Cabbage Patch Kids

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USPS stamp depicting the Cabbage Patch Kids craze of the 1980s.
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USPS stamp depicting the Cabbage Patch Kids craze of the 1980s.

The Cabbage Patch Kids were dolls produced from 1983-1989 by Coleco. They had large, round vinyl heads and soft fabric bodies.

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 inspired by the bestselling 1901 novel by Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice, Mrs. Wiggs and the Cabbage Patch. Mrs. Wiggs, whose husband had "traveled to eternity by the alcohol route," was left to raise her 5 children alone is a Louisville shantytown named Cabbage Patch. The unbridled optimism with which she faces adversity was inspiration to many women readers of the time.

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.

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 The dolls were withdrawn from the market after several incidents where children accidentally got their fingers or hair stuck in the doll's mouth.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 questionable comedy value by, among other things, standup comics and the cartoon Pinky and the Brain.

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