minidoll: Cabbage Patch Kids: Freddy Brett

Cabbage Patch Kids, created by a 21-year-old art student, had a comparatively quiet beginning as handcrafted cloth dolls available in Southern gift shops and at craft fairs. Xavier Roberts gathered some friends and began producing the dolls using a German technique of fabric sculpture. Roberts supplied his cute but homely dolls with names, birth certificates, and adoption papers. Roberts dolls caught the attention of toy manufacturer Coleco Industries, which began mass-producing Cabbage Patch Kids with vinyl heads and cloth bodies in the early 1980. The popularity of the doll in 1983 led to a number of ugly scenes at toy stores and department stores. Coleco could hardly supply the millions of Cabbage Patch Kids wanted by eager customers who had often waited in lines for hours to purchase the dolls.