Mr. Potato Head Toys from the 1950’s
Mr. Potato Head was born in 1952! He met and married Mrs. Potato Head in 1953 and they promptly had a Baby Potato Head. In the beginning, you had to supply your own potato (or other vegetable). The sets included bodies without heads, shoes, arm, eyes, noses, ears, hats, felt eyebrows, mustaches and eyelashes, and real hair for Mrs. Potato Head!
Hasbro claims that Mr. Potato Head was the first children’s toy ever to be advertised on TV! Mattel says that one of their toys, a Mickey Mouse guitar, was the first toy advertised on TV. We don’t know who’s right, but we’d pick Mr. Potato Head any day!
Check out the original 1950’s video right here:
Mr. Potato Head Toys from the 1960’s
In the 1964, Mr. Potato Head acquired a plastic head to go on top of his previously supplied plastic body. This addition may have been prompted by Moms complaining that their kids’ REAL potato heads were sprouting eyes and getting moldy! Jumpin’ Mr. Potato Head premiered in 1966. The 60’s also saw the addition of many new “Tooty Frooty” Potato Head friends and “Picnic Pals” as you can see below! We think the new logo (see above) also began to grace packages during the late 60’s.
The Frenchy Fry and Mr. Soda Pop Head Set was one of the 3 “Picnic Pals” assortments that came out in 1966. The others sets were Frankie Frank w/Mr. Mustard Head and Willy Burger with Mr. Ketchup Head.
And now check out the original 1960’s Mr Potato Head advert:
Mr. Potato Head Toys from the 1970’s and 1980’s
We’re sketchy on information about this era. What we do know is that in 1974, Mr. Potato Head doubled in size. He got a new, larger dark brown plastic body. In 1979, they came out with Super Mr. Potato Head, who had a huge plastic head, but no arms! Around 1983, Mr. Potato Head got his current light tan body and the arms came back. At first, these arms were bendable and you couldn’t remove them. Later, they became removeable, but not bendable. There was a proliferation of Potato Head Spin-Off toys, as well, but we’re not sure about intro dates.
In 1984, Hasbro acquired Playskool, and after that, all Mr. Potato Head packaging started sporting the Playskool logo. The Potato Head Kids were featured in a Hasbro TV show in 1986 (”My Little Pony & Friends), so a lot of toys came out that year. In 1987, Mr. Potato Head gave up his pipe and quit smoking when he became the spokespud for the Great American Smoke-Off! So only pre-1987 spuds have pipes.
And check out the 1980’s Mr potato head advert:
Mr. Potato Head Toys from the 1990’s
In 1995, Mr. Potato Head co-starred in Disney’s hit film, “Toy Story.” Suddenly, he was popular all over again!
There are now also dozens of non-toy products, such as ties, tee-shirts, greeting cards and many other licensed products on the market since 1995.
In 1996, Mr. Potato Head got a new logo! You should see it on all packaging since then!
And now check out the 1990’s advert that is advertising Apple power mac but contains a 1990’s Mr Potato head:
So where next for Mr Potato head? Add your comments on what you see Mr Potato Head doing in the year 2008!
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Loved the article! Thanks for reading. I’d be more than happy to do an interview and link back to your blog — which I’ll do right now. I’d appreciate it if you’d put some links to mine, too.
I wasn’t aware that the Potato head family had such a rich history. Even though Mr. and Mrs. rushed into the marriage it seemed to have worked out well for them. Those old ones seem to have a lot more personalit, though. You could even use a squash. Pretty cool.
I did not know there is such a history about the potato head family.
What a great article. The original Potatoe heads had one advantage. After the kiddies were done playing with them, you could eat them!