On this date in 1983 Cabbage Patch Dolls made their début. 10 things you might not know about Cabbage Patch Kids:
They were created by a 21 year old student named Xavier Roberts. Although you could argue he copied them from an artist called Martha Nelson, who had created a line of doll babies, which, like the Cabbage Patch Kids, came with an adoption certificate. Roberts modified her idea enough to get a copyright, although Nelson would eventually sue him.
Roberts initially dubbed his creation “Little People” but had to change it to "Cabbage Patch Kids" because Fisher-Price already owned the name "Little People".
Each doll is unique, despite being mass produced. Computers were used to randomise the various features so each doll was different.
You didn’t buy a Cabbage Patch Kid, you adopted one – for a fee, of course. Roberts would correct anyone who referred to them as “dolls,” preferring to call them “babies” or “kids.” In fact, he adopted one himself, named it Otis Lee, and took it everywhere with him, eventually making it chairman of the board.
The origin story was written by Roger L. Schlaifer and his wife. The kids were born in Cabbage patches (referencing the lie often told to kids about where their new baby sibling came from). The cabbages were pollinated by a creature called a bunnybee, a cross between a bee and a Rabbit. These creatures used their rabbit ears to fly and would pollinate the plants in the magical cabbage patch with magic crystals. Xavier Roberts insisted on being written into the story and appears as a boy who follows a bunnybee behind a waterfall and finds cabbages having babies in an abandoned garden. I have to wonder what kind of drugs they were all on at the time! To continue the story, it turned out that the “babies” were being abducted by villains called Lavender McDade, Cabbage Jack and Beau Weasel and sent to work in gold mines. So Roberts made it his mission to save the “babies” by finding people to adopt them.
Numerous companies have manufactured the cloth dolls with plastic heads, the first being Coleco Industries in 1982. Most toy manufacturers initially turned down the dolls because they were deemed too ugly to be a best seller. Coleco was a computer company with a failing product and were diversifying into the toy market. While the dolls saved the company at the time, they eventually went bankrupt anyway and so the dolls were made, at various times, by Hasbro, Mattel, Toys R Us, and JAKKS Pacific (their current manufacturer).
The original outlet for Cabbage Patch Kids was an old medical clinic which had been converted to a toy shop, with staff acting as doctors and nurses. It was called Babyland General Hospital and was located in in Cleveland, Georgia. In 2007, the state of Georgia declared December 1st to be Official Cabbage Patch Kids Day.
The most expensive Cabbage Patch Kids are a set based on 2008 US presidential/vice presidential candidates—President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Senator John McCain, and Sarah Palin—for $59,999.99 ($15,000 each) on ebay. For comparison, a Cabbage Patch Doll based on Donald Trump would set you back just $6,750.
Over the years there have been Cabbage Patch Kids which could talk and for a time in the 1990s, there was a line of them that could eat plastic food – Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kids. The mechanism was a pair of one-way metal rollers behind the lips. The snacks would exit the doll into a backpack on its back. However, these were withdrawn on safety grounds after real children got their fingers or hair caught in the mechanism.
Like any toy, Cabbage Patch Kids were sometimes damaged by real children, mauled by dogs and various other accidents. They could be returned to Coleco to be repaired, or, to keep up the pretence, sent to the doll hospital for treatment. It was said that if Coleco received a doll that was broken beyond repair they would issue its owner with a death certificate.
NEW!!
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
No comments:
Post a Comment