The plastic potato, while restrictive of facial feature placement is nothing short of an improvement over the original. You cannot have a REAL potato sit at the corner of a desk or on a book shelf. Well, you can technically, but it's not recommended.Another interesting note about the worlds' most famous spud, when he was first created and manufactored, a lot of parents actually HATED Mr. Potato Head, cause back than they didn't have the plastic potato they do now and kids had to get their own potato to put the body parts into, a lot of people thought that was a waste of food.