Cabbage Patch Kids | Special Interest Blog Series "preview"!

Hi my sweet angel babies. 

Welcome to the unofficial first(?) installment of my Toy Special Interest Infodump blog series :D

In my previous post I said "Between 1980s cassette talkers and interactive Elmo toys, which one would you like to see a blog post about first?" And I got exactly one vote. I'm not telling you which topic got the vote, but I will say that voting is still open and you can tell me which one you'd like to see first by typing it in and sending it to me after clicking this link: https://i.secret-share.net/IKp6UKXEliI2TpJMqdorhgsON&n=37042

I'm kinda glad it flopped a little bit because it's allowing me to do this first!! Through my secret share inbox, someone asked me to make an entry on Cabbage Patch dolls. I think that's a wonderful idea. Thank you, whoever sent me that, you are lovely.

So here it is. The "preview" into what this blog series will be like. I hope you like it :)

Cabbage Patch Kids were first available in 1978 under the name "Little People." They were created by Xavier Roberts whose signature you can find on the butt of all Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. The company was bought in 1982 and renamed to, yes, Cabbage Patch Kids. 

I love CPK (which is how I'll be abbreviating the brand name from now on because my fingers are already tired lol) but I don't know everything there is to know about them. My point with this series is not to just throw down a bunch of information like I'm an encyclopedia, it's to tell you my favorite facts and bizarre little tidbits about these things that you may not already know!!

Like, for instance, if you weren't old enough to be there (I definitely wasn't), around Christmas 1983, CPKs were the hottest toy on the market!! Black Friday saw moms and dads and grandmas and literally everybody else flooding stores and beating the shit out of each other to get their kids a CPK. Not many other toys have done this to people, I think the only other one that I can think of was the original Tickle Me Elmo in 1996! Here's a snippet from a news story from 83 of said frenzy because the way this lady is bragging kills me https://youtu.be/Eg12Gf_9R8w

Another fun but also maybe not so fun tidbit about CPK is that in 1996, the brand released a new product: Snacktime Kids. Most CPK dolls were just regular dolls that came in a few different ages (preemies, babies, kids, etc.) and were always just soft-bodied dolls with vinyl heads. Not Snacktime Kids, though. These were new and revolutionary. These things ate stuff.

They came with a backpack and a bunch of plastic snacks. Their mouths were motorized and you could feed them the plastic snacks that were included in the box. Once the snacks were gone, you could open the backpack and get them back. Here's the commercial for these: https://youtu.be/DRhc5Pima10 

I'm sure you can guess that this went over extremely well. Definitely no issues. Nothing at all. No way, no how. What could possibly go wrong, in fact?

...Weeeelllll.....

Yeah, kids are dumb. Rumor has it that the horrible thing that got this specific toy banned was that a girl's hair (I'm not sure if it's the one mentioned in that CNN article or not) got sucked up into the Snacktime Kid's mouth and it ate all the way up to her scalp (???) and the entire family like sued or something for psychological damage??

Banned toys are such an interesting topic. It seems like the 1990s is when people realized that a lot of the things kids were playing with/had been playing with for decades were actually extremely unsafe.

The final interesting topic relating to CPK I'm gonna go over is Babyland General Hospital. This one is my favorite. I've been obsessed with this since I learned about it when I was like 8. 

Babyland General Hospital is a museum of sorts located in Cleveland, Georgia (which is where Xavier Roberts was born.) At this massive tourist attraction, you're charged no admission and can go on a self-guided tour through the history of CPKs and see charmingly curated dioramas of all sizes of dolls. The main attraction, however, is Mother Cabbage.

Mother Cabbage is. The Cabbage Patch. She resides beneath The Magic Crystal Tree, pollinated by Bunny Bees. She gives birth to all of the Cabbage Patch Kids. All of them.

Live Cabbage Patch births are able to be witnessed at Babyland General just about every hour. These births are facilitated by licensed Patch Doctors and Nurses. The babies that are born from Mother Cabbage are able to be adopted (purchased) by attendees, and the process is adorable. After the baby is born, it is taken to be cleaned and examined. Then the new "parent" fills out the adoption papers and is given their new bundle of joy. They've been doing this since the dolls were still called Little People.

Birth example: https://youtu.be/OmydCmrUjSQ

I am so obsessed with Babyland General it seems like my kind of place 110% it's so whimsical and unique and weird and fantastic. One of my biggest wants in my life since I was little is to go. It's def on my bucket list. I WISH I DIDN'T LIVE SO FAR AWAY. GRR.

That's all for this first preview installment of this new series :DD

I hope you liked it, and if you read this far, thank you!

Let me know what you think of all this either in the comments or through my Secret Share!! I'd love to know opinions. Have you ever had a Cabbage Patch Kid? Have you ever been to Babyland General? Do you think it's weird, or cool? I'd love to hear from you! :D

Until next time <3

Kisses 

- G 

(P.S. Don't forget to vote for the next topic!)