Awhile back some friends and I made a quest to visit all the remaining Mr. Potatohead statues in Rhode Island. This old site describes these statues in more detail, saying that in the year 2000, they found 47 confirmed Mr. Potatohead statues scattered around Rhode Island as a tourism promotion sponsored by Hasbro. Ten years later, very few remain and of those, most have been moved to new locations.
Roadside America and some local RI friends were able to help me find some of the remaining statues and we made a day of it. (I’m the one in all dressed in blue. The human dressed in blue that is, not the potato in blue)
Still of 47 original statues, it’s a shame that we could only find 8. I wonder if there’s anybody out there who knows the location of any other Mr. Potatoheads in Rhode Island. All the websites out there that are about these statues are incredibly old and out of date.
The ones we were able to find were at the following locations:
- Hasbro Headquarters, Pawtucket (Original)
- Roger Williams Park, Providence (standard)
- Caserta Pizza, Providence (badly vandalized pizza maker)
- Thrifty Car Rental, Warwick (blue potato on wheels)
- Day-o-Lite building, Warwick (Christmas lights potato)
- Dunkin Donuts, Warren (Donut logo potato)
- Shopping center, Portsmouth (Bellhop and vineyard potatoes)
Other than a elephant potato in Chepachet that we didn’t have time to reach, does anyone know anything about the missing Potatoheads? I hear they were all auctioned off so they must have gone somewhere, right?
I’d be curious to know where this one ended up. It was the “sun tan” potato, which [someone] said was a racist image.
There is a Mrs. Potato Head statue titled “Sun Baked” which is located at the Westerly State airport.
This statue was created as part of the Hasbro/Tourism project in 2000 by Block Island artist Cindy Kelley.
The statue is entirely mosaic, made from old dishes and tiles applied to the potato head from provided by Hasbro.
“Sun Baked” was displayed at the Fred Benson Town Beach on Block Island for a few years, but it was later decided that she needed a location more sheltered from the elements. She was moved to the Westerly State Airport where she waves hello and goodbye to all of the flights.
“Sun Baked” is in great condition for being almost 15 and a public art installation.
Go visit her! She is beautiful!!
Somehow , living in RI from 1975-1993, I missed all these. In Foster, which is fairly close to Chepachet, it was never mentioned. But then, in Foster, not a lot was mentioned 
My hometown is Chepachet and my forever home is now Foster (hi, Holdsworth!). The elephant used to be in front of the library on Rt. 44 in Chepachet Town Center but it was moved to the back of the building. The reason they have an elephant is because, many years ago, a parade was passing through town and one of our kindly townsfolk shot down the elephant. Chepachet has a plaque and other random elephant motifs as memorials.
I couldn’t tell you where they all are, but I can ask around. Here’s a story(don’t know from when) about one of them. They aren’t universally loved here in the state, and many decorative sculptures have fallen subject to zoning regulations, despite the Big Blue Bug’sprominent position along I-95.
Hi IzzFlrRN, do you know Bob?
I’ve lost track of a few of these along the way. I know that there is still one in front of the Mishnock Fire Station here in Coventry / West Greenwich.
I’d never actually heard of them, but I came into this thread supposing that it was asking why there are Mr. Potatohead statues in RI, and was going to WAG that it was related to Hasbro being a local company.
I’ve been to the “hometowns” of a few fictional characters, and sometimes locals will put stuff up as a point of local pride even if not apparently funded by the owner of the character.
I just came in to say that I didn’t know there were that many RI Dopers here. Hi guys! Also, I (until 3 weeks ago) lived very close to the Thrifty Car rental in Warwick, and although I have a vague recollection that there was a Mr. Potato Head located there, I can’t remember seeing it recently. And I drive by there frequently.
Hoping the OP doesn’t mind a little hijack I’ll throw out this link of some notable news events here in Row Diland during the past year.