mad inventions. The penguins have to keep him tightly reigned in, only using explosives when necessary, or he goes completely wild, as was shown in Kaboom and Kabust, when he, without control of other penguins, completely destroyed Lemur Habitat. In Roger Dodger, Roger switches personalities with Rico and we see Rico's full capabilities as a 2000lb alligator. Also, Kowalski once got some of his personality messed up with Rico's in Sting Operation, mentioning how horrible it is, and asked Rico how he could stand it, to which Rico just shrugged.

Although Rico is said to have little tolerance for mushy stuff, he displays the full range of emotions, often the first to break into tears, and after Private, could in fact be the second most emotional penguin on the team. He is never given any rank but seems to be classed as higher ranking than Private, but lower ranking than Skipper or Kowalski. As the weapons maintainance and storage guy, it is possible (but unconfirmed) that he holds an approximate rank of the many variations of Sergeant.

Rico has also been shown to have many different skills. One, being able to hack up anything on command (and also things he didn't intend). Two, he is able to carve ice, and quite impressively. Like in A Christmas Caper (Carved a christmas tree), and Byte Sized (Carved a chainsaw). He is also seen as a weapons juggler, as seen in Rodger Dodger.

Rico has numerous moments that suggest an ambiguous sexuality. In Tagged he grins encouragingly when Skipper has to 'groom' him, and even puckers up his beak - Skipper hastily slaps him away. He also shows attraction to Kowalski after Kowalski blasts penguin mating calls at the lemurs in Operation Break-Speare as well when he raised his 'eyebrows' up and down suggestively at him in the Falcon and The Snow Job. On the other hand, Rico also has a female doll, Miss Perky, which he seems to love very much.

Taken from IMDBEdit

Rico is the designated weapons and combat specialist of the Penguin Commandos. He cares and loves violence and can regurgitate anything on command. He can come up with anything! A payphone? A TNT stick for definate! He loves bombs and his most common catch phrase is "KABOOM? KABOOM? KABOOM?" He can`t talk well. He also loves his little plastic barbie doll named Ms.Perky. In Marble Jarhead, King Jullien stealls her and brings her to"Glamertomia".

Taken from NICKEdit

Rico is the ultimate loose cannon and has (literally) internalized his role as demolitions expert. He has an entire munitions department in his gut and the remarkable ability to "retrieve" on demand the appropriate bomb or any number of useful items. Can opener? Fishing poll? 10,000 ball bearings? Bass guitar? Got it.

Madagascar moviesEdit

Rico has very minor moments in the movies. In the first movie, he was mentioned when the penguins attempt to break out of the zoo by snagging a plastic spoon from a little boy. Also, when all the escaped zoo animals are being transferred to Kenya, Rico regurgitates a paper clip in order to help the penguins get to the bridge so they could redirect the ship to Antarctica. In the second movie he regurgitates a switchblade. In both movies he is shown without a mohawk or scar. In the third movie he, as well as the other penguins, closer reflects his spin-off personality, and is seen repeatedly filling up a cannon up with dynamite, and repeatedly chokes up matches.

The Penguins of Madagascar TV SeriesEdit

In the episode "All Choked Up", Skipper has Rico keep an activated time bomb in his belly for later, in order to destroy a robotic tour guide. Alice notices that Rico is constantly regurgitating and has him take a special medicine that prevents him from throwing up. The penguins try to get the bomb out within the time it will take to explode, but every attempt, including the horrible Number 12, and stuffing Mort down Rico's throat, fails. Skipper, Kowalski, and Private say their goodbyes, and their farewells are so heartfelt, Rico begins to gag because of the "mushiness". Combined with the Number 12 substance and the medicine wearing off, he finally hacks up the bomb (and Mort), and it explodes on the tour guide.

Rico's fortune cookie in the episode Misfortune Cookie says "You will soon meet a foul end." While Rico and the penguins do not believe in curses, Julien tries to make them believe by tricking Rico into believing that he is cursed to the point where Rico hides in a small pillow fortress. Skipper then confronts Julien and they agree to make Rico think that he is not cursed by going through with an ancient lemur ceremony. After a duck lands on Rico's face on the way back from the ritual, Private reveals the meaning of the fortune: the duck's bottom is a fowl end.

When all attempts to get Roger to toughen up fail in Roger Dodger, Kowalski switches his and Rico's minds. Unfortunately he fails to take into account the warm blood, cold blood differentials and their physiologies, which results in Rico's aggression levels increasing greatly, and after he has dealt with the Rats, he goes on a rampage all over New York. The penguins eventually find him and Roger (in Rico's body) sings a lullaby to pacify him like he did earlier in the episode. After they swap back, Roger helps the penguins sing another song. Rico, at first, can't stand how "lovey-dovey" the song is, but soon starts to sing along.

In the episode "Herring Impaired", it is revealed that Rico's obsession for fish originated from him catching a rare brain desease called Bacterial Pisces Dementia, which can only be cured by not eating any fish for a whole day. When the other three penguins catch this desease from eating very old herring, Rico must prevent them from eating any fish for the whole day. When he succeeds in doing this, the other penguins go back to normal and award him a smoked Alaskan salmon. It should be noted that he may have some self control of this, most of the time. Rico is sometimes the most inconsiderate team-member at times e.g. Marble Jarhead whereas he is a very caring and considerate team-player as portrayed in some other episodes.