Tiptup is a recurring NPC character in the Banjo-Kazooie series that, along with Banjo, also made his debut in Diddy Kong Racing in 1997. However, Tiptup was originally the name of a turtle in Dream: Land of Giants, the game that would eventually morph into Banjo-Kazooie. Halfway through the development of BK, the development team behind Diddy Kong Racing (or Pro-Am 64 as it was called before Diddy Kong was included later on) were in need of names for their racers, one of which happened to be a turtle, and thus it was given the Tiptup name. Tiptup was then incorporated into future Rare games like Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.

Before Rare decided to use Banjo to replace the character Edison (the main character of the canceled Project Dream project that would later become Banjo-Kazooie), they wanted the main character to be a rabbit.

In Banjo-Tooie at Jolly Roger's Tavern, you can find a man by the name of Captain Blackeye. He repeatedly states "Once, I had a dream..." and tells of a bear who stole his glory. This is a reference to Project Dream, the first version of Banjo-Kazooie. He was meant to be the main antagonist of the game.

Banjo-Kazooie started development on the SNES and was titled "Project Dream" or "Dream: Land of Giants". The game was going to be an RPG, and the main character would have been a young man named Edison who had caused trouble with a group of pirates lead by a man named Captain Blackeye.