Good Morning all 👋hope everyone’s doing good! These past 2 weeks have been almost a blur. We’ve been inundated with so many appointments it’s unbelievable, not me personally, thankfully, but my dad has had quite a few including blood tests 🩸 💉 and blood pressure monitoring to keep a check on his heart which isn’t great as the test keeps showing it’s still quite high 😰, but we’ll continue to do what the doctor says to keep an eye on it. Of course, I can’t forget Easter 🐣 — Unfortunately just before Easter weekend, I crashed very badly with my ME/CFS and slept almost all of the first Saturday away 🛌 for some reason it somehow suddenly overcame me. Still, It was nice to spend a couple of days with my dad as a family before he had to go back to a pile load of parcels 📦 To say there was a major difference in how many packages compared to the previous week is an understatement (and believe me it was huge) 😲 Anyway let’s get on with today’s post…

You might not know this but today is actually Mr. Potato Head Day 🥔 Mr. Potato Head Day has been celebrated on April 30 since 1952, when Mr. Potato Head was the first toy to appear on television. This T.V. commercial starring Mr. Potato Head was the first advertisement that targeted children specifically. This holiday honors the beloved toy that changed the face of advertising. Featuring a plastic potato body, it has a variety of other plastic parts that can be attached to it — like a cap, nose, mouth, eyes, ears, and even feet! The list of additional accessories has grown over time to include even items such as a car and a boat trailer.

Mr Potato Head Facts

• The Original Mr. Potato Head Kit Didn’t Come With a Potato

These days, Mr. Potato Head comes with a plastic potato with holes for various eyes, arms, ears, nose, and mouthpieces. At first, the kit only included various plastic facial features with pushpins that you were supposed to stick into real potatoes or vegetables.

• It Was the First Toy Advertised on TV

This was a big deal in the ’50s as the TV era was booming and it changed the way that toys were marketed to children. Mr. Potato Head’s early marketing slogan was “More Fun Than a Pillow Fight!”

• Hasbro Took Over in 1952

The toy company Hasbro took over in 1952 and introduced the plastic potato body to the kit in 1964. The company wanted to increase the safety of the toy since the previous kits included sharp pushpins to fit the pieces into real vegetables.

• Don Rickles’ Voice May Still Appear in the Next ‘Toy Story’ Film Despite His Death in 2017

Toy Story 5 is set to be released later this year and the late Don Rickles’ daughter Mindy is speaking out. She said she would love to hear her father’s voice as the character Mr. Potato Head again but would only allow the studio to use past recordings and not AI recreations. Keep in mind that Estelle Harris, who voiced Mrs. Potato Head, also passed away, so it is currently unknown what Pixar will do about the Potato Head family voices or if the characters will appear in the film at all.

• Technically, the Toy is Now Just Called Potato Head

In 2021, Hasbro announced that they would drop “Mr.” or “Mrs.” from the toys to make it more gender-neutral. They continue to update and add new items and now there is even a baby Potato!

• There is a Six-Foot Version of Mr. Potato Head

A team from Brigham Young University broke the Guinness World Record when they created the largest Mr. Potato Head at over six feet tall in the 2000s. There are now several huge versions in Rhode Island that you can visit and get your photo with.

• Mrs. Potato Head Followed in 1953 — The Hassenfeld Brothers (also known as Hasbro) bought the rights to Mr. Potato Head from the cereal company and “gave Lerner $500 in advance and 5% royalties for every set sold.” After the incredible sales of the Lone Funny Face Potato Head kit, the Hassenfelds decided it was time to expand their product, which would now include the Mrs.
• A Whole Potato Family — In addition to Mrs. Potato Head, the line grew to include a whole potato family–children named Spud and Yam, and their friends Cookie Cucumber, Pete the Pepper, Oscar the Orange, and Kate the Carrot. And real potatoes were indeed used in the 1950s and early 1960s.
• Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Honoree — Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head have been around long enough to live through many movements of history. Apparently, a potato is a good statement piece. Mr. Potato Head has a reputation for espousing various causes, like healthy eating in the middle of the 2000s.
• Special Permission For Potato Heads — While accounts on the financial side of the deal vary, it is clear that there were certainly some negotiations for the use of the Potato Heads as intellectual property in Toy Story’s films. Craig Good, who worked on several of the Pixar movies, said that producer Ralph Guggenheim had to speak with Mr. Potato Head’s lawyer before the first movie. Good said the negotiations were “touch and go” until finally landing the rights to the beloved Hasbro/Playskool toy.
• A Voice That Lives On — Comedian Don Rickles voiced Mr. Potato Head in the first three Toy Story movies, along with other uses of the character, like for attractions in Disney’s theme parks. Meanwhile, Estelle Harris is the voice of Mrs. Potato Head in the franchise. Don Rickles had signed on to reprise his role in the fourth feature film, but he passed away before recording any new dialogue. Rickles’ family asked if the filmmakers could work in any archived lines Rickles had recorded through the years, and that is exactly what they did. Though Don Rickles didn’t get to see the completed product, his voice lives on in Mr. Potato Head, one of the best Toy Story characters.

