Cabbage Patch Kids

Many years ago, a young boy named Xavier happened upon an enchanted Cabbage Patch, where he found very special Little People who called themselves Cabbage Patch Kids. To help fulfil the Cabbage Patch Kids' dream of having families with whom to share their love, Xavier set about building a special place known as BabyLand General, where the Kids remain until each is chosen for adoption. Won't you adopt a Cabbage Patch Kid and fill a little heart with love? ¹

The original CPKs were soft-sculptured dolls called "Little People" first made in 1978 in Cleveland, Georgia (USA). Xavier Roberts² and some friends formed a company called Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc., and opened Babyland General Hospital.

By 1983, the Cabbage Patch Kid frenzy was in full swing - over 3 million dolls were sold that year. In 1984, Coleco added Cabbage Patch 'Preemies' and 'Koosas' to their line, and sold approximatley 20 million dolls over the course of the year. The 'Preemies' were 13 inch dolls designed to look like infants, and many of the boxes contained information on real-life preemies from the March of Dimes. At this point, demand was far outweighing the supply, so Coleco licensed four foreign manufacturers to produce Cabbage Patch Kids. During 1985 and 1986, Coleco produced and marketed several lines of 'specialty kids', such as the Twins, World Travelers, and Young Astronauts. By 1986, the demand had decreased, and the foreign manufacturers were no longer producing CPKs. From 1987 to 1989, Coleco tried desperately to revive the market (and their finances) with gimmicks such as talking or burping dolls.

Hasbro took over the line in 1989, after buying out Coleco Industries. Hasbro continued the practice of marketing kids with gimmicks, creating CPKs like those that were poseable or could blow into a kazoo. Hasbro gradually began focusing on a younger market, leading them to produce smaller and more easily washable dolls. By 1992, the largest CPKs were 14 inches tall. While Cabbage Patch Kids were still the number one selling large doll (i.e., not Barbies) in the United States, collectors and consumers became dissastisfied with the direction Hasbro had taken the line.

In 1994, Mattel took over the Cabbage Patch license, and Mattel still makes Cabbage Patch Kids today. When Mattel released the '15th Anniversary Kid' in 1998, there was a resurgence in the Cabbage Patch collectors market, as many young adults suddenly remembered the dolls from their childhood. Mattel has also produced battery operated dolls that 'eat' or talk, and at one point was selling custom Cabbage Patch Kids on their website.

During the 'boom years' of the Cabbage Patch craze, Coleco farmed out production to several overseas companies. Some of the CPKs manufactured by non-American companies were sold in the United States, and others were sold in European or Asian countries in bilingual boxes. As the "foreign kids" were more rare, they tend to be of a higher value as collector's items. Foreign kids were also more likely to have freckles, and the freckles also tended to be darker than the freckles on American produced CPKs. Some of the French Canadian CPKs even came in fur coats!

• Coleco CPKs were produced between 1982 and 1989. The standard Coleco kids were 16 inches tall, but the preemies and toddlers were smaller. A variety of factories were used by Coleco to produce their CPKs.
• Tsukuda is a Japanese company that was licensed to produce Cabbage Patch Kids for the Asian market by Coleco in the 1980s, and again by Mattel in the 1990s.
• Jesmar is a Spanish company that was licensed by Coleco to produce dolls for both the European and American markets in the 1980s. The Jesmar kids were also taller than the other Coleco kids.
• Lili-Ledy is a Mexican company that was licensed by Coleco in the midst of the craze to produce dolls for the European and South American markets.
• Tri-Ang Pedigree refers to CPKs that were produced in South Africa under license from Coleco in the 1980s.
• Hasbro CPKs were produced between 1989 and 1994, and the standard kids were 14 inches tall.
• Mattel has been the producer of CPKs since 1994. The standard CPKs are 14 inches tall, but there are many smaller varieties. Several of the Mattel CPK lines have all vinyl bodies, rather than the vinyl heads with cloth bodies seen in the earlier years.

The head mold dictates the facial features and expressions of the Cabbage Patch Kid. Some CPKs have dimples, or teeth, or (removable) pacifiers - all of these features are dictated by the head mold. For those CPKs manufactured by Coleco, which head mold was used can have a significant impact on the current value of the doll.

• Coleco Head Mold #1 has no dimples, and is most often seen in the early Coleco CPKs made in 1983 and 1984.
• Coleco Head Mold #2 has two dimples and a longer nose. This is one of the most common Coleco head molds.
• Coleco Head Mold #3 has one dimple on the left side.
• Coleco Head Mold #4 has two dimples and a removable pacifier. These "paci kids", as they are known among collectors, are more valuable than some with the other head molds.
• Coleco Head Mold #5 has two dimples and a single front tooth. This head mold was especially common in the CPK Twins. Some of the #5 kids came with retainers or 'headgear'.
• Coleco Head Mold #6 has one dimple on the left side, a removable pacifier, and a considerably wider face than #4.
• Coleco Head Mold #8 has a wider face with a dimple on the left side. This head mold has larger ears, as most of these CPKs came with glasses - the glasses won't stay on the CPKs with smaller ears.

