Playskool Mr. Potato Head Parts 'n Pieces - Space Spud; Take Me To Your Tater
Written: May 21 '06
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Pros: Fun for parents (kids too); relieves monotony of standard Mr. Potato Head pieces.
Cons: Didn't know about these sooner.
The Bottom Line: The Bottom Line secretly plays with the Space Spud accessory pack after the kid is in bed...
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| krissingene's Full Review: Playskool Mr. Potato Head Parts 'n Pieces - Alien ... |
Last Christmas, my daughter received the Mr. Potato Head Silly Suitcase, and it quickly became one of her very favorite toys. A couple of months later, her love for "Tater Face" was still going strong - but even with forty body parts and accessories, my tolerance for him was wearing thin. After all, there really aren't but so many ways those parts can be arranged, and I'm sure my girl was beginning to wonder about Mommy's sanity when I began making mutant spuds just for variety.
Had I paid closer attention on the Playskool aisle in Wal-Mart, I'd have probably already known that "add-on packs" are available for Mr. (and Mrs.) Potato Head, but it was a childless friend who finally clued me in. (She was the same one who gifted Tater Face into our family to begin with, else I'd have wondered why on earth she knew about them either.) And the next time I found myself in a store, I quickly located the Parts 'n Pieces and went crazy. Mr. Potato Head was apparently not going to fade into oblivion in the bottom of the toybox anytime soon, so I would at least make him more tolerable during his reign.
~* Transformation of Tater *~
I paid $3.99 for the Space Spud set at Wal-Mart, which bought us nine new pieces - yeah, that averages out to about $.45 per piece, but anything that helps preserve my sanity is well worth the price. And there's one piece in this set that I'd have nearly paid $3.99 for by itself - more on that in a bit.
Okay, so nine pieces to transform Mr. Potato Head into a Space Spud - you get two sets of eyes, two ears, two mouths, two tentacles and one pair of antennae. Fans of the spud will quickly note that having only one pair of ears and one pair of arms (well, tentacles) doesn't give you lots of new ways to accessorize MPH, but hey, it's a change. And change is good. And no new feet in this set - apparently, aliens shop at the same shoe store as MPH, and you'll have to make do with the shoes you have already.
The ears in this set are orange and pointy one end - they can be Vulcan-like when pointed up and a little bat-like when turned down. The tentacles are yellow and crooked, with three finger-ish prongs on the end. They're pretty basic, and nothing horribly special.
The fun pieces, as usual, are the eyes and the mouths. My very favorite is a set of eyes (the ones I'd have purchased separately if I'd had to) - they're just big crossed eyes, rimmed in blue, that protrude at a 45-degree angle from MPH's head. Very fun. The other set of eyes actually consists of three eyeballs in a horizontal line - red, yellow and green. The two mouths included in the Space Spud set are both green; one (the one that we immediately lost when the box was first opened) is short and a bit frog-like, with tiny horns protruding from each side of the mouth. The other is long and wide, utilizing both the nose and mouth holes on MPH's body. Both are a bit reptilian, as a good alien should be, I suppose. The antennae are silver and basic - two short sprouts with round, knob-like ends - but they too are amusing, especially paired with the standard MPH pieces.
~* Spacey Spuds *~
All of the pieces in this set work the same way as other MPH parts - insert peg into hole on body, rearrange, repeat, repeat, repeat. Like any other parts, they're plastic and a bit flexible, and can hold up to the rigorous play of even young toddlers.
My two-year-old was a little confused by these parts at first. While Mommy was wildly entertained (yeah, Mommy doesn't get out much), Rachael wasn't really familiar with the whole concept of aliens, so had no reference point for these pieces. Still, they attached to Tater Face, so they were okay with her - she just calls them "silly parts", and she'll 'get' the whole alien thing later on. Upon first opening the box of Space Spud accessories, we assembled all of the possible alien combinations and had a good laugh over them, but now she uses them interchangeably with all of her other MPH accessories - and let me tell ya, seeing a little plastic purse hanging off of a yellow tentacle is worth $3.99 to a bored mother.
~* Contact Info *~
Visit Playskool online at www.playskool.com, or call 1-800-752-9755, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. EST.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3.99
Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months
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krissingene
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Member: Kristin
Location: Southern VA
Reviews written: 267
Trusted by: 119 members
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