What are your Mr. Potato Head tips?

[annie1995]

But if you DO buy arms, put them in your potato before buying them because some of the potatoes from Disney had the arm holes drilled too big and the arms wouldn't stay on. You couldn't add anything to them to hang off because the arm itself wouldn't stay attached.

Still, a basic PH from Walmart or Target is a good buy...for the basic parts.

Silly little things that bother me....

If you have a basic potato from home, how do you know if your arms will fit it or not?

 

[Mrs Potato Head]

If you have a basic potato from home, how do you know if your arms will fit it or not?

IF you buy their potato, try any arms you buy from them in that potato. I've not had any problems with the holes drilled in potatoes I've bought outside the parks and any arms I've used in them. ONLY a bunch of the potato bodies I've bought from WDW directly.

 

[Taylor'sMom]

IF you buy their potato, try any arms you buy from them in that potato. I've not had any problems with the holes drilled in potatoes I've bought outside the parks and any arms I've used in them. ONLY a bunch of the potato bodies I've bought from WDW directly.

go figure!?!?

 

[jenelope]

I'd advise buying the basic Potato Head at a discount store before the trip and familiarizing yourself with the pieces that come with it. It had been a long time since I'd played with a Potato Head, so I put some pieces in my PH box at Once Upon a Toy, thinking that they were special WDW pieces. They weren't. Now I have extras.

 

[pepperderr]

My son has at least 4 regular potato heads and the one that the parts fall off on purpose. He has tons of extra piece. I plan to get a lot of the disney peices when we go there in June and then decorate the room with a potato head of each of the 4 of us. Someone said 18 dollars for the box isn't all that great of a deal. I haven't seen any of the disney pieces for under 4 dollars a piece online so to me it seems 18 dollars is a good deal. I would just need pieces and not the potato. Can I get 4 dolls woth or parts in one box for 20 dollars? I want to get minnie, maybe mickey ears, goofy, donald, and probably buzz or something else for a boy. My boys are not into Pirates. If I can't get the ones we want in one box, I will make my rich son buy another box LOL. He has so much money saved up for the trip and it is all for souvineres.

 

[bumbershoot]

Also, that Easter Bunny Potato Head is cute...I would recommend buying it AFTER Easter, if you're not buying it for an Easter basket. It will probably be 50% off or more & you still have you potato head for Disney & extra pieces!!

Definitely. We got a "ghost" PH in early November for about 3 bucks. Was almost 10 just a few days before.



When you do buy arms, make sure you are getting equal numbers of right and left.

Since I have heard that the regular arms don't hold the special Disney things, I was sure to buy extra arms. We also plan on getting more PHs, so it's good to have purchased the extras ahead of time.


They have the PH box-filling at Disneyland Resort, too.

 

[goldenears]

We have done this before and it is so much fun! The best advice I can give is to stuff parts with parts...i.e, if you are getting a hat, make sure you put smaller parts into the hat before stuffing it into your box. Also, there may be lots of little spaces in your box when you think you are done. We made sure that we stuffed these w/ little parts like earrings, ears, etc... You can always use extras of those things.

 

[3"Mouse"keteers]

I dont know if any one would be interested but I created a spread sheet that has most of the disney pieces listed its in like check off form... my goal is to get every piece i can...I filled 2 boxes alone in Feb. and another box back in november plus i had some from my last trip in 2003.

Jill

I'd love a copy.......could you email it to me? Courtney_Harris82@yahoo.com

Thanks in advance!

 

[GothTink]

I dont know if any one would be interested but I created a spread sheet that has most of the disney pieces listed its in like check off form... my goal is to get every piece i can...I filled 2 boxes alone in Feb. and another box back in november plus i had some from my last trip in 2003.

Jill

Oooh! Will you send it to me? heather@heatherbrewer.com Thanks!

 

[sueh]

I would love a copy too please/

swh919@aol.com

Also, you can buy the box there? without the head?

My kids have 3 heads and a baby head so they would love this.

