The reason computers run on binary code is because they run on electricity: either a switch is on or it's off, no in-between. It's either A or B, 1 or 0, left or right. It was this simplicity that led programmer Warren Davis, working for pinball machine manufacturer Gottlieb, to create Q*Bert. He envisioned a ball bouncing down steps on a pyramid; every time it landed, it would only have the option to go one of two directions from there, making programming it pretty easy; with each "decision" the ball needing to make only requiring one bit, its entire path could be determined by just one byte, making for a simple, low-memory simulation of randomness and gravity. But the challenge then was to make it a game and not just a programming exercise.
The characters and other graphics were created by Jeff Lee, 
with Q*bert himself actually pre-dating the rest of the game. See, although Gottlieb was a pinball company, they recognized the growing appeal of videogames, and so were looking to get in on the new trend; Lee had designed several characters with the thought that they might be used in one of these theoretical future games, so Davis had plenty to pick from. He chose the orange one with the big nose, thinking it "looked kind of helpless." The original idea for the character was that he'd shoot projectiles out of his nose (possibly in game to be called "Snots and Boogers"), something Davis resisted; it was VP of Engineering Ron Waxman who finally suggested the "change the color of the blocks" game mechanic.
Q*bert is, iconically, a large sphere with feet, so that's what this Mystery Mini delivers. He's a little more than 2⅝" tall, witha pair of three-toed feet on the end of spindly legs sticking out from his underside. The knees are bent slightly, which makes sense for a character who jumps everywhere. His tubular nose sticks out and curves down slightly, and there are sculpted eyebrow ridges over his painted eyes. The eyes are black with white highlight dots in them, and the interior of his nose is painted dark to suggest shadow.
