When was the cabbage patch craze

Manufacturing technology made it so Cabbage Patch would be the first postindustrial toy. No longer was there one mold for a product. The recent computerization of the assembly line had introduced infinite randomized customization.

No two Cabbage Patch dolls were alike — they varied in skin color, hair style, clothing, smile, freckles, and even dimple location. In its press packet, Coleco included testimony from two child psychologists. Inside their boxes, Cabbage Patch dolls reached toward the cellophane with cozy, open arms.

Their adoption papers were there too, just waiting to be signed. Local schoolchildren attended and performed a mass adoption ceremony in front of the media cameras. Each kid got to take home a free doll. The dolls got a full five minutes on the Today Show.

Still, retailers did not predict the colossal demand. With early Christmas shoppers buying an average three dolls each, stores had massively under-ordered.

By October 6, Coleco said all 2 million dolls it had manufactured were gone. Store managers tried to curb chaos by stocking the dolls in the front of the store.

But as soon as they paid, customers were afraid to face the throngs pushing through the doors, spilling from the parking lots. One man even flew to London to buy a doll for his five-year-old daughter.

At the same time, knockoffs called Flower Kids were pouring in from overseas. Sometimes the only way to tell the difference was by the lack of bellybutton. The Cabbage Patch phenomenon finally exposed the envious underbelly of the American adult. Share: Share Tweet Email. KFSN -- may be the year of the sold-out chicken sandwiches, but crazes like it are nothing new. We at Action News take you back to December , when Cabbage Patch Kids dolls were the hot new thing that Americans were fighting over.

Report a correction or typo. Related topics: shopping fresno christmas gift children holiday shopping valley childrens hospital gifts adoption last minute gifts. Online shoppers getting billions of 'out of stock' notices, data shows. The possibilities were endless.

There was something familiar about the round-faced babies. What was thought to be a lightning strike of genius would soon turn to a farce when one woman stepped forward claiming that Xavier Roberts was a fraud.

According to her, it was she who was the original creator of the very beloved soft-plush toys that had graced our childhood for more than a decade.

Soon, legal conflict would arise as Thomas sought to claim what was once a craft belonging solely to her. However, both parties would find dissatisfaction in the result. In the early s, Martha Nelson Thomas was an art student who had a knack for soft sculpture.

Hailing from Mayfield, Kentucky, she went to art school in Louisville where she eventually created Doll Babies. She was shy and gentle in nature. For Thomas, Doll Babies were as much her blood as her own children. In her own way, the dolls were a form of self-expression and a way to communicate with strangers — a way to reach out and express and communicate her love for her work and conveying her passion as a sculptor.

After all, much can be said about a doll maker. With nimble and careful hands, Thomas would win over many when she showcased her Doll Babies. No, they meant much more to her than that. She would shop for them and dressed them.

She made every expression and stitched every thread. Thomas even met her husband though her dolls when she showcased them at a Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen, a fair where she would show the world her creations.

Thomas communicated through her dolls — her love, her passion, and her craft. They were her contribution to the world. She wanted them to each have a personal touch. When she sold a doll, she would have a little note tucked into their clothes with a personal message. Each message gave the doll an identity, which included a name and what the doll liked to do. This ranged from climbing trees, eating apples, laughing, and catching butterflies.

A sentimentalist, Thomas believed there was a bit of life in her dolls. She believed they should be taken care of, loved, and cherished. However, things would soon take a turn. Thomas was a part of an intimate community, and though her dolls were becoming popular, she never wanted to mass-produce her creations or exploit them to the ravaging world of American consumerism. She wanted her work to carry a sense of integrity, and with that integrity: love.

She was a humble artist who loved to create, and so with every stitch, and with every sewed eye, she repeatedly created a new life with a sense of purpose — to bring joy to those who valued her Doll Babies. But in a crowd of friendly and encouraging faces, lurked an unseen force that would take away the integrity of her Doll Babies.

One of them was Xavier Roberts. He sold the dolls in a gift shop in Georgia and when Thomas heard that he was selling the dolls for a higher price, she felt a chill race over her. A close friend of Thomas, Guy Mendes, disclosed that Thomas took back her dolls from Roberts after relaying how uncomfortable she was in the way he was exploiting her product.

However, Roberts was adamant in selling. He went to drastic measures. He would continue to sell her style of dolls.

Thomas was grief-stricken at the possibility of Roberts stripping the very essence of what her dolls represented and slapping a price tag for his profitable gain. However, whether Thomas liked it or not, Roberts allegedly stole her idea. What came after shattered her heart. Roberts went on to create a near-identical doll with a similar adoption process as Thomas. Soon, he was producing not just one type of doll, but a whole line of them.

Some were hand-stitched and soft-faced in Georgia, while others were massed produced with a hard vinyl face and a soft body. He began to claim that he had created a new doll and with his creation came money — lots of money. He was making millions. He took her idea and created not just a fortune, but an empire. Unfortunately, the news came late for Thomas. She heard something that would make her go cold. A woman who had purchased of Roberts dolls in the Georgia area approached Thomas and said how she saw her dolls were being sold at the Atlanta Airport.