Mr Potato Head goes gender neutral as Hasbro drops mister from brand name - ABC News

Mr Potato Head is no longer a mister.

Key points:

• Hasbro is dropping the 'Mr' honorific from the Potato Head brand, with changes coming into effect this year
• It says the individual Mr and Mrs Potato Head characters will live on
• The rebranding will see a new playset released that will let children create their own types of families

Hasbro, the company that's made the potato-shaped plastic toy for nearly 70 years, is giving the spud a gender neutral new name: Potato Head. The change will appear on boxes this year.

Many toymakers have been updating their classic brands in recent years, hoping to relate to today's kids and reflect more modern families.

"It's a potato," said Ali Mierzejewski, editor in chief at toy review site The Toy Insider.

"But kids like to see themselves in the toys they are playing with."

Barbie, for example, has tried to shed the blonde image and now comes in multiple skin tones and body shapes. The Thomas the Tank Engine toy line added more female characters, while American Girl is now selling a boy doll.

As part of the rebranding, Hasbro will release a new Potato Head playset that will let kids create their own type of families, including two mums or two dads.

The Mr and Mrs Potato Head characters will live on in some form, Hasbro said.

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Both have appeared in the Toy Story movies.

Mattel's Creatable World dolls, released in 2019, are the first line of gender-neutral dolls produced by the company famous for Barbie.

The company describes the range of dolls as "designed to keep labels out and invite everyone in", for which Mattel consulted physicians, hundreds of families as well as experts in gender identity in researching the product.

Mattel consulted families, physicians and gender identity experts in creating its gender-neutral Creatable World dolls.(Mattel)

Dropping the "Mr" from Potato Head's name could encourage other companies to stop assigning genders to its toys, a trend that has already been happening, Mierzejewski said.

"It's setting this new standard," she said.

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GLAAD, an LGBTQ advocacy group, applauded the genderless toy potato.

"Hasbro is helping kids to simply see toys as toys, which encourages them to be their authentic selves outside of the pressures of traditional gender norms," said Rich Ferraro, GLAAD's chief communications officer, in a statement.

Mr Potato Head first hit the toy scene in 1952, when it didn't even come with a plastic potato — kids had to supply their own vegetable to poke eyes, a nose or moustache into. Hasbro, which also makes Monopoly and My Little Pony, bought the brand and eventually added a plastic spud.

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2021-02-26 00:18:05Z
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