Dunkin's Bizarre Mr. Potato Head Collaboration
He's a star in all four "Toy Story" movies, voiced by none other than the late comedic genius Don Rickles. And incredibly, that achievement doesn't even begin to tap the depths of the impressive life of Mr. Potato Head, according to a ThoughtCo.com retrospective of the iconic plastic toy's legacy, now spanning more than 70 years.
In 1986, Mr. Potato Head served as a face of the nationwide Great American Smokeout anti-smoking campaign. Hasbro, the toy company behind Mr. Potato Head, then eliminated the smoking pipe from Mr. Potato Head kits. In the '90s, he collaborated with the President's Council on Physical Fitness and, along with Mrs. Potato Head, encouraged citizens to get involved in politics through the League of Women Voters. In honor of his 50th birthday, Mr. Potato Head lent his star power to AARP, a senior citizens' advocacy organization.
But Mr. Potato Head's inspiring life might have taken a far different turn, thanks to a "friend" with whom he was associated in the early days of both of their careers. In the early 1960s, about a decade after Mr. Potato Head made his debut, Dunkin' (known as Dunkin' Donuts before its name change) was emerging as a nationwide donut shop with the help of its mascot, an anthropomorphic donut named Dunkie Donut. For reasons now lost to time, Dunkin' teamed up with Hasbro to create Dunkie Donut Head, a truly strange addition to the Mr. Potato Head family.
Customers were meant to use a real donut as Dunkie's face
Unlike others in Mr. Potato Head's family (Oscar the Orange, Pete the Pepper, and Katie the Carrot, to name a few), Dunkie Donut Head had a more unsettling appearance. With a foam head shaped like a donut — apparently, Dunkin's hope was that kids would substitute a real donut for the face, according to YouTube's TheToyChannel — Dunkie Donut Head was a challenge to assemble. The hole in the middle of his face forced his eyes to the very top of his head and left his nose hanging into the hole.
The 1960s toy was met with stunned surprise on YouTube, namely because of the whole replace-the-face-with-your-real-donut concept. One commenter wrote, "Yes that's nice, put a real doughnut on what may be the cutest Mr. Potatohead product so you can devour his cute little face. But hey! at least you still have his cute DECAPITATED body you can play with." Another raised the perfectly reasonable question, "Why would anyone want to mess with a wonderful doughnut?!?"
It's not clear how many Dunkie Donut Heads were made. But Mike Mozart, creator of TheToyChannel video, says it's likely to be difficult to find one in pristine condition today, as many boxes were distributed at Dunkin' shops and handled by workers and customers with frying oil on their hands, which likely sped up the deterioration of the packaging. Still, it's possible to find Dunkie Donut Head in some corners of the internet, like this listing at Debaco offering the toy in a somewhat tattered box for $99.50.