Day Ten

Hockey season started, and as such the inevitable happened and I’m falling behind. So, I’m rallying the ol’ college spirit and doing a late-night write up. And, much like college, I’m sure nobody is actually reading this, so I’ll be arbitrarily graded. A+ to me, chumps. Or, the countdown will continue this trend, until we get days 15-31 all posted on October 31st. Marathoning so I can still get credit for everything due by the end of the semester.

So, in the vein of haphazardly slapping things together for any kind of result, let’s talk Mr. Potato Head ‘Trick Or Tater’.

This guy is like any other old Mr. Potato Head. You get your potato, you get your parts, and you get to play at proctologist by shoving all the currently unused parts up his ass. Then you get to play at bewildered emergency room technician when you later have to excavate a myriad of parts from his ass. Googly eyes, a set of dentures and a classy hat? It’s not my business to judge what sick perversions you’re into Mr. Potato Head, but still.

This guy continues Playskool’s current trend of giving the old classic new pieces and cutesy pun names to tie in with everything and anything. Optimash Prime? Darth Tater? Indiana Spud? Pure gold in my book (expect Indiana Spud. That one’s reaching). Ages Two and Up? Hell yeah, that’s me! That’s me by twenty years.


At first glance, our MPH looks like a guy that went out to get his Halloween costume day-of, and ended up having to rummage through the gutted, barren shelves to slap together a semblance of a costume. Googly eyes? Mickey Mouse gloves? Elf ears? Those plastic vampire fangs? Clown nose? Bowler hat? Mrs. Potato Head’s garish little Pumpkin handbag? He’s like some interdimensional IRS agent.

I did a similar last minute throw-together one year. Only instead of a costume store, I tried my luck on a Hot Topic sale rack, next door to the gutted costume place. Unlike our friend, my gamble played off, and I managed to slap together a really decent Jem costume.

The detail is pretty cool for such a minimalist toy. The one ear has a worm in it, and the eyes glow in the dark. And it’s not that weak kind-of glow either. It’s that sort of gritty-feeling plastic that you know is going to light up the room like Three Mile Island is going down on your desk. My hair’s been falling out in clumps since I opened this guy, but damn it, it’s worth it for that glow.



And what’s this? A handkerchief for when my radiation poisoning causes me to start bleeding from every pore? No. It’s much more than that.


It’s a ghost costume! The eye and hat pegs hold it in place, and it drapes majestically over our starchy spook. It certainly explains why a potato dressing up as a vampire needs a bowler hat, and it reminds me of that scene from Beetlejuice, where Allen and Barbara are trying to scare away the tenants but can’t be any scarier than bedsheet ghosts.

This guy… wow. I’m at a loss for words. I want to throw a giant fancy dress dinner party and have this guy as the center piece. Something about the ghost costume just warms my heart. Even if he does go from ‘throwing random pieces together at the last minute’ to ‘not really even trying’.

And I know I was all gung-ho about Boo’s glow in the dark capabilities in that entry. But now I have to say Boo who? I mean look at this!

Glorious.