• Mr. Potato Head appeared in  Toy Story 4 (2019) — However, Rickles died in 2017 due to kidney failure and did not record any lines for the film. With permission from Rickles’s family, Pixar used unreleased lines that Rickles recorded in previous Toy Story films for his final performance as the character. Mr. Potato Head had 7 lines in Toy Story 4, which was dedicated to Rickles’s memory. Mr. Potato Head first appears in the prologue of the movie. Later during the film’s main events, he and his wife join Bonnie and her parents on their RV road trip. At the end of the film, they say goodbye to Woody who chooses to stay with Bo Peep (Annie Potts).
• Mr. Potato Head is a rather cynical Mr. Potato Head toy, of the common design of Hasbro’s Playskool —Andy often casts him as a villain in his games, which seems to be the reason he can be so cynical and irritable, being cast as the bad guy so often. Despite being antagonistic toward Woody in Toy Story, Mr. Potato Head becomes much more amicable and respectful after Mrs. Potato Head’s arrival.
• Mr. Potato Head is a wisecracking, hot-headed spud, complete with angry eyes — He’s the eternal pessimist with a tough plastic exterior, but his total devotion to his “sweet potato,” Mrs. Potato Head, reveals a softer side.
• Mr. Potato Head’s line “What are you lookin’ at, ya hockey puck?” is one of Don Rickles’ catchphrases.
• He has helped the toys several times in each movie from his quotes — like when he sarcastically said, “Let’s leave Buzz to play with his toys” or “Andy doesn’t want us. What’s the point?”.

• It is unknown how his eyebrows can be separated from his eyes — Mr. Potato Head has removed at least one eye in every movie, and he is seen to have been able to take his eyebrows apart. However, when it shows him with one or no eyes, there is no hole for the eyebrows, but they can separate.
• Mr. Potato Head was inducted into the Hall of Fame in the year 2000.
• Mr. Potato Head throwing his hat to jam a door in Toy Story 2 — Is a reference to the James Bond villain, Oddjob who used his hat as a throwing weapon.
• The film Toy Story 4 — Is dedicated at the end of the credits to Don Rickles (Mr. Potato Head) and animators Adam Burke and Bud Luckey (uncredited).
• When it shows that the film Toy Story 4 is dedicated to Don Rickles and Adam Burke — The quotes below their names read: Rickles: We are eternally grateful. Burke: We love you, to infinity and beyond.
• Mr. Potato Head is not just a toy.  — He’s been seen near vegetable gardens too! Now that’s a garden gnome!

• In the Dutch version of Toy Story 3 — The tortilla that Mr. Potato Head uses as a body is called a pancake for some reason.
• During the blooper real of Toy Story 2 — He said he doesn’t work with monkeys (like he was an actor) and asked someone to get his “agent” on the phone.
• In every Toy Story movie, Rex is often the cause of making Mr. Potato Head lose his pieces. — 1) In Toy Story, Rex roared so loud that Mr. Potato Head’s pieces flew away. 2)In Toy Story 2, Rex jumped down to the elevator and landed on Mr. Potato Head by accident, making his pieces fly away. 3) In Toy Story 3, Rex made the box with the toys inside fall down, causing Mr. Potato Head’s hat to fall off. 4) In Toy Story 4, when Rex was panicking, he accidentally knocked into Mr. Potato Head, making him lose his pieces once again.
• Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head are the only Potato Head dolls to ever appear in the franchise — However, at the beginning of the first film, Andy did mention the ‘TaterTots’ (likely as a nod to the real-life Potato Head kids), suggesting there are other kinds of Potato Head dolls out there.

