Cabbage Patch Kids

Cabbage Patch Kids
Type Dolls
Inventor Xavier Roberts
Company Coleco (1982–1988)
Hasbro (1988–1994)
Mattel (1994–2003)
Toys "R" Us (2003)
Play Along (2004–2011)
Jakks Pacific (2011-2014)
Wicked Cool Toys (2015-present)
Country United States
Availability 1978–present
Official website

Cabbage Patch Kids are a line of soft sculptured dolls created by Xavier Roberts and registered in the United States copyright office in 1978.

As a 21 year old art student, Xavier utilized the quilting skills he learned from his mother and the historic technique of "needle molding" to develop his own line of fabric sculptures. He called these hand-stitched, one-of-a-kind, soft fabric sculptures "The Little People". His Little People were not offered for sale, but were "adopted" each with their own individual name and birth certificate. Many other soft sculpture dolls dating back to the 1800s were created using similar needle molding techniques, but the execution of Xavier's own design has been certified to be unique and copyrightable as a work of art.

The Little People were first offered at arts and crafts shows, then later at Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia.[1] The doll brand went on to become one of the most popular toy fads of the 1980s and one of the longest-running doll franchises in America.[2]

The name change to Cabbage Patch Kids was made in 1982 when Xavier's company, Original Appalachian Artworks, began to license a smaller version of the hand made creations to a toy manufacturer named Coleco. An abbreviated version of the discovery legend was reproduced on every Cabbage Patch Kids product from 1983 onward. Parker Brothers published the original story retitled "Xavier's Fantastic Discovery" in 1984 and two Albums that went Gold. The characters appeared in many other Cabbage Patch merchandising products ranging from animated cartoons to board games:

Xavier Roberts was a ten-year-old boy who discovered the Cabbage Patch Kids by following a BunnyBee behind a waterfall into a magical Cabbage Patch, where he found the Cabbage Patch babies being born. To help them find good homes he built BabyLand General in Cleveland, Georgia where the Cabbage Patch Kids could live and play until they were adopted.

BunnyBees are bee-like creatures with rabbit ears they use as wings. They pollinate cabbages with their magic crystals to make Cabbage Patch babies.

Colonel Casey is a large stork who oversees Babyland General Hospital. He's the narrator of the Cabbage Patch Kids' story.

Otis Lee is the leader of the gang of Cabbage Patch Kids that befriended Xavier.

Production history

Coleco years

The dolls attracted the attention of toy manufacturer Coleco, which acquired a license from Original Appalachian Artworks and began mass production in 1982.[3] The Coleco Cabbage Patch Kids had large, round vinyl heads (originally of a different, hard plastic), and soft fabric bodies, and were produced from 1982 to 1989, many at a factory in Amsterdam, New York. The first two years production was all from the Far East, with nine head variations produced and computer-matched with bodies to ensure each doll was "different." It was, in fact a marketing ploy that worked quite well as a wide range of variations resulted. (Source: Larry Moniz, then senior account supervisor for the Coleco account at Richard Weiner Public Relations in NYC). After Coleco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy,[4] the Cabbage Patch Kids were later mass-produced by other companies, including Hasbro, Mattel, Toys R Us, Play Along, Jakks Pacific and currently Wicked Cool Toys.

At the peak of their popularity, the dolls were a must-have toy for Christmas.[5][6] Parents across the United States flocked to stores to try to obtain one of the Cabbage Patch Kids for their children, with fights occasionally erupting between parents over the hard-to-find dolls. In later years, Coleco introduced variants on the original Cabbage Patch Kids, and derivatives of the original line of dolls continued to be marketed.

International Variations

In the 1980s when Coleco was producing the dolls for the North American market, the global craze was fulfilled by other companies:

The Dolls manufactured by each of these companies, and along with the factories that produced the dolls for North America, produced dolls that were slightly different from one another. Dolls that were made for consumers in other countries than the United States hold a higher value in the eye of some American collectors.

