Mr. Potato Head Stands Test of Time

Mr. Potato Head had a very humble beginning. The inventor who came up with the idea did so in 1949. At that time many Americans still had home gardens that were necessary because of rationing during the war.

To George Lerner, the idea of making funny faces on a potato or another vegetable spurred his imagination. Initially, he experimented by adding items like bottle tops, pipe cleaners, and parts of other vegetables. He quickly  saw that all types of characters could be created.

This was the beginning of what eventually became Mr. Potato Head.

Early Job in the Toy Industry

George Lerner was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1922. By the time he was 20, he lived in East Moline, Illinois, where he worked at the Buddy L Company, an offshoot of the Moline Pressed Steel Company. Their specialty was manufacturing automobile fenders and other stamped body parts for cars, trucks, and some types of farm equipment.

Long before Lerner joined the company, Moline Pressed Steel added a small division to make metal toys like trains, trucks, and cars. That was the department where Lerner worked.

War on the Horizon

By the late 1930s, American companies were responding to governmental pressure. President Roosevelt hoped that by exporting equipment and tools needed for the war in Europe, he might be able to keep the U.S. out of war.

But in the meantime, manufacturers needed to do their part to make military supplies. At Moline Pressed Steel, all metal would be used for the war. In the Buddy L toy division, metal toys were redesigned as wooden toys. Cars, trucks, and trains continued to be made but in ways that saved steel.

War Affects All

For George Lerner and other young men, the war altered their future. They were required to register for the draft. Even if they were not sent off to fight, young men often had to move to be where the jobs were.

It is not clear how the war affected Lerner, but after the war, he returned to Brooklyn where he grew up.

Continued Dreaming about Toys

By 1949, Lerner was seriously contemplating how to make his “potato toy” something he could market. His early assumption was that since many people still had home vegetable gardens, the vegetable itself was something they could obtain easily.

What he needed were small items to use as facial features for funny faces. If he could manufacture ears, mouths, eyes, and other features then he could package and sell them. To his advantage, one of the side benefits of the war was that plastic was now being used in mass production.

In 1951, he and a partner went into business together. With Julius Ellman, another Brooklynite, Lerner and Ellman combined their names to become the Lernell Company. The two men patented many toy inventions. The business continued successfully for another thirty years.

Funny Face Man

While it is unclear whether Ellman was part of the packaging of Lerner’s “potato toy”, the fact that the two had created a business may have made it easier for Lerner to come up with the needed funds and to invest in manufacturing plastic facial figures for his toy.

The first packaged set included lips, eyes, ears, hairpieces, a hat and other accessories that Lerner thought were fun. Each plastic piece had prongs on it that were sharp enough to penetrate a potato skin, zucchini, or whatever basic fruit or vegetable a child chose to use.   

Lerner called his new toy the “Funny Face Man.”

Making the Rounds

With a prototype of “Funny Face Man” under his arm, he began making calls on toy companies. However, the food rationing that took place during the war left an indelible mark on Americans.

Toy company executives worried that the toy would be seen as “wasteful.” No one wanted it.

But Lerner had another idea. In that day, cereal companies added “premiums” to their boxes of cereal to increase sales. Some premiums were small plastic toys; others were cards with games or riddles on them. Kids often requested a certain cereal because they wanted the toy.

When Lerner met with the executives at Post Cereal, they liked the Funny Face Man idea. All features were packaged as a long strip (like a bookmark) with plastic items attached. Post paid Lerman for all rights and soon the packaged set was offered inside one of their cereals.

New Interest

Whenever a product reaches the public eye, it often sparks new interest. This is exactly what happened with Funny Face Man.

A textile remnant company in Providence, Rhode Island, was growing and adding product lines. The Hassenfeld family began in textile remnants and expanded into fabric pencil pouches and fabric-lined pencil boxes. They soon added pencil-manufacturing to their products.

When father and son (Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld) saw the new premium offering in a Post cereal box, they contacted George Lerner. They wanted to buy the rights from him. When they learned that Lerner had already sold full rights to Post Cereal, Hassenfelds suggested a deal.

They encouraged Lerner to buy the rights back from Post Cereal. Hassenfelds promised they would re-package the Funny Face Man and sell it as a separate toy.

When Lerner approached Post executives, Post said they would sell the rights back to him for $5000 if Hassenfelds would put in an additional $2000.

Re-Named Mr. Potato Head

The Hassenfelds moved quickly. They began manufacturing the toy right away and decided to rename the toy. Calling it Mr. Potato Head, the first sets were marketed in 1952. Each set included more than twenty plastic features packaged together–hands, feet, ears, two styles of mouths and pairs of eyes, four noses, three hats, eyeglasses, a pipe, and eight felt pieces resembling facial hair. The recommendation was for children to use any type of larger vegetable such as a potato. 

First Toy Advertised to Children on Television

Hasbro—as the company became known–really wanted to grow their business, and they saw Mr. Potato Head as a great opportunity. The television industry was still small, but advertising toys to adults to buy for their children was a growing field.

The Hassenfelds decided to change the formula. There were some new television shows for children on the air. Advertising on those programs was less expensive, and the Hassenfelds felt that if they could promote Mr. Potato Head directly to children it could work. This was a first for the television industry. As Hassenfelds proved, the “nag” factor by children could be very effective!

In addition to the commercials, local toy stores got behind the product. A search through any local paper from 1952 show that Mr. Potato Man was well-advertised. The cost for the feature packages? 98 cents.