Quotes

From Toy Story:

“Ages three and up. It’s on my box. Ages three and up! I’m not supposed to be babysitting Princess Drool.”—Mr. Potato Head, first lines, upon waking up to see his parts scattered to the floor

Mr. Potato Head: “Hey, a laser! How come you don’t have a laser, Woody?”
Woody: “It’s not a laser! It’s a..
sighs in frustration]
Woody: “It’s a little light bulb that blinks.”
Hamm: “What’s with him?”
Mr. Potato Head: “Laser Envy.”

Mr. Potato Head: [noticing Woody calling from Sid’s house] “Son of a building block! It’s Woody!”
Hamm: “He’s in the psycho’s bedroom!”
Bo Peep: “Woody?”
Woody: “Boy, am I glad to see you guys!”
Slinky Dog: “I knew you’d come back!”
Bo Peep: “What are you doing over there?”
Woody: “It’s a long story, I’ll explain later. Here! Catch this!”
[Woody throws a string of Christmas lights across to Andy’s window, which Slinky grabs successfully]
Slinky Dog: “I got it!”
Woody: “Good going Slink! Now tie it onto something!”
Mr. Potato Head: “Wait, I have a better idea! How about we don’t?”
[snatches the lights off Slinky]
Slinky Dog: “Hey!”
Bo Peep: “Potato Head!
Mr. Potato Head: “Did you all take those Stupid Pills this morning? Have you forgotten what he did to Buzz?”
[the other toys shake their head]
Mr. Potato Head: “And now you wanna let him back over here?”
Woody: “No, no. You got it all wrong Potato Head. Buzz is fine. Buzz is right here. He’s with me.”
Mr. Potato Head: “You are a liar!”
Woody: “No I’m not!”
[calling to Buzz]
Woody: “Buzz, come over here and tell the nice toys that you’re not dead!”

Slinky Dog: [after Buzz gets knocked out the window and lands into the bushes nearby] “Hey guys, RC’s trying to tell us something”.
Rex: “What is it, Boy?”
R.C. the Race Car: [RC whirrs his wheels]
Mr. Potato Head: “He’s saying that this is no accident!””
Bo Peep: “What do you mean?”
Mr. Potato Head: “I mean Humpty Dumpty was pushed, by Woody!”
[the toys all stare at Woody in shock]
Woody: “Wait a minute, You don’t think I even meant to knock Buzz out the window, do you? Potato Head?”
Mr. Potato Head: “That’s Mr. Potato Head to you you backstabbing murderer!”
Woody: “Now, guys, it was an accident. C’mon, you-you’ve gotta believe me.”
Slinky Dog: “We believe ya, Woody. Right, Rex?”
Rex: [nervously] “Well, I mean, uh, I don’t like confrontations!”
Mr. Potato Head: “Couldn’t handle Buzz cutting on your playtime, could you Woody? Didn’t wanna face the fact that Buzz might be Andy’s new favorite toy. So you got rid of him. Well, what if Andy starts playing with me more Woody, huh? You gonna knock me out the window too?“
Hamm: “I don’t think we should give him the chance.”

From Toy Story 2.

Buzz Lightyear: “Good work, men. Two blocks down and only nineteen more to go.”
Mr. Potato Head: “What?”
Rex, Hamm, Slinky Dog: “Nineteen?”
Mr. Potato Head: “Are we gonna do this all night? My parts are killing me.”
Buzz Lightyear: “Come on, fellas. Did Woody give up when Sid had me strapped to a rocket?”
Mr. Potato Head, Rex, Hamm, Slinky Dog: “No.”
Buzz Lightyear: “No. And did he give up when you threw him out of the back of that moving van?”
Mr. Potato Head: “Oh, you had to bring that up!”
Buzz Lightyear: “No, he didn’t! We have a friend in need, and we will not rest until he’s safe in Andy’s room! Now, let’s move out!”

Alien toys: “You have saved our lives. We are eternally grateful.”
Mrs. Potato Head: “You saved their lives? My hero! They’re so adorable. Let’s adopt them!”
Alien toys: [Gathering around Mr. Potato Head] “Daddy!”
Mr. Potato Head: “Oh, no.”

