Mr. Potato Head - Flashback Friday
Once when I was around eight, my mother and I were visiting my grandfather in the town where she grew up. The town of Grandview, IN was no more than 500 people, and there wasn't, as you can imagine, much to do. (As a side note, when we would come visit, it would appear in the country paper that we were in town- weird huh?) So to keep me entertained, my mom decided to go into the attic and get her old toys down. Among the Madame Alexander dolls, and other small toys, there was a box that said Mr. Potato Head. I opened the box to find lots of eyes, ears, and silly hats, but no body. Imagine my shock when my mom told me you had to use an actual potato for the body. For some reason, to me, this was horrifying. I quickly put the box away. Here's a classic commercial from the 60's. I think you'll understand my horror after you watch it.
Well, Mr. Potato, you have come a long way, spud!
Now we have potato/movie tie-ins, a whole line of Star Wars Spuds, and even an Easter Potato.
Here are just a few of the many "heads" you can play with:
In Sports we have the New York Yankees Spud and the Dallas Cowboys Spud just to name a few:
In Star Wars some of the stand outs are Darth Tater, Darth Mash-Maul and Artoo-Potatoo:
I also love the Transformers tie-in, Opti-Mash Prime:
And who could forget the holidays? We have Santa and Easter boy and girl potatoes too:
And just in case you need to keep it real with your potato fun, here's the classic Mr. Potato Head in all his glory:
Have a great weekend!
--Laura McMullan
Carrie on February 27, 2009 at 01:22 PM
That's hilarious! I've heard that about the original potato head. Although.. it would be more "green" wouldn't it? :)
Laura on February 27, 2009 at 03:27 PM
Carrie- You are so right! Maybe they should "Green" Mr. Potato head by going old school and making you use your own spud!
Jim on March 01, 2009 at 12:27 PM
Sorry, no horror here, just unmixed nostalgia. As far as I'm concerned, using a real potato (or carrot or turnip or rutabaga -- beets were too tough) was the whole point. Haven't cared for 'em since they switched to plastic spuds. (And speaking of nostalgia, how about those "one- and two-dollar sizes"?)
John S. on March 01, 2009 at 01:44 PM
What's so horrible? A real potato is sure a lot more environmentally friendly than the hunk of plastic they give you nowadays. Come to think of it, they probably had to start including the plastic spud because kids in the 60s and 70s were less and less likely to encounter real vegetables in their homes -- just frozen TV dinners and other space-age delights.
Adjoran on March 01, 2009 at 04:08 PM
That looks like one of the first commercials from the early early '60s.
The reasons they started including the plastic potato body were (1) real potatoes sprout eyes and eventually rot (all the quicker for having been pierced by various appendages) - especially disgusting if left in the toy box or under the bed, and (2) parents rightly considered the toy something of a scam, giving them what at the time was less than a quarter's worth of plastic pieces and making them supply the potatoes for the kids (see also #1).
We were much easier to entertain in those days. Besides Mr. Potato Head, simple toys like "Wheelo" (a wheel with a magnetic axle which rolled up and down a 10" steel wire frame as you moved the frame) and "Slinky" (the still-familiar wire coil which could stretch out and collapse back - wow!), both of which operated with mainly gravity as a power source. A cheap cardboard and plastic kaleidoscope would keep us busy all afternoon.
Nowadays all toys have to "interactive." Not in my day! You wanted interaction, you had to go out and make "friends."
Hard times, my friends, hard times.
Anachronda on March 01, 2009 at 04:14 PM
In the late '60s I was in a commercial for a Potato Bug toy similar to Mr. Potato Head, only with bug parts (legs, feelers, and eyes) instead of person parts. I was under the impression that it was made by the Potato Head people (the shoot also involved a Mr. Potato Head commercial; I was not in that one), but I sure can't find any reference to it on the net. Either my google-fu is too poor or my commercial acting abilities were poor enough to doom the product.
This was in Munich. I was paid 100 Deutsche Marks, which my mom squirrelled away and used to buy us shoes. I was very disappointed.
Kevin on March 02, 2009 at 06:00 AM
Starving children in China and we're repurposing potatoes as toys?? I say this was the beginning of conspicuous consumpion!
A. on March 02, 2009 at 07:27 AM
hilarious!!! you had to use an actual potato. Thanks for the blog. I love to be amused.
jeux xbox on September 28, 2009 at 11:53 PM
What memories! Of course being born in 64', by that time they had a smaller version Tater Head and Carrot Head that I used with my Mr. Potatohead parts. stll have the parts, just no heads! 8-(