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Born in the 50's Mr. Potato Head remains a beloved children's toy.

Mr. Potato Head is one of those iconic toys from the 1950's that kids are still playing with today. There is something about that silly spud and his accessories that has captivated youth throughout the years.

Mr. Potato Head was invented by George Lerner of Brooklyn. Sometime just before the start of the 1950's he had the idea to create plastic face and body pieces that could be inserted into fruits and vegetables to make a "funny face man." He shopped his idea around to toy companies but they were not impressed. America was just out of World War II and the companies feared that people would consider using fruits and vegetable to make toys to be wasteful. He was finally able to sell the idea for $5,000 to a cereal company that planned on using the plastic pieces as toy premiums in the boxes. However, in 1951 he showed the toys to Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld, brothers who owned a small school supply and toy company. They were very impressed with the toy and paid the cereal company $2,000 to stop the production and paid $5,000 for the rights.

Mr. Potato Head was born on May 1, 1952 and sold for 98 cents. It contained a number of pieces including feet, eyes, nose, hair and more. Parents had to supply to the potato. The toy was the first ever to be advertised on television and the first advertising campaign to be aimed directly at children rather than adults. This created a revolution in marketing overall and a boom in production of the toy. Over one million sets were sold in the first year. Mrs. Potato Head was added in 1953 and shortly after Brother Spud and Sister Yam joined the family. In 1964 the Hasbro Company (formerly Hassenfeld Brothers) started including the plastic potato body, due to regulations that required the plastic spikes for inserting into the vegetable to be less sharp, rendering them useless at piercing the vegetables.

Today 1950's Mr. Potato Head sets are highly desirable among classic toys collectors and sales of the product remain high. He made his screen debut in the 1995 movie Toy Story and was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2000.

Sources: http://www.mrpotatohead.net/1950/1950.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Potato_Head

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Born in the 50's Mr. Potato Head remains a beloved children's toy. Mr. Potato Head is one of those iconic toys from the 1950's that kids are still playing with today. There is something about that silly spud and his accessories that has captivated youth throughout the years.

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Did you know that the original Mr. Potato Head was missing a head? The original model didn't come with the familiar brown plastic potato.

Inventing Mr. Potato Head

In 1949, Brooklyn inventor and designer George Lerner (1922-1995) came up with a revolutionary idea: a toy that children could design themselves. His toy came bundled as a set of plastic body parts-noses, mouths, eyes-and accessories-hats, eyeglasses, a pipe-that were attached to pins. Children would then decorate a potato or other vegetable with the pieces, inventing as they went along.

Lerner shopped his toy idea around for a year but met with resistance. During World War II, the U.S. had suffered through food rationing and somehow using a potato as a toy seemed like a waste. So, instead, Lerner sold his idea to a cereal company for US$5,000, who would distribute his plastic parts as prizes in cereal.

Mr. Potato Head Meets Hasbro

In 1951, the Rhode Island Hassenfeld Brothers company was primarily a toy manufacturing and distributing company, making modeling clay and doctor and nurse kits. When they met George Lerner, they saw great potential and paid the cereal company to stop production, buying the rights to Mr. Potato Head for $7,000. They gave Lerner $500 in advance and 5 percent royalties for every set sold.

Those first sets had hands, feet, ears, two mouths, two pairs of eyes, and four noses; three hats, eyeglasses, a pipe, and eight pieces of felt suitable for beards and mustaches. They came with a styrofoam head that children could use, but instructions suggested a potato or other vegetable would do as well.

The First TV Ad for Children

The first television advertisement directed to children, rather than adults, was by the Hassenfeld Brothers for Mr. Potato Head, with the toy riding in a wagon and playing with kids; it premiered on April 30, 1952. The kits sold like hotcakes: the Hassenfelds earned more than $1 million in the first year; in 1968, they changed their name to Hasbro, and today they are the third largest toy company in the world.

Mrs. Potato Head and the Kids

By 1953, it became clear that Mr. Potato Head needed a family. Mrs. Potato Head, their children Yam and Spud, and the children's friends Kate the Carrot, Pete the Pepper, Oscar the Orange, and Cookie Cucumber soon joined the family. A Mr. Potato Head car, boat, and kitchen were soon marketed, and eventually, the brand expanded into puzzles, creative play sets, and electronic hand-held board and video games.

Hasbro's later successes include Monopoly, Scrabble, Play-Doh, Tonka trucks, G.I. Joe, Tinker Toys, and Lincoln Logs; but the first and most influential was the famous spud.

Safety Issues

The United States was changing rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and by the late sixties, the first child safety laws were passed, the Child Protection Act of 1966, and the 1969 Child Protection and Toy Safety Act. The gave the Federal Drug and Safety administration the ability to ban unsafe toys: the Consumer Product Safety Administration wasn't formed until 1973.

Mr. Potato Head's small pieces of plastic with sharp pins on them were considered unsafe for small children. At the same time, parents complained that they kept finding moldy potatoes under their kids' beds. In 1964, Hasbro began making hard plastic bodies, and eventually larger body and part sizes for its plastic potato.