Hasbro years

Hasbro took over the rights to produce Cabbage Patch dolls in 1988 as Coleco went bankrupt, and continued to make the dolls with various gimmicks, including dolls that played kazoos. Some of the more popular doll lines to come out under the Cabbage Patch Kids name included the "Birthday Kids", "Splash 'n' Tan Kids", and "Pretty Crimp and Curl". Hasbro gradually began making the dolls for younger children, which led to smaller and smaller dolls. Although Cabbage Patch dolls were still best selling toys, Hasbro never really revitalized the Cabbage Patch market. In 1994, Mattel acquired the licensing rights to the dolls from Original Appalachian Artworks.

Mattel years

In 1994, Mattel took over the Cabbage Patch brand, including production.the first Mattel babies and 'Kids hit the stores in 1995.

The Mattel Cabbage Patch dolls are not limited to cloth bodies and included dolls made from vinyl, which produced a more durable play doll. The Mattel dolls are mostly sized 14" or smaller, and most variants were individualized with a gimmick to enhance their collectibility, e.g. some dolls played on water-toys, swam, ate food, or brushed their teeth.

Some memorable Mattel lines include the updated Kids line of basic cloth dolls that came with birth certificates, the OlympiKids that were made to coincide with the 1996 Olympics, and the Cabbage Patch Fairies. Additionally, to celebrate the dolls' 15th anniversary, Mattel created a line of exclusively female dolls with a new molded fabric face, dressed in a custom outfits and packaged in collectible boxes. These were 16 inches tall, the same measurement of the first Coleco Cabbage Patch Kids.

Toys "R" Us Kids

In 2001, retailer Toys "R" Us took over the Cabbage Patch brand from Mattel, producing 20-inch Kids and 18-inch babies, both with cloth bodies and vinyl heads. They were packaged in cardboard cabbage leaf seats. In 2001, the 20-inch dolls debuted in the Times Square flagship store. These were created to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the line, and were available both online and in stores around the US.

Play Along Toys

The Toys "R" Us line lasted until Play Along toys obtained exclusive licensing rights to produce the Cabbage Patch Kids doll line. In 2003, Play Along launched a Cabbage Patch Kids 25th Anniversary collection using some of the original head sculpts from the very first Coleco editions. Play Along also partnered with Carvel Ice Cream in a co-branding campaign. The resulting co-branded Cabbage Patch Kids were packaged with a Carvel-branded ice cream cone.

Jakks Pacific

JAKKS Pacific acquired Play Along Toys and assumed the master toy licensee (c2011) for the Cabbage Patch Kids. Jakks introduced a 14-inch Cabbage Patch Kids Fashionality(TM) line and other Cabbage Patch Kid products. In 2013 Jakks Pacific released the Celebration edition to commemorate the 30th Birthday of the licensed Cabbage Patch Kids.

Wicked Cool Toys

Wicked Cool Toys is now the current master toy licensee for the Cabbage Patch Kids.[8]

Cabbage Patch Kids brand

The original 1982 Cabbage Patch Kids license agreement with Coleco Industries was negotiated by Roger L. Schlaifer on behalf of Schlaifer Nance & Company, the exclusive worldwide licensing agent for Roberts' company at the time.

Following Schlaifer Nance & Company's signing of Coleco Industries, SN&C signed over one hundred and fifty licenses for branded products ranging from the first children's licensed character diapers and low-sugar cereal to clothing, backyard pools, and thousands of other children's products — generating over $2 billion in retail sales for 1984, alone. Total sales during the Schlaifers' tenure exceeded $4.5 billion. While sales of the dolls and other licensed products declined precipitously in the late 1980s, the dolls have become a mainstay of the toy industry, and one of the few long-running doll brands in history.

Porcelain Cabbage Patch Kids

These dolls were available by direct mail from the Danbury Mint. They have a rigid fabric body with porcelain legs, arms, and head.

Talking Cabbage Patch Kids

An extension to the line was the "Talking Cabbage Patch Kid"introduced by Coleco, equipped with a voice chip, touch sensors, and an infrared device for communicating with other such dolls. The touch sensors enabled the toy to detect when and how the toy was being played with in response to its vocalizations, e.g. the doll might say "hold my hand" and give an appropriate speech response when the touch sensor in the hand detected pressure. A more remarkable effect occurred when one doll detected the presence of another through its IR transmitter/receiver. The dolls were programmed to signal their "awareness" of each other with a short phrase, e.g. "I think there's someone else to play with here!", and then to initiate simple conversations between the dolls themselves with enough randomness to sound somewhat natural.