Hamm: “All right, let’s review this one more time. At precisely 8:32-ish, Exhibit A,” Woody, was kidnapped.”
[Etch-A-Sketch draws Woody]
Hamm: “Exhibit B, a composide sketch of the kidnapper.”
[Etch-A-Sketch draws Al with a long beard]
Bo Peep: “He didn’t have a beard like that.”
Hamm: “Fine. Uh, Etch, give him a shave.”
[Etch-A-Sketch redraws Al without a beard]
Slinky Dog: “The kidnapper was bigger than that.”
Hamm: “Oh, picky, picky, picky.”
Mr. Potato Head: “Oh, let’s just go straight to Exhibit F! The kidnapper’s vehicle.”
[Refers to their toy reconstruction of the driveway]
Mr. Potato Head: “Now the vehicle fled the scene in this direction.”
[pushes a toy car to the left]
Hamm: “Oh, your parts are in backwards! It went the other way!”
[pushes the toy car right]
Hamm: “Hey, put a cork in it!”
[Rex walks through, destroying their model]
Rex: “Hey, how do you spell F-B-I?”
Mr. Potato Head: “My crime scene!”
Hamm: “Hey, watch where you’re going, Godspilla!”
Rex: “I didn’t know this was a crime scene!”

Mr. Potato Head: [in the toy car that he, Rex, Slinky, and Hamm hop into to drive around Al’s Toy Barn] “Let the guy with the fingers do the driving.”

From Toy Story 3.

Mr. Potato Head: [after spending the night in the daycare sandbox] “It was cold and dark, nothing but sand and a couple of Lincoln Logs.”
Hamm the Piggy Bank: “Eh… I don’t think those were Lincoln Logs.”

[Lotso walks over to a wall with class photos from past years]
Lotso: “When the kids get old, new ones come in. When they get old, new ones replace them. You’ll never be outgrown, or neglected. Never abandoned or forgotten. No owners means – no heartbreak!”
Jessie: “Yee-haw!”
Mrs. Potato Head: “It’s a miracle!”
Mr. Potato Head: “And you wanted us to stay at Andy’s!”
Woody: “Because we’re Andy’s toys!”

[The Aliens have just saved the toys from the incinerator]
Mrs. Potato Head: “You saved our lives!”
Mr. Potato Head: “And *we* are eternally grateful!”
[Hugs the aliens]
Mr. Potato Head: “My boys!”
Aliens: “Daaaaaady!”

Mrs Potato Head: “Darling, are you okay?”
Mr. Potato Head: “I feel fresh, healthy, It’s terrible.”
Mrs. Potato Head: “You’ve lost weight, and so tall.”

From Toy Story 4

Mr. Potato Head: “You Gotta Be Kidding!”

[after Bonnie returns home from school, Woody opens up and gets out of Bonnie’s backpack]
Trixie: [gasps] “He did go to kindergarten!”
Mr. Potato Head: “I knew it!”
Woody: “No, no, no, guys, listen…”
Buttercup: “You tryin’ to get Bonnie in trouble?”
Woody: “No, of course not!”
Dolly: “You could have been confiscated!”
Rex: “What does that mean?”
Hamm: “Taken away.”
Rex: [gasps] “NO!”
Jessie: “Or worse. You could have been lost!”

Mr. Potato Head Day Activities

1. Have Fun with Mr. Potato Head: This is the right occasion to play with a Mr. Potato Head toy. You could either use the toy you had as a kid or maybe purchase a new one.
2. Binge Watch the “Toy Story” Franchise: You may also invite your buddies over for a “Toy Story” movie marathon. Watching the “Toy Story” movies will transport you back to your childhood.
3. Visit a Toy Museum: Visit the Classic Toy Museum or the National Toy Hall of Fame to make the most of this holiday. Click photos of the toys and games displayed over there and share your experience on social media.

Thank you for coming to my blog, did you find some things you didn’t know? or did you already know some? Either way, I hope you found it as interesting as I did (e.g. I didn’t know the Potato Heads had children), I was surprised when I read that. Anyway, have a lovely day and I shall see you (hopefully) back here in two weeks, and to kickstart my two weeks I shall be kicking it off at the Doctor’s surgery tomorrow for an appointment I’ve been in desperate need of, for a test that needs to be done that is vital to my health as it’s something I need to have to check to see what’s causing the problem (which I will update you all about in my next post) and then hopefully I can get the right proper treatment (so (please)wish me luck) but, Until then 👋…