Celebrating 60 Years of Mr. Potato Head

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The brain child of George Lerner, who invented the famous spud toy back in 1949, Mr. Potato head was first put out by Hasbro in 1952, but only the parts, not the body! Yes, the original had you sticking things into real potatoes! They only started including a potato body in the kit in 1964. Pretty wild, eh? Also wild: Mr. Potato Head was the very first toy ever advertised on TV. I was in Philly this past summer and visited a museum that had a installation dedicated to MPH, so I took these pics with the idea of sharing them one day here on the _floss. Well, in honor of Roy Halladay's historic perfect game no-hitter last night, I thought it time to post the pics. You'll understand why when you look at the first one below:

Click on through to see more fun, unusual Potato heads from the near and distant past.

Let's stay with the Philly theme for one more. These Mr. Potato Head 76ers came with an assortment of interchangeable basketball-themed parts.

Hasbro put out this plush Mr. Potato Head in 1999.

Perhaps the best of the bunch, here's Spider Man MPH!

And how about this old-school Mr. & Mrs. Funny Face Combo Kit? This one is from 1953 and includes metal parts that you insert into real veggies.

This one comes from the 50th Anniversary kit, which came with a body more reminiscent of the original 1964 body. Pretty different from the one my son has, that's for sure!

Mrs. Potato Pajama & Glamour Pals came out in 2004 and was packaged with all kinds of fun things to dress her up for a night on the town. Fancy hair, high heels, - or for a night in PJs at home - nightcap, brush, etc.