Kid Birthday Party Ideas
Party and gift ideas on the run

Cabbage Patch Dolls / Kids

So what became of the Cabbage Patch Dolls that took the world by storm in the early 1980s? Guess what? They are back. I am seeing a growing trend here. It's as if the toy makers are banking on the frenzy of yesteryear inflicting itself on the generation today. Or perhaps they are relying heavily on the cult status that all these toys had in the past and are hoping that parents will 're-live' their childhood and instill the selfsame desire for these toys on their kids. I can't count the number of times I've seen fathers take their boys to the toy section to gawk over the Thunderbird toys - many times they sounded even more enthused about the toy than their dubious offspring! I must admit I do have a weakness myself for Raggedy Anne and was secretly hoping that somehow my little girl would share in the 'magic' that once was as if somehow that it would recapture the innocence that was me when I was her age.

Anyway back to the Cabbage Patch Kids. What about that infamous phrase, 'Have you had a cabbage patch moment?' Pictures of mile long queues to adopt these dear little things from their 'maternity' ward, fights at the checkouts, people buying the dolls and then reselling them at phenomenal prices.

Cabbage Patch Dolls were the baby (no pun intended) of one Xavier Roberts who was by profession a sculptor living in Georgia. They were one of a kind - literally. Each Cabbage Patch Doll was 'different', no 2 (or so they reported) were exactly the same so in essence, each doll that you got was stamped with individuality something which was totally new in the toy circuit where Barbie was well...Barbie...just in different guises...

Whether it was a marketing ploy or a fault in sales projections, Coleco (who eventually bought the sales rights from Roberts) didn't produce enough dolls for the Christmas of 1983 and suddenly there was a HUGE demand for them. The scarcity of the doll only made ownership all the more desirable and scalpers profited from the frenzy. Cabbage Patch Dolls peaked in 1985 and then went on a downhill slide till Coleco finally filed for bankruptcy in 1988. The rights to Cabbage Patch Dolls are now owned by Mattel.

As the doll is reintroduced to the market, it will be interesting to see if this generation's kids (who have grown up on a diet of Shrek and Harry Potter) will take to this little plump faced gem from the 80s.

Warning: fopen(http://xml.amazon.com/onca/xml3?KeywordSearch=cabbage+patch+kids&dev-t=D34R5EOM9FESF1&f=xml&locale=us&mode=toys&page=1&t=flowerpotheav-20&type=lite) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 410 Gone in /home/party/public_html/amazonh3.php on line 255
Can't get data from Amazon.

Back to most popular toys