Babyland General Hospital

Babyland General Hospital is the "birthplace" of Cabbage Patch Kids and is located in Cleveland, Georgia. Roberts converted an old clinic into a "Hospital" from which to sell his dolls, originally called "Little People". The facility is presented as a birthing, nursery, and adoption center for the Cabbage Patch Kids. In accordance with the theme, employees dress and act the parts of the doctors and nurses caring for the dolls as if they are real. Babyland General moved to a new facility on the outskirts of Cleveland, Georgia in 2010 and has been voted one of the Travel Channel's top 10 toylands.

Controversies and hoaxes

In 2015, a Vice mini-documentary, "The secret history of cabbage patch kids", revealed, that these soft-bodied baby-like dolls were actually invented by artist Martha Nelson Thomas. According to the documentary, Roberts came across Nelson's dolls on a fair and began purchasing them in order to resell them. Nelson, who invented the dolls while in art school in the 70's, was not pleased Roberts overcharged for them. When she refused to continued selling dolls to him, he stole her idea, which became what we know as Cabbage Patch Kids. Not only did Roberts create similar dolls to Nelson Thomas’s, but he used the same marketing concept, providing adoption papers with each toy with the idea that each doll was part of the child's family.

Cabbage Patch Kids were parodied by the Garbage Pail Kids trading cards. The parody led Xavier Roberts to sue Topps, the maker of Garbage Pail Kids, for trademark infringement.[9][10]

One line of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls, the Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kids, was designed to "eat" plastic snacks. The mechanism enabling this was a pair of one-way smooth metal rollers behind plastic lips. The snacks would exit the doll's back and 'magically' appear into a backpack. The mechanism could be de-activated by releasing the back pack.[11] They were extremely popular during Christmas 1996. The line was voluntarily withdrawn from the market following an agreement between Mattel and the Consumer Product Safety Commission in January 1997 following several incidents where children got their fingers or hair stuck in the dolls' mouths leading to safety warnings from Connecticut's consumer protection commissioner, Mark Shiffrin.[12]

One Cabbage Patch Kids urban legends included rumors that owners sending dolls to the manufacturer for repairs are issued death certificates.[13]

Timeline

References

  1. ↑ "Our History". Babyland General Hospital. Archived from the original on February 18, 2008. Retrieved February 22, 2008.
  2. ↑ "Top 10 Toy Crazes". Time. 2009-12-14. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
  3. ↑ "Cleveland's Cabbage Patch Kids turn 25". AccessNorthGA.com. 2008-09-07. Retrieved 2010-08-07.
  4. ↑ "Cabbage Patch Doll Maker Is Bankrupt". Los Angeles Times. 1988-07-12. Retrieved 2013-11-12.
  5. ↑ DeMott, John S.; Bureaus, Other; Byrnes, Rosemary (1984-12-10). "Booming Sales in Toyland". Time. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
  6. ↑ "TOYS: Trouble in the Cabbage Patch". Time. 1988-05-16. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
  7. ↑ http://mycpkcollection.weebly.com/cpk-info.html
  8. ↑ http://kidscreen.com/2015/02/10/wicked-cool-toys-adopts-cabbage-patch-kids/
  9. ↑ "Copyrights: Trouble in the Garbage Pail". Time. 1986-03-17. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
  10. ↑ "AROUND THE NATION; Judge Rules in Case Of Garbage Pail Kids". The New York Times. 1986-08-30. Retrieved 2010-08-07.
  11. ↑ "$40 Refund Is Offered for Hair-Eating Dolls". The New York Times. 1997-01-07. Retrieved 2010-08-07.
  12. ↑ "Mattel and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Announce Voluntary Refund Program for Cabbage Patch Kids & Snacktime Kids Dolls". United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. 1997-01-06. Retrieved February 22, 2008.
  13. ↑ Urban Legends Reference Pages: Cabbage Patch Dolls
  14. ↑ "Sarah Palin becomes a Cabbage Patch Kid". MSNBC. Retrieved 2010-03-03.

Further reading

External links

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