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The Cabbage Patch Kids were dolls produced from 1983-1989 by Coleco. They had large, round vinyl heads and soft fabric bodies and were developed in Cleveland, Georgia where a Cabbage Patch "hospital" is still run.
The gimmick of the dolls was their uniqueness. No two were exactly alike; each doll had a different eye color, facial features, hair, and outfit. The subtle differences were introduced with a computer for each run. Each came with a unique birth certificate signed by their creator, Xavier Roberts.
The dolls were a must-have toy for Christmas at the peak of their popularity. 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. Production remained in Korea until the final year, when Chinese labour became cheaper.
Although the Cabbage Patch Kids fad has largely passed, there remain a significant number of die-hard collectors.
Cabbage Patch Kids were later parodied with the typically grotesque Garbage Pail Kids trading cards. The parody led Roberts to sue Topps, the maker of Garbage Pail Kids, for trademark infringement. The parties eventually settled out of court, with Topps agreeing to redesign the cards so that the artwork would not resemble Cabbage Patch Kids so closely.
"Cabbage Patch Kids Snacktime Kids" withdrawal
This was an incarnation of the "Cabbage Patch Kids" dolls that was designed to "eat" plastic snacks. The mechanism was a pair of one-way metal rollers behind a plastic slot and rubber lips. The dolls were withdrawn from the market after several incidents where children accidentally got their fingers or hair stuck in the doll's mouth. This set of circumstances created a brief meme that was exploited for its comedy value by, among other things, standup comics and the cartoon Pinky and the Brain.
Talking Cabbage Patch Kids
A notable extension to the line was the "Talking Cabbage Patch Kid", 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 presense 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 themeselves with enough randomness to sound somewhat natural.
The product success was limited; some reasons offered at the time were the high price of the item ($100 or more); the need to have multiple dolls to talk advantage of the full conversational effect; for some people the spookiness of having dolls converse with each other without human intervention; and the limited play value of a talking doll over its silent counterpart.
External links
- Play Along Cabbage Patch Kids Official Site
- Cabbage Patch Kids Official Site
- Talking Cabbage Patch Kids Video, CBC Archives, Nov. 26, 1987. Host: Bill Cameron, Guest(s): Helen Boehem, Julie Creighton
- Cabbage Patch Kids memories and memorabilia
- Fairy Godmother's Treasures
Dolls | White County, Georgia | 1980s fads | Toys_of_the_1980s
"Cabbage Patch Kids"