Today I'm taking a look at something a little different. It's a Halloween Mr. Potato Head known as "Trick or Tater". I had seen this guy on a few different places and was hoping to buy one. I haven't seen him in any stores but tonight I stumbled across him at Target and figured I might as well get him while I still could.


I'm going to do a full review but it'll be more brief than normal because of the nature of the toy. I haven't messed around with Mr. Potato Head in probably 20 years, so let's see how he shapes up after all this time.

Packaging:
The package is about as basic as you can get. When I was a kid Mr. Potato Head came in a box, but it seems like he's gotten a smaller package over time. This one is pretty good with a card backer and the whole front encased in a bubble.


I was able to get the package open in a way that allowed me to even repackage it back up if I wanted. So that's a plus. It's not really a collector friendly package but it was nice that I didn't have to tear it up to get him out.


The back (as well as the front) give you a couple of ideas for costumes as well as lists all his parts. I don't think Mr. Potato Head's arms used to come out of the sockets, but I could be wrong about that. I'm fairly certain the one I had as a kid had them made in there though.

Articulation:
He's a Mr. Potato Head... I mean really.


He can move his arms with a swivel and his feet can pivot a bit. All his eyes, ears, etc also can swivel and pop out.

Sculpt:
If you don't know what Mr. Potato Head looks like, you're one sad dude. This is basically your standard Potato Head with special Halloween accessories. The sculpt is essentially timeless. He's been virtually the same for decades now.


The evil Count Potato Famine.
His butt does open and can be used to store all his extra pieces. Personally I think this is a cool "candy dispenser" during Halloween. Just stick some treats in there and open him up to take them out.


The ears and teeth have a fair amount of detail. He has some sort of pointy goblin ears and there's even a worm in one. CREEPY! He also has a little candy bag deal that he can carry but it's only got one side. It'd been better if it was a real mini pumpkin.


If you remove all the extras he's a pretty normal Potato Head. So you can use him all year round if you want.

Accessories:
Compared to the normal Potato Head he's pretty under equipped. He comes with his hat, shoes, one set of glow in the dark eyes, his candy bowl, his ears and his teeth. He also has the ghost sheet, which is the coolest part. Unfortunately the ghost sheet only has eye and hat holes. It'd been cool if I could plug a nose or teeth in as well.

Value:
He was $6.99 at Target. Not a bad value at all. You can pick one up at Entertainment Earth for $7.49.



Score Recap:
Packaging - 6
Sculpting - 7
Articulation - 5
Accessories - 7
Value - 8
Overall - 7 out of 10

So this is just an average Potato Head. He's pretty cool for the ghost costume, but there isn't a lot else you can do with him. Sure, you can mess with him a bit and if you have other Potato Head parts the combinations are endless. With what you're given here though you can only do a few things.


Potatonormal Activity.
The glow in the dark eyes work pretty good and this would be a lot of fun for kids as a decent little gift during the season. Mr. Potato Head is a classic and Hasbro has managed to keep him more fresh and relevant in recent years. I wonder why not a Mr. Pumpkin Head though? Then it could fight my Lance Hendrikson figure.