How it started.
Long before children were fighting with parents over TV time during the hey days of Video Games, they were fighting over potatoes – these were needed to assemble their toys. You heard right. But this was no ordinary toy, it was Mr. Potato Head. A toy that would play a crucial role in building one of the most successful and biggest toy companies in the world today. George Lerner had trouble finding a company in the late 1940s that would sell his face-parts for vegetables. Food was scarce after World War 2 and children had to contend with parents on which vegetables would go well with their toy. Lerner settled on distributing the toy as a prize in cereal boxes after failing to secure a partnership with toymakers then. In 1949 Mr. Potato Head was born and became an instant bestseller. Children loved playing with it more than their school supplies.
HASBRO
Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld owned a modest textiles and pencil-box business. The boxes sold well when a few school supplies were included inside. But when the Hassenfelds substituted Potato Head parts for those pencils and erasers in 1952? Well, they made four million dollars in sales that year.
The success of this toy saw them focusing solely on making toys, they had struck gold with Mr. Potato Head. They then launched a company we know today as Hasbro, which also happens to be one of the biggest companies in the world. As a way of showing gratitude for their company’s success they watermarked their cheques with, you guessed it, Mr. Potato Head.
Breaking Rules…
Mr. Potato Head did what no other toy had ever done back then. After Hasbro was born, they loved the idea and wanted to get as much mileage from it as possible, and it meant taking risks and breaking boundaries. They decided to launch a TV commercial, and Mr. Potato was the first toy to be advertised on TV in 1952. The sales went through the roof, they set a new bar in the toy industry.
Controversy
It’s almost impossible to achieve that level of success without causing controversy, which is exactly what this toy did. Parents were up on arms, and so was the government, over rotting spud pieces in their kids’ bedrooms. But the government stemmed from protruding pieces that came out of the rotting spud pieces. Pressure was mounting and the company had to make a plan before the gravy train is derailed. And in 1964, they ditched ditched the sharp spikes and began including plastic potato bodies with predrilled holes for the new, less-pointy parts in every Mr. Potato Head set. You may have assumed that Mr. Potato head is large and cuddly-looking today because people love their paedomorphic toys, but his steady evolution from rugged spud to cutie tuber was driven by anti-choking regulations requiring that all his parts be large and round enough that no child could swallow them.
Family
Mr. Potato Head may have started as a cereal box prize, and caused fights between parents and children, or even gotten on the government watchlist, but the most important era was the creation of the Potato Head Family. Children found this toy more interesting than their school supplies and would make funny faces with pieces that came with it as an expression. The was mainly the foundation of its success. Children want to have a say in what they play, and Mr. Potato Head was a perfect tool. Through they also learn about life, and what better way to team them family dynamics than using the same tool they enjoy using.
The Messenger
The Potato Heads were some of the “friends” on My Little Pony and Friends in 1986. And for one glorious season in 1998 and ’99, The Mr. Potato Head Show held down a slot on the Fox Family channel. Mr. Potato Head also quit smoking and turned his pipe over to Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, a year later. On his 40th birthday in 1992, he stopped being a couch potato long enough to receive an award from the Presidential Council for physical fitness. He and Mrs. Potato Head were spokes-spuds for the League of Women Voters get out the vote campaign in 1996. He has been the tourism ambassador for Rhode Island, and these days he appears on Rhode Island licence plates supporting the state’s food banks. Mr. Potato Head give-aways have helped sell fries for Burger King, Hardee’s, Checkers, McDonald’s, Jack in the Box, and other fast food places.
We may not see another runaway success like Mr. Potato Head but one lesson we can draw from this is that a toy is not just a toy.
Playground 