Toy Story

Every year around this time, two things start happening:

1. Toy companies start advertising like crazy on TV and on any other platform where they can reach their target audience (people who play with toys)
2. Parents start going crazy about how many toy commercials their kids are seeing, with subsequent demands for a WowWee Pinkfong Baby Shark Official Song Puppet, a Barbie Dreamplane Playset, a Monopoly: Fortnite Edition game, or a Nintendo Switch. 

Toys can be simple! Anyone want to guess what was the first toy advertised on television?  It only cost 98 cents that year (1952) and it was the first Mr Potato Head set!

And for those of you younger than the Boomer generation, hold onto your potatoes: in those early days, we had to supply OUR OWN POTATO to stick the little plastic nose and glasses and ears and I don't know what-all else into.

It's true! We would ask our mothers or go down to the root cellar and rip off a spud to play with Mr Potato Head.  He was invented in the wartime 40s by a man named George Lerner, up in Brooklyn, New York.  Lerner had seen his nephew taking potatoes out of the family Victory Garden and use grapes for eyes and carrots for eye to make his own toys.

So Uncle George, on the lookout for his first million, ran with the idea, but since there was a war on, people in charge of selling toys thought it might not be too great an idea to be "wasting" food like that.

Any kid could have told George Lerner that he could have used beets to make Mr Beet Head. No one would care if they never saw another stupid beet on their plate, but no. George waited for the war to end and put Mr PH in production on his own in 1949, before he sold the whole deal to Hasbro Toys in 1952.

That was the year we saw 'Tater on TV and put down our Slinkies for five minutes to run around the house sticking body parts on a russet potato.

It wasn't until 1964 that Hasbro received enough complaints about rotten potatoes moldering away in American toy chests from Portland ME to Portland OR, leading them to come up with the plastic Potato Head we still see on shelves today.

One last mashed potato fact, just for gravy. In both the real and plastic incarnations, PH smoked a pipe, and did until 1987, when he lost the pipe and became the official 'spokespud' of the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout.

I don't think we can ask much more from a vegetable toy!






Mr. Potato Head is an American toy consisting of a plastic model of a potato which can be decorated with a variety of plastic parts that can attach to the main body. These parts usually include ears, eyes, shoes, a hat, a nose, and a mouth. The toy was invented and developed by George Lerner in 1949, and first manufactured and distributed by Hasbro in 1952.[1] Mr. Potato Head was the first toy advertised on television[2][3] and has remained in production since its debut. The toy was originally produced as separate plastic parts with pushpins that could be stuck into a real potato or other vegetable. However, due to complaints regarding rotting vegetables and new government safety regulations, Hasbro began including a plastic potato body within the toy set in 1964.[4]

Over the years, the original toy was joined by Mrs. Potato Head and supplemented with accessories such as a car and a boat trailer. Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head may be best known for their appearances in the Toy Story franchise, voiced by Don Rickles and Estelle Harris, respectively. Additionally, in 1998 The Mr. Potato Head Show aired but was short-lived, with only one season being produced.[5] As one of the prominent marks of Hasbro, a Mr. Potato Head balloon has also joined others in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.[6] Today, Mr. Potato Head can still be seen adorning hats, shirts, and ties. Toy Story Midway Mania!, in Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort, also features a large talking Mr. Potato Head.[7]


Contents
1 History
2 Versions
3 In popular culture
3.1 Toy Story series
4 Games
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
History
In the early 1940s, Brooklyn-born toy inventor George Lerner came up with the idea of inserting small, pronged body and face parts into fruits and vegetables to create a "funny face man". Some speculate he got the idea from his wife's nephew Aaron Bradley, who was seen placing sticks inside of potatoes in the family garden.[2] Lerner would often take potatoes from his mother's garden and, using various other fruits and vegetables as facial features, he would make dolls with which his younger sisters could play. The grape-eyed, carrot-nosed, potato-headed dolls became the principal idea behind the plastic toy which would later be manufactured.