Thanks
Sue

 

[awaldo]

One thing I hadn't seen mentioned, but it's worth mentioning, I think. If you have kids that are very detail oriented or control freaks like my 3 YO DD is already, MAKE SURE you get all the pieces for each character. For example, if you're getting the Ariel tail, make sure you get her hair too. I was soooo focused on getting the most pieces I could, I never paid much attention to what exactly I was stuffing in the box. My daughter never fails to remind me when she's trying to build something that she KNOWS is missing a piece because she saw it...and she knows I didn't get it!

 

[kytiam]

Back in October, Once Upon a Toy had these huge potato head-shaped containers you could fill instead of the boxes. I was buying 2 boxes full of parts and the clerk at the register suggested that for a little bit more, I could fill one of the big things and have a cool storage container for the pieces too. She said the giant potato head containers held the equivalent of 3 1/2
boxes for slightly less than the price of 3 boxes. I had to pass on the deal, because the 2 boxes I was buying represented the completion of my collection of everything they had for the starchy little guy. Plus, I didn't have room in my bags for the large potato. I don't know if these are still available or if they were a limited time special deal.

 

[NicoleDisneyFan]

I had to buy the potato there since I didn't bring our one from home and the kids wanted to play with him. I opened the pack of the potato and pushed a lot of items inside of it and put a lot of the small items on the bottom and just kept pushing down on the items and was able to get a good amount in the box. I think that was our best thing that we bought. I can't wait to go to disney world and get one there since the kids loved it!

 

[DearDaisyinDurham]

I think you are right. We didn't get enough of those kinds of arms last trip. Sadly, each of our kids' potatoes only get to "hold" one thing. But there's usually not too much fighting! They are already working on a their Potato Parts wish list for December!!!

I found this website to be interesting if you are new the the whole concept, or if you want to get a list going ahad of time for your trip. My kids have a ball just looking at all the parts there are: www.mrpotatohead.net/2000/20007.htm

This is a super fun thread! Thanks OP & all who posted links & tips!

 

[Dizneydaz]

We've done PH 3 times now. Twice at WDW and once at DCA. First time I got the head and opened him up and put all I could into him. I got that box pretty full! One thing we were short on was ears-We only got 1 set. So, next time, I made sure we got more ears. Since the first time, I haven't bought any more heads at Disney, I've picked them up other places. I got DD a Santa one, and that bunny one too.

Once you get the box pretty full, you'll find that you can still stuff it with more of the smaller pieces (name badge, mickey bar, balloon, camera, aetc.) I have alot of those pieces now.

Also, for those that are interested, you can also do the same with My Little Pony at DTD. They have some cute MLP accessories.

 

[Kimberly Hill]

Also, for those that are interested, you can also do the same with My Little Pony at DTD. They have some cute MLP accessories.

Holy cow! My daughter isn't big on Mr. Potato Head but she loves My Little Pony. Thanks for the tip!

 

[vern]

I would also buy the basic potato at WalMart or Target. I have about 10 PH's and now buy all the seasonal ones and special seasonal parts at discount stores. I buy the WDW specific parts at WDW only.

If you are having difficulty getting the parts in, the folks at Once Upon a Toy in Downtown Disney have always been more than willing to help out.

Stay clear of extra arms, basic eyes, noses, etc. Get the pieces that you can't get elsewhere....

the arms at disney are designed to hold the disney pieces like the balloon and camera, so do buy a few of those.

 

[Cindar]

I waited a few years to buy my PH- and had no idea the idea was to stuff as much as you could. Thankfully the CM told me to get MUCH more. Had I known that before I would not have waited years.
And now ya'll are telling me to get more without purchasing a new PH. Yikes I should not have opened this thread- MUST buy more parts

 

[M&N]

Thanks for the tips. I did not realize you could just buy box of parts. I'm making a list of parts I have now!

 

[ZoZo]

The only tip I have is to buy the actual head before you leave (Wal-Mart or Target they run about $6) that way you only fill the box with pieces, and the kids can play with it on the way there.

I agree - buy the "head" itself somewhere else (they're about $5) and just get all of the parts. You can get much more if you don't take up room in the box for the head!

BTW, I did the same thing for at the My Little Pony kiosk at DTD (at the toy store) and was truly amazed at how much I could stuff into one box. All of us adults were sitting on the floor, trading tips on how to stuff more in. It was hilarious! "Put the soft stuff like the 'clothes" in the bottom, then put the pony bed in upside down and stuff more things along the sides . . ."