Popularity of Cabbage Patch Kids was ‘next level insanity,’ says filmmaker

When Cabbage Patch Kids burst onto the scene in 1983, Dan Goodman says they set off a consumer frenzy unlike any toy fad seen before or since. 

Goodman is the executive producer of Billion Dollar Babies: The True Story of the Cabbage Patch Kids, a documentary narrated by Neil Patrick Harris that explores the history of the Cabbage Patch Kids and the brand’s hold on toy consumers at the time. It is now playing at select theatres.

“This was really the first time retail shopping for a toy turned violent and people left a Toys R Us in an ambulance just trying to go and get a holiday gift for kids” he said.

The soft, wide-eyed dolls designed by Xavier Roberts were praised for their distinct features and even came with their own set of adoption papers. 

“Just everything about these dolls was very different,” said Goodman.

 “They had different hair, different eyes, dimples, freckles. Some of them had different skin tones. Each one of them was, quote unquote, unique.” 

Dolls were flying off shelves by Christmas — and nearly caused riots as parents ransacked toy stores across the country. 

Now, on the doll’s 40-year anniversary, Goodman and toy-industry insiders say the craze may have contributed to the madness we see around things like Black Friday sales today. 

“People bum-rushing the doors for Cabbage Patch Kids — you put it side-by-side with Target on Black Friday, [people] running for TV specials, you can’t help but see the parallels,” said Goodman. 

By the end of that year, nearly three million dolls had been “adopted.”

“There were fads before,” he said. “But this was just next level insanity.” 

Unlike other toy crazes for Beanie Babies, Barbies or Transformers, it was the scarcity of the dolls that caused widespread mob scenes, he said. 

At one point, the New York state government issued a complaint against Coleco, the brand that manufactured the Cabbage Patch Kids, for making too few of the dolls to meet demand. 

“It was really a combination of what was happening at the time where the economy was improving, where people wanted to start to do more for their kids … and the way the dolls … spoke to the kids in a very unique way,” said Goodman. 

A