In the beginning, Lerner's toy proved controversial. With World War II and food rationing a recent memory for most Americans, the use of fruits and vegetables to make toys was considered irresponsible and wasteful. Toy companies rejected Lerner's creation.[2] After several years of trying to sell the toy, Lerner finally convinced a food company to distribute the plastic parts as premiums in breakfast cereal boxes. He sold the idea for $5,000. But in 1951, Lerner showed the idea to Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld, who conducted a small school supply and toy business called Hassenfeld Brothers (later changed to Hasbro). Realizing the toy was quite unlike anything in their line, they paid the cereal company $2,000 to stop production and bought the rights for $5,000. Lerner was offered an advance of $500 and a 5% royalty on every kit sold. The toy was dubbed Mr. Potato Head and went into production.[2]

Mr. Potato Head was "born" on May 1, 1952. The original toy cost $0.98, and contained hands, feet, ears, two mouths, two pairs of eyes, four noses, three hats, eyeglasses, a pipe, and eight felt pieces resembling facial hair. The original Mr. Potato Head kit did not come with a potato "body", so parents had to provide their own potato into which children could stick the various pieces. Shortly after the toy's initial release, an order form for 50 additional pieces was enclosed in every kit.[2]

On April 30, 1952, Mr. Potato Head became the first toy advertised on television. The campaign was also the first to be aimed directly at children; before this, commercials were only targeted at adults, so toy adverts had always been pitched to parents.[8] This commercial revolutionized marketing, and caused an industrial boom. Over one million kits were sold in the first year.[2] In 1953, Mrs. Potato Head was added, and soon after, Brother Spud and Sister Yam completed the Potato Head family with accessories reflecting the affluence of the fifties that included a car, a boat trailer,[9] a kitchen set, a stroller, and pets called Spud-ettes. Although originally produced as separate plastic parts to be stuck into a real potato or other vegetable, a plastic potato was added to the kit in 1964.[1]

In the 1960s, government regulations forced the Potato Head parts to be less sharp, leaving them unable to puncture vegetables easily. By 1964, the company was therefore forced to include a plastic potato "body" in its kit. Small children were also choking on the small pieces and cutting themselves with the sharp pieces.[10] About this time, Hasbro introduced Oscar the Orange and Pete the Pepper, a plastic orange and green pepper with attachable face parts similar to Mr. Potato Head's. Each came with Mr. Potato Head in a separate kit. Female characters Katie the Carrot and Cooky the Cucumber also made an appearance. Hasbro also made a fast food based line called Mr. Potato Head's Picnic Pals. Some characters were Mr. Soda Pop Head and Frankie Frank. The friends and pals were later discontinued, but Funko revived Oscar and Pete as bobbleheads (along with a Mr. Potato Head bobblehead) in 2002.

In 1975, the main potato part of the toy doubled in size and the dimensions of its accessories were similarly increased. This was done mainly because of new toy child safety regulations that were introduced by the U.S. government. This change in size also increased the market to younger children, enabling them to play and attach the facial pieces easily. Hasbro also replaced the holes with flat slats, which made it impossible for users to put the face pieces and other body parts the wrong way around. In the 1980s, Hasbro reduced the range of accessories for Mr. Potato Head to one set of parts. The company did, however, reintroduce round holes in the main potato body, and once again parts were able to go onto the toy in the wrong locations.

In 1985, Mr. Potato Head received four postal votes in the run for mayor of Boise, Idaho in the "most votes for Mr. Potato Head in a political campaign" as verified by Guinness World Records.[citation needed]

In 1987, Mr. Potato Head became "Spokespud" for the annual Great American Smokeout and surrendered his pipe to Surgeon General C. Everett Koop in Washington, D.C.[1]

In 1995, Mr. Potato Head made his debut in Hollywood with a leading role in the Disney/Pixar animated feature Toy Story,[1] with the voice provided by comedian Don Rickles.

In 2000, Mr. Potato Head was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, NY.

In 2006, Hasbro also began selling sets of pieces without bodies for customers to add to their collections. Some of these themed sets included Chef, Construction Worker, Firefighter, Halloween, King, Mermaid, Police Officer, Pirate, Princess, Rockstar, and Santa Claus. In the same year, Hasbro introduced a line called "Sports Spuds"[11] with a generic plastic potato (smaller than the standard size) customized to a wide variety of professional and collegiate teams.

Versions