Mr. Potao Head
(Warning! Geezing Alert! Old Fartitude Ahead! Warning!)
I was looking at an image from "Toy Story" the other day and was struck by the Mr. Potato Head character (voiced perfectly by Don Rickles). The modern version of the toy is a brown plactic "potato" glob which has little holes into which the noses, eyes, lips, and the other parts can be stuck. I'm sorry but that's just frickin' lame. Circumscribed creativity. Wonderful.
The original toy was based on the idea that there was a potato in the household somewhere and the good folks at Hasbro provided something (little plastic pieces) that could turn the spud into a toy. How many other startchy tubers could be used to entertain children? "Mr. Yam Head" just doesn't sound right, does it? Maybe it was having to clean the pieces after the playing was done that was the problem.
But dammit, you could do more when you had a blank tater to work with.