The Modern Mr. Potato Head

Hasbro has developed a reputation for responding to cultural changes, or perhaps taking advantage of them. In 1986, Mr. Potato Head became the official "spokespud" of the Great American Smokeout, surrendering his pipe to then-surgeon general C. Everett Koop. In 1992, Mr. Potato Head starred in an early Public Service Announcement for the Presidents' Council for Physical Fitness, renouncing his role as "couch potato." In 1996, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head joined the League of Women Voters in an advertising campaign to get out the vote, and in 2002 when he turned 50, he joined the AARP.

Mr. Potato Head has become a staple of American culture over the years. In 1985, he received four write-in votes in the mayoral election in the potato hotbed of Boise, Idaho. He also had a starring role in all three Toy Story movies, where he was voiced by veteran character actor Don Rickles. Today, Hasbro, Inc. still manufactures Mr. Potato Head, still responding to cultural changes with special Mr. Potato Head kits for Optimash Prime, Tony Starch, Luke Frywalker, Darth Tater, and Taters of the Lost Ark.
Miller, G. Wayne. Toy Wars: The Epic Struggle between G.I. Joe, Barbie, and the Companies That Make Them. New York: Times Books 1998. "Mr. Potato Head." Western Pennsylvania History Spring 2016:10.

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Mr. Potato Head Didn't Always Have a Head

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Did you know that the original Mr. Potato Head was missing a head? The original model didn't come with the familiar brown plastic potato. In 1949, Brooklyn inventor and designer George Lerner (1922-1995) came up with a revolutionary idea: a toy that children could design themselves.

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(Mental Floss) -- It started as body parts you jabbed into real potatoes and became a cultural phenomenon, resulting in some sweet film roles and government work. Let's go back to the beginning.
1949: A Spud is Born
Brooklyn-born toy inventor George Lerner tries to capitalize on kids who like to play with their food. Surprisingly, Lerner's idea of creating face and body parts that can be jabbed into potatoes is a hard sell. Toy companies worry that parents who've just lived through World War II-era food shortages will balk at the thought of wasting perfectly good food.
1952: The Tuber Spreads
Hasbro sees the genius in Lerner's product and agrees to market it, creating the first-ever TV ads for a toy. It turns out that parents have few misgivings about squandering their potatoes; more than 1 million Mr. Potato Heads sell that year alone.
Mental Floss: The map with only 38 states 1950s: Family Man
Mr. Potato Head gets an arranged marriage. In 1953, Hasbro outfits him with an instant family: Mrs. Potato Head, son Spud, and a daughter, Yam. He also gets a car, a boat, and a kitchen in the deal. Within a few years, the likable Spud makes friends with pals Katie the Carrot and Pete the Pepper.
1964 and 1974: Attack of the Rotten Potatoes
When parents complain about finding moldy potatoes under their kids' beds, Mr. Potato Head ditches his organic body for a plastic one. Ten years later, new rules about choking hazards compel Hasbro to merge the head and body into one legless lump.
Mental Floss: Shel Silverstein's unlikely rise to kid lit superstardom 1980s: Fries on the Side
Arnold Schwarzenegger and the President's Council on Physical Fitness give him an award for abandoning his couch-potato lifestyle. Curiously, his new healthy habits don't stop Mr. Potato Head from endorsing Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's and Hardee's.
1992: A Spokesspud is Born
Mr. Potato Head trades his dapper hat for a green baseball cap and exchanges his loafers for blue tennis shoes. In keeping with his new, sportier look, he also quits smoking in 1987 for the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout. To show his support for the anti-smoking campaign, he publicly hands over his signature tobacco pipe to U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.
1995: Supersized
Mr. Potato Head makes his big-screen debut in "Toy Story", but his most prestigious gig is yet to come. In 2000, Mr. Potato Head becomes the official travel ambassador for Rhode Island, "the Birthplace of Fun," where Hasbro is headquartered.
Mental Floss: Blinding you with science: Hypercolor explained
And let's hear it for some of the best special edition Mr. Potato Heads: Optimash Prime, Tony Starch, Luke Frywalker, and Taters of the Lost Ark (known in some sets as Idaho Jones).

For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com

Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.

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(Mental Floss) -- It started as body parts you jabbed into real potatoes and became a cultural phenomenon, resulting in some sweet film roles and government work. Let's go back to the beginning. 1949: A Spud is Born Brooklyn-born toy inventor George Lerner tries to capitalize on kids who like to play with their food.

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This article is about the creation of Mr. Potato Head.

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- Invented in 1952 by  George Lerner.
-Sold for 98 cents at first launch.

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This website tells us when the toy was made and also who invented it. It also tells us how much it was first sold for.

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This article is about how Mr. Potato Head started and also how he became modernized.

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This article tells us how Mr. Potato Head has grown into a phenomenon from when it was first made to be more modern.

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-First ever toy to be advertised on TV.
-Starring role in all three Toy Story movies.

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This is a time-line of the creation and growth of Mr. Potato Head.

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This website explains Mr. Potato Heads past and present as a cultural icon.

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-Turns from real potatoes to a plastic body in 1964.
- Mrs. Potato Head released in 1953.