Rhode Island Resident Restored Iconic Potato Statues
Neal Messier has located 36 of the 48 original Mr. Potato Head statues released in a 2000 state marketing campaign.
Updated on Sept. 29, 2026 in Collecting
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Rhode Island resident Neal Messier has tracked down 36 of the 48 original 6-foot Mr. Potato Head statues commissioned for a 2000 state campaign. He currently owns five of the restored figures, including the Common Tater now on display in Middletown.
Why it matters
Messier aims to preserve these unique pieces of Rhode Island cultural history and ensure they return to public view. He is working to establish a nonprofit organization to secure funding for the ongoing restoration of remaining statues.
Messier owns five statues and has restored notable figures like Captain Democracy and Sunbaked. Restoration efforts are intensive, with one statue requiring 200 hours of manual fiberglass and mosaic work.
The players
Neal Messier
An East Greenwich resident leading the effort to recover and restore Rhode Island's iconic 6-foot Mr. Potato Head statues.
Skydive Newport
A recreational facility located in Middletown that currently hosts the restored Common Tater statue for public viewing.
The details
Messier utilizes social media and direct inquiries to find statues, even recovering some from as far away as New Jersey. The restoration process is a community effort involving volunteers and specialized painting, mosaic, and fiberglass repairs.
Timeline
The initial marketing campaign released the 48 statues in 2000.
The restoration of the Sunbaked statue took two years to complete.
Culture Shift
The recovery of these statues highlights a growing trend of nostalgia-driven preservation for commercial art installations. It reflects a shift in how residents prioritize local branding history over the ephemeral nature of original advertising campaigns.
Residents can visit the Common Tater statue at Skydive Newport to see the restoration work firsthand. Those who know the whereabouts of missing statues can assist the recovery effort through Messier’s dedicated tracking website.
The takeaway
Preserving large-scale commercial art requires significant time and community volunteerism. Collectors interested in local history can play a vital role by identifying and documenting the whereabouts of lost public installations.
Further reading
Learn more about local preservation efforts in the Collecting section.
More information
Track the current locations of the restored figures on the Mr. Potato Head location website.
Source note: This article includes information reported by USA TODAY.
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