Cabbage Patch Kids turn 25

Just like all the Jennifer Lynns and Michael Josephs born in the early 1980s, vinyl-headed Tae Emily and Fitz Andrew, baby dolls with adoption papers and agrarian roots, are now old enough to vote, gamble, imbibe, enlist and even rent a car.

It’s the 25th birthday of the Cleveland, Ga.-born Cabbage Patch Kids.

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BabyLand General Hospital

Doll creator Xavier Roberts has said the Cabbage Patch Kids got their name from a mother’s answer to where babies come from — the cabbage patch.

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BabyLand General Hospital

Otis Lee is one of the original Little People. He was born in 1978. This photo features him as ‘editor’ of Dispatch Magazine, a Cabbage Patch publication.

FESTIVALS
• Cleveland, Ga., will celebrate its Fall Leaf Festival and the Cabbage Patch birthday Saturday. The festival and events at BabyLand General Hospital, 73 W. Underwood St. in Cleveland, are free. For more information, visit www.cabbagepatchkids.com or www.clevelandbetterhometown.org.

• Doll creator: Coming up with new ideas will be the challenge
• Send us photos of your favorite Cabbage Patch Kids!
• See yours!

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What started as cloth doll artworks by Cleveland native Xavier Roberts developed into a well-documented toy craze in the 1980s. The Atlanta Constitution once described them as “so-plug-ugly-they’re-cute,” but also documented their growth from cuddly local art project to big-selling brand so popular counterfeits were smuggled into the country, scalpers sold them at inflated prices and Garbage Pail Kid knock-offs came along that Cabbage Patch makers fought off in court.

About 115 million babies later, Cabbage Patch is still around, and oh, how those babies grew. Here’s how:

The beginning

Cabbage Patch Kids hit the holiday shopping aisles in 1983, a year after now-defunct toymaker Coleco signed on to mass-produce Roberts’ babies. The company made 3 million dolls, but couldn’t keep up with demand. Moms and dads went mad for the toys — a simple YouTube search reveals 20-plus-year-old news reports on long lines and chaotic shopping. Toymakers Hasbro and Mattel, retailer Toys R Us and now Play Along all got a shot at manufacturing the dolls. But Roberts’ Cleveland, Ga.-based company Original Appalachian Artworks continues to own the Cabbage Patch trademark.

Keeping their roots

Cabbage Patch dolls remain a local product, of sorts. They grew out of Little People, the name Roberts gave to the soft-sculptured dolls that are still sewn in Cleveland. As a sign of local pride, Georgia Democrat Ed Jenkins and staff members wearing surgical scrubs gave the dolls to 275 colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives around Christmas 1986. Cabbage Patch got local again in 1996 when they were marketed as OlympiKids, vinyl-headed, yarn-haired, cloth-bodied athletes in red, white and blue for the Atlanta Summer Olympics. Plenty of original, in-box OlympiKids are still available for sale online.

Birthing a brand

Speaking of Cabbage Patch sales, a quick eBay search reveals more than a thousand products, including dolls, hard plastic toys, books and even the 1984 LP “Cabbage Patch Dreams,” which sold more than 500,000 copies by mid-1984. (Yep, it’s certified Gold.) Vintage-styled Cabbage Patch Kids are on shelves now, too. The 25th anniversary edition, with hair and clothes like the originals, sells at stores like Wal-Mart and Target for $30 to 40, $10 to $20 more than the retail price in 1983. Kids can be purchased online at www.cabbagepatchkids.com, too, along with the soft-sculptured dolls made at Cleveland’s BabyLand General Hospital.

What’s in a name?

Roberts has said the Cabbage Patch kids got their name from a mother’s answer to where babies come from — the cabbage patch. Even if the phrase “cabbage patch” stirs memories of dimples and doll babies, it refers to a few other things, like:

• Fields of actual cabbage, good old Brassica oleracea, a leafy crop for spring and fall that likes cool temperatures.

• A Samsula, Fla., biker bar that features coleslaw wrestling.

• “Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch,” a 1901 comedic novel by Alice Hegan Rice and a 1934 film starring. W.C. Fields.

• A dance popularized in the 1980s by rappers and San Francisco 49ers star Jerry Rice, who was known to do the cauldron-stirring dance move in the end zone.