What's on your wish list?
What's It Wednesdays
"Johnny wants a pair of skates; Susy wants a dolly..."
What's on you wish list?
ACHC #1994.071.1
Here’s a doll that used to be on many wish lists – a Cabbage Patch doll. Della Odelia is a 1984 doll in miniature form. Standing at 3.5 inches, she is molded plastic and carries a tiny baby doll wrapped in pink.
Cabbage Patch dolls swept the nation in the 1980s. They were one of the most popular toy fads of that time and are one of the longest-running doll franchises in the country.
They didn’t start out as Cabbage Patch dolls. Xavier Roberts, a 21-year-old art student from Cleveland GA, first created the dolls, and registered the "Little People” copyright in 1976. Using quilting skills that he had learned from his mother and “needle-molding,” an 1800s German sewing technique, he created the soft fabric dolls. Each was hand-sewn with individual characteristics and signed by Roberts. These one-of-a kind dolls were not sold but were “adopted.” Buyers paid a $40 adoption fee. Each doll had a unique name and came with a birth certificate.
ACHC #1994.071.2
At first Roberts sold the dolls at craft fairs throughout the southeast. In 1978, he started the Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc. employing 5 of his school friends. They renovated a vacated medical building and turned it into the company headquarters and a toy store - the “Babyland General Hospital.” It was open to the public for the adoption of the dolls.
In 1982, Roberts licensed Coleco Company to make a version of his Little People dolls. They were named “Cabbage Patch Dolls” and Coleco began to mass manufacture them with vinyl heads and fabric bodies. Roberts continued to make the hand-sewn ones for local markets.
To launch the Coleco dolls, Xavier Roberts wrote a discovery legend that appeared on all the doll boxes:
“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. BunnyBees are bee-like creatures with rabbit ears they use as wings. They pollinate cabbages with their magic crystals to make Cabbage Patch babies.”
Cabbage Patch dolls were a hit from the beginning. By Christmas of 1983, they were the doll to have. They made the cover of Newsweek on Dec 12, 1983. By the end of the year, 3 million dolls had been sold.
Demand was so high for the dolls that Coleco couldn’t meet it fast enough. Many shoppers waited in line for hours only to be disappointed and lose patience when they couldn’t buy the coveted dolls. Cabbage Patch riots of 1983 made the news.
The Victoria Advocate - Victoria, TX November 27, 1983
Coleco continued to manufacture Cabbage Patch dolls until 1988, when Hasbro bought the franchise rights. Then followed a string of owners with Mattel in 1994; Toys R US, 2001; Play Along Toys, 2003; Jakks Pacific, 2011; and Wicked Cool Toys, the current licensee. Cabbage Patch Kids and Babies are still made in many sizes, color combinations and adoption fees. As Cabbage Patch has said for 40 years – “Each one is looking for someone to love, just like you!”
Did you, your children or grandchildren, have a Cabbage Patch doll?
Here are the ones from my household - Rebecca and Lucy.