Toy was a Hit

The Hassenfelds spent well. Within several months, the kits raked in $4 million in sales, according to Paige Polinsky’s book about toy trailblazers. By the end of the first year, more than a million Mr. Potato Head sets were sold.

Fewer Toys Then

Mr. Potato Head was marketed as “the most wonderful friend a boy or girl could have.” And it was. Children had many fewer toys then—no Barbie, no American Girl, no My Little Pony, not even a GI Joe. 

The beauty of Mr. Potato Head was that kids used him in many types of make-believe play. They went to bed, and the next morning they—and Mr. Potato Head—were off on new adventures.

For that reason, Hassenfelds quickly moved forward to expand the play. Mrs. Potato Head was introduced in 1953. She came with a purse, earrings, and stylish accessories.  Clearly, the Hassenfelds were on to a good thing.

Son Spud and daughter Yam came along shortly. The family had a car, a trailer, and a boat. They even got pets.

Changes

The next version of Mr. Potato Head was a boxed set. The company was now called Hasbro, and they decided to try including a Styrofoam head and a plastic body that could be used for creating the figures.

But the Hassenfelds soon saw that the Styrofoam didn’t last long. It became heavily pockmarked as children poked features into it. The Styrofoam soon broke off into pieces.

Expanding the Market

In the early 1960s, Hasbro introduced the Tooty Frooty Friends. This kit contained 60 plastic pieces. Kids could create Katie the Carrot, Pete the Pepper, and Oscar the Orange. 

But still the company sensed there was more room to grow. They turned to American history, folk lore, and the news of the day. Soon Mr. Potato Head could explore the Wild West and with another kit, he could dress as an astronaut and travel in a spaceship to other worlds. Other career and adventure sets were created.

Consumers Urge Changes

In 1964, Hasbro decided some product changes were necessary. Parents complained that their kids took vegetables to their rooms to play with their Mr. Potato Head toy. Then they forgot about them. By the time someone went in to clean the room, the vegetables were moldy.

The other complaint Hasbro received was that the spikes on the plastic pieces were quite sharp. They needed to be in order to penetrate anything from a raw potato to a zucchini or eggplant. Parents felt they were dangerous.

For that reason, Hasbro transformed the toy. The government often noted that they wanted to create a child safety agency. This could lead to some toys being banned, and Hasbro wanted to keep their toys off any list of banned toys.

A New Version of Mr. Potato Head

As the developers re-worked Mr. Potato Head, they created a plastic head and a separate body that was sold with the kit. The add-on features could be snapped into pre-cut holes that existed on the head and body, so they did not need to be sharp. Hasbro also made the add-on features larger than previously. This meant they did not present a choking hazard.

The Hasbro changeover came at the right time. In November of 1969, President Richard Nixon passed the Child Protection and Toy Safety Act. With that law in place, the government created a toy testing department. They banned any toys that seemed dangerous.

By 1974, more than 1500 toys were banned, but Mr. Potato Head was still flying high.  

Within a few years, another change was made. Hasbro quit manufacturing the Mr. Potato Head body and created a larger head. The head had an added element: the back of it opened so that all the smaller pieces could be stored inside.

Not a Couch Potato

By the 1980s, Americans were becoming more interested in physical fitness. Video games were introduced which meant that something needed to counter the time children spent sitting in front of a game console.

For that reason, Hasbro made a Mr. Potato Head that wore a baseball cap and sneakers and toted a water bottle—he wasn’t going to be called a Couch Potato!

He also gave up his pipe (a long-time accessory). No more bad health habits for him.

Focusing on health was very much in vogue at that time, and the “good health” Mr. Potato Head came to the attention of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. For three years (from 2005-2007), Mr. Potato had the pleasure of being a giant balloon in the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Classic Toy

Forty years after Mr. Potato Head was introduced to the public, the toy and many of the accessories earned a full-time spot on most toy store shelves. But then a miracle happened.

Animator and movie director John Lassater began working on a new movie called “Toy Story.” The movie told the tale of a group of toys and their adventures. Lasseter knew the movie’s audience was children, but he wanted to create characters that were appealing to their parents. By choosing classic toys parents remembered, Lasseter felt adults would be more willing to take their children to the movies (often multiple times).

One of the main stars was Mr. Potato Head. He was accompanied by Mrs. Potato Head. When the movie premiered in 1995, the film was a huge hit. Toy sales exploded as well. 

More Branding

By this time, the consumer world was different. Hasbro knew that with a new movie out, they would be able to sell many more toys as well as anything they could brand with Mr. Potato Head. Soon they had deals for everything from children’s underwear and board games to key chains.

Sadly, George Lerner died that year (1995). While he would have known of the movie deal, he did not have the pleasure of sitting in a darkened theater with a tub of popcorn watching Mr. Potato Head come alive.

Success Continues

Fortunately for Hasbro, the Toy Story achievements continue. There have been three additional successful sequels. Toy Story 5 is slated for release in June of 2026.

In the meantime, Mr. Potato Head was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in 2000.  In 2010, George Lerner was posthumously given a Toy & Game Innovation Award from Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.  

And not to be forgotten is the fact that George Lerner and Julian Ellman ran a successful toy manufacturing business in Brooklyn for more than 30 years. While Mr. Potato Head was certainly the most successful toy to be introduced, Lerner and Ellman hold many patents for different toys and games they developed. Not every invention needs to flourish if you have a triumph like Mr. Potato Head.   

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