Cardboard Box Added to Toy Hall of Fame

In the interest of full disclosure, I know (again, from my daughter's research and paper) that Mr. Potato Head was a nationwide craze for a couple of years.

There were a Mrs. Potato Head (had one), a couple of potato kids (one, I remember, was "Spud"), and a couple of potato pets that followed him as a result of his success. There was even a Mr. Potato Head toy travel trailer (the vacation-y kind to pull behind a toy car) -- I vaguely remember that from commercials or from a friend's house.

According to several toy history sources, the first TV commercial for a toy was for Mr. Potato Head -- although while earning her degree at Silly Putty University (www.sillyputty.com), my daughter watched a REALLY old commercial for Silly Putty that I'd bet gives Mr. Potato Head a run for his money.

Also, Mr. Potato Head was, according to the THOF, the only licensed toy in the movie, Toy Story.

I guess it is iconic and has lasted for several generations, two of the criteria. I just don't see that it changed the way toys were made, or that children learn (at least not in any significant way) from playing with it.

When I match Mr. Potato Head against marbles, bicycles, Monopoly, Tinkertoys, rollerskates, etc., I don't see him being one of 34 toys of ALL TIME deserving of the special recognition. Obviously, I've spent too much time thinking about this over the last three months -- but we have a tendency to get fully immersed in the kids' annual Social Sciences project at the Scoutmaster household.

Again, I'm proud to be a tuberphobe. Mr. Potato Head has no business in the Toy Hall of Fame. It's time somebody took a stand against underserving tubers.

I can just see it now. The Star Wars lobby, emboldened by the success of the Ragged Ann petition campaign and using the money they save by living in their parents' basement, will team with the Governor of Idaho to put out a contract on me. The hit will be accomplished using . . .

. . . one of those great old Spud Guns, the kind that fired little pieces of potato.

Tuberphobes unite!

My computer monitor went out last week and I had to buy a new one. Instead of going LED I picked up a 19 inch CRT. My 4 year old grandson was with me when I made the purchase and he seemed thrilled as we loaded the big box in the car. The origins for his excitement became know on the ride home when he asked "can I have the box?".

One week later the box is still in our den complete with a camping light and blanket inside.

Didn't Mr. Potato head come out in a plastic version with the holes already there? I seem to recall getting one of the "modern" ones as a kid and thinking "what's the point?"

'The point' is exactly the point. The original facial features for Mr. Potato Head had sharp points on the back so you could stick them in a potato. Federal safety guidelines for toys changed, and the prongs on the back of the facial features could no longer be sharp.

To compensate for this, Hasbro made the plastic "potato" with the holes already drilled for the facial features and put blunt pegs on the back of the facial features. Of course, this limits the creativity factor of the toy -- kids can only put facial features where the holes already exist.

Like I said, we've been living the Toy Hall of Fame for three months at the Scoutmaster household.

"Federal safety guidelines for toys changed, and the prongs on the back of the facial features could no longer be sharp."

I just KNEW this thread would become a CONSERVATIVE issue. (other than the obvious of making your OWN fun your OWN way using your OWN cardboard box! (Caution - staples may be sharp. Rough edges may cause abrasions. Sitting in a box in the middle of a road you are not visible to drivers. They may run over you.)

That last one SHOULD have been printed. Many years ago I debated whether to hit the box or not. Even just clipping it to send it off the road. Then figured it might still have the appliance in it so i swerved around it. Looked in the mirror and out climbs a kid!!! I turned around and told him how lucky he was. Then took his box.

My wife missed out on the joy of playing with big cardboard boxes as a toy (other than, as she says, making a Roper Room car out of one -- the kind you wore hanging from your shoulders by suspenders).

When she was a child, some very young twin boys in her neighborhood were playing with a cardboard box in the middle of the road. The details are hazy, but apparently they were taking turns squeezing into the box while the other pushed the box down a steep hill in the road.

A passing car saw the box in the middle of the road and elected to run over it, killing the boy. None of the kids in her neighborhood played in cardboard boxes much after that. Thanks for swerving.

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