Cabbage Patch Kids
Yellow background with diagonal green stripes. Green text outlined in white around the top of an illustration depicting an open green cabbage head behind a baby with blue eyes looking through its legs, showing the closed drop-seat of its blue footed pajamas.
The beloved Cabbage Patch Kids sprung from the imagination of art school student Xavier Roberts in 1978. His signature is, in fact, stamped on each doll's behind. As "Chief of Staff" of Babyland General Hospital, it is also printed on the "official" birth certificate packaged with each doll sold. The odd looking dolls had vinyl heads, cloth bodies, and yarn for hair. Children were asked to mail in adoption papers to register.
The dolls are a product of the late 1970s American folk art movement. What started out as handmade dolls at craft fairs, morphed into Little People and hit their popularity peak around 1983. That year's holiday season sent parents into the trenches to wrestle over the small supply of dolls stores had to sell. Demand spurred incredible tales of travail as parents tried to get their hands on a doll to grant a young child's Christmas wish. The following year they launched the Premie line, recognizable at the time for their lack of yarn hair. This button seems to depict one of the Premie dolls, but it's possible it was produced later when the Baby line was released.
The original dolls were manufactured by Coleco who filed for bankrutcy in 1988. Over the years the dolls have been in the care of toy makers Hasbro, Mattel, and Toys-R-Us. Play Along Toys currently holds exclusive licensing rights. The popularity of the 1980s has not returned, but the Cabbage Patch Kids continue to be one of the longest-lived doll franchises, reporting over 124 million adoptions!
The Legend of The Cabbage Patch Kids
©1983 Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc.