Background & Identification
Mr. Potato Head was invented by George Lerner in 1949, then manufactured and distributed by Hasbro in 1952. In the beginning, he was just a collection of push-pin eyes, ears, nose and lips, for kids to attach to real fruits and vegetables. The Mr. Potato Head television commercial was the first ever for a toy. In 1964, responding to parents complaining about rotting potatoes, the tubers got plastic torsos, which doubled in size 10 years later. Along the way, they collected a lot more accessories.
“These days, Mr. Potato Head has 365 parts currently in production… allowing for more than 500 billion septillion possible configurations.”
– Playskool (Hasbro) Senior Vice president Jerry Perez
Already a celebrity, the play time tater starred in Toy Story in 1995 and Toy Story 2 in 1998. From toy stories to franchise hopping, the vegetable head does it all. At 7 inches tall, Mr. Potato Head demonstrates the unique ability to separate his body parts from his plastic body. He has:
- eyes,
- pink ears,
- white arms with gloves,
- two pairs of blue shoes (one extra),
- a red mouth,
- an orange nose,
- black eyebrows,
- a black mustache,
- a black bowler hat and,
- a pair of angry eyes.
WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD—Small Parts. Not for children under 3 years.
If you have a carb-loving cat at home, you can store the parts inside of the potato head for safe keeping.