George Lerner

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George Lerner (born 1922) was the inventor of the famous American toy, Mr. Potato Head. His original idea was to create plastic facial features that could be applied to a piece of fruit or a vegetable, thus turning an inanimate piece of food into an anthropomorphic toy. During the World War IIera, Lerner found success as a well known inventor and designer. The During the 1940s he sold the idea of a toy whose body parts would stick onto a potato to a cereal company. Just before 1950, he designed and produced a first generation set of plastic face pieces. The push pin shaped noses, ears, eyes, and mouth parts could be pushed into fruits or vegetables to transform the food into playmates. Lerner finally sold the toy for $5000, to a cereal company. The toys were planned to be a premium giveaway in cereal boxes. But when Lerner found a better deal, Lerner and the manufacturer bought the rights back for $7000. The Hassenfeld brothers (now Hasbro) bought the rights to the toy for $0.50.

[edit] Mr. Potato Head

In 1952 Mr. Potato Head was born. The original toy didn't actually have a potato, as the parents had to supply it. After eight years, a plastic potato body was added to Lerner's toy. Over the next years, Mr. Potato head produced many varieties of the toy.^[1]