MR AND MRS Potato Head are going gender neutral, the company that makes the popular plastic toy announced today.

Hasbro said it was dropping the honorifics from the spud’s name “to promote gender equality and inclusion.”

From later this year, the toy launched almost 70 years ago, will be known simply as “Potato Head.”

“Hasbro today announced the iconic brand will be reimagined for the modern consumer,” read a statement on the manufacturer’s website.

The re-branded toy in which children add facial characteristics and clothes to the body of a plastic spud will hit shelves in the autumn.

It will allow children “to imagine and create their own Potato Head family,” said Hasbro.

“The way the brand currently exists – with the Mr and Mrs – is limiting when it comes to both gender identity and family structure,” Hasbro general manager Kimberly Boyd told business magazine Fast Company.

“Culture has evolved,” she added.

Mr Potato Head first went on sale in 1952. On the back of its success, Mrs Potato Head, along with traditional ‘female’ accessories, was launched the following year.

The move follows other updates to classic brands, including Barbie, who was initially known for being tall, white and blonde but now comes in a range of ethnicities and body shapes.

In 2019, global toy giant Mattel released a line of gender-neutral dolls.