The original Cabbage Patch Kids dolls were invented by craft artist Martha Nelson Thomas, who started working on her “Doll Babies” – her name for the line of toys – while she was still in art school in the early 1970s. Here’s the not-so-cute history of the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls from the very beginning. You also might not know that a Kentucky artist named Martha Nelson Thomas originally invented the cute little dolls, but her design was stolen and transformed into a multibillion-dollar franchise that dominated the decade. However (spoiler), Roberts didn’t actually invent the dolls…although he took credit for them until an ugly lawsuit began at the height of the dolls’ popularity. Xavier Roberts was born in Cleveland, Georgia, in October 1955 he is best known as the father of the Cabbage Patch Kids and the creator of a toy phenomenon that had never been seen before. If you turn over the doll and look on the left bum cheek, you’ll find Xavier Roberts’ signature. The soft-bodied baby-like dolls, each of which came with its own “adoption certificate,” were a worldwide phenomenon that reportedly generated about $2 billion in sales throughout the decade, while garnering endless media attention and controversy, and causing a series of violent customer outbursts and riots in numerous retail stores across North America in the fall and winter of 1983. If you were a kid in the 1980s, you probably, at some point, had a Cabbage Patch Kids doll.
Part of an ongoing series of 29Secrets stories, taking a deep dive into the history of legendary beauty products and iconic fashion and pop culture moments…īy Christopher Turner Illustration by Michael Hak
0 kommentar(er)