After #8, the head molds get progressively uglier and uglier. Not surprisingly, these dolls tend not to be worth has much as those with the earlier head molds.

While some Cabbage Patch Kids are "baldies", most CPKs have yarn hair. Cabbage Patch Kids have been produced with black, brown, light brown³, blond⁴, red, and orange hair. Not surprisingly, there is a wider variation among hairstyles in the girl dolls than in the boys. Infant CPKs sometimes have a single tuft, rather than a full head of yarn hair. Hairstyle is another factor that can influence the value of a CPK to a collector.

• Loops, similar to the style in boys, in which the hair consists of approximately 1 inch loops throughout.
• Ponytails, both single and double, with a few rows of loops for bangs.
• Braids, tied with ribbons, with a few rows of loops for bangs. Most CPKs with braids have 2 braids, but some were produced with a single braid.
• Popcorn, in which the hair is tightly curled, resulting in hair that looks like clumps of popcorn. CPKs with popcorn hair most often have their hair in ponytails. This hairstyle was rare, so is considered valuable by collectors. Unfortunately, it was frequently paired with the uglier head molds.
• Poodle, in which their is a full head of loops, with either or one or two ponytails protruding.
• Shirley Temple, in which the hair is cornsilk rather than yarn, and is styled in ringlets like the child movie star.

After the initial success of the Cabbage Patch Kids in the early 1980s, Coleco managed to keep demand growing by producing and marketing limited edition specialty kids. The most common were the Twins, but there were also Circus Kids, Young Astronaut kids, and World Travelers.

Continuing to capitalise on the Cabbage Patch market, Coleco produced the Koosas and the Furskins. The Koosas actually had construction similar to that of the Cabbage Patch Kids, and mildly resembled cats, dogs, and lions. Each Koosa came with a collar and license tag, along with a certificate that could be sent in to Coleco for a free sticker with your Koosa's name on it so that the tag could be personalised. The Furskins were a countrified family of bears, and never really made much on an impact on the market. There were also the Cabbage Patch Show Ponies, which were often packaged or marketed with CPKs dressed in cowboy/cowgirl outfits.

Twenty years ago, Cabbage Patch Kids were simply the latest hot toy for children. While children still buy new CPKs every year, most CPKs are owned by collectors. It's not unheard of for an avid collector to have rooms and rooms filled with Cabbage Patch Kids. Many of these collectors trace their CPK roots to the early CPK crazes of the 1980s. Some were children then, and now remember their first CPK as a beloved doll. Others were parents, who quickly become more engrossed in the craze for CPKs than their children were, and realised that dolls purchased and stored without opening might be valuable decades later.

There are also many special Cabbage Patch orphanages for 'unwanted' Cabbage Patch Kids. The 'unwanted' CPKs are generally the ones that are in too poor of a condition to attract collectors, or do not have their boxes or papers. These orphanages may find their dolls at garage sales or the local Goodwill, or may receive them as donations. Most of the orphanages have a small 'doll hospital' on site, where incoming dolls are cleaned up and repaired if need be. These dolls can then be 'adopted' for a low fee (generally under US$25) by the public.

A collector might pay a few thousand dollars for a rare soft-sculptured doll, or as much as a few hundred for one of more rare types of mass market CPKs. The value of a CPK depends on many things, including:

At any given moment, there are generally a couple hundred Cabbage Patch items up for auction on Ebay⁵. The CPKs for sale on Ebay are usually accompanied by pictures, which allows the potential buyer to assess for his or herself the type and condition of the doll. Given that some of those selling the dolls have a limited understanding of 'CPK terminology', this is a good thing - it's not unusual for a doll to be advertised by a seller as having 'popcorn' hair, when it's truly a 'loops' or 'poodle' style. Some abbreviations commonly used when describing CPKs for sale to collectors are:

Garbage Pail Kids originated as a trading card series, largely aimed at boys who were disgusted with their sisters' Cabbage Patch Kids. The cards focused on the bodily functions and other general 'grossiosities' that young boys are so excited by, with characters like 'Windy Mindy', who is shown blowing out the birthday candles with some natural gas, and 'Leaky Lindsay', a girl dripping snot down to the floor. Even now, there are still Garbage Pail Kid fans around the world.⁶ Frighteningly enough, the trend even spawned a movie.

¹ This "story" was on the back of the box for the first Coleco Cabbage Patch Kids, and still appears on most CPK boxes today.
² Xavier's signature is, still today, imprinted on the left butt-cheek of every Cabbage Patch doll.
³ This hair colour has been alternatively referred to as tan, butterscotch, honey, mustard, and dirty blond.
⁴ This hair colour is often referred to as lemon.
⁵ Ebay is one of the bigger online auction sites.
⁶ In some countries, they are referred to as the Garbage Gang, rather than as the Garbage Pail Kids.