Cabbage Patch Dolls

Cabbage Patch Kids were created by Xavier Roberts in 1983. Success came relatively quickly and it wasn’t long before parents were frantically hunting for the dolls at Christmas time. By the late 1980s and early ‘90s his company had become a household name. ‘Little People’, as they were originally called, began when he was given the free lease of a Georgian state medical clinic, because he could not afford his own workshop. At first, the workers in his little factory even wore surgical gowns. Cabbage Patch Kid number ‘001’ called ‘Mai Ling’, was made out of porcelain and was a limited edition of 1,000. Two other friends, dolls ‘002’ and ‘003’, were also made of porcelain to accompany ‘001’and are equally collectable. After these rare first three Kids, production continued with dolls made from cloth. However, success came with the company being bought by Coleco who changed the name from Little People, to Cabbage Patch Kids, starting mass production to satisfy the growing demand.

The dolls are well made with painted eyes, many different variations of colour, body proportions and value. Dating the dolls is quite simple because of the colour-coded signature on their bottoms. If Xavier Robert’s signature is black without a date it means the doll is from 1983, green denotes 1984. Each year a new colour of signature was produced with the trend continuing, blue (1985), red (1986), mint (1987), purple (1988) and pink (1989). At this point, Hasbro bought the company. The giant toy manufacturer who already made ‘GI Joe’ in America and ‘Action Man’ in Europe did not do so well with Cabbage Patch Kids and they sold the company to Mattel in the mid-1990s who have continued production since.

Source: http://www.collectit.sagenet.co.uk/cabbagepatchdolls.htm

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