02/21/05 A spud that`s gone to the dark side

Toy maker Hasbro is promoting its latest Mr Potato Head figure, Darth Tater. The toy will retail for $7.99 and is available this month ahead of the May release of the latest installment of Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith. Darth Tater has a light saber, cape, helmet in addition to the regular Mr Potato Head accessories such as eyes, nose and mouth. Hasbro's newest toy is old news to Western Image's Darth Tater. SHIRROD "There's no doubt out Darth Tater is the original Darth Tater." The Boise company makes and sells tourist merchandise like key chains, magnets, hats, postcards and tee shirts. Company owner Mark Shirrod says Darth Tater has been around for awhile. SHIRROD "We like to say that we dug Darth Tater up in 1994 during a management meeting here. We were looking to come up with humorous potato related designs. Sort of came up with Star Wars and almost immediately we came up with the name Darth Tater." And Darth Tater became a tee shirt. Shirrod says its no big deal that Hasbro has its own Darth Tater. SHIRROD "We were very surprised to see it, very surprised to see how similar it was to ours." Western Image's Darth Tater is the company's number one selling item and Hasbro obviously hopes their new Potato Head toy will force the same type of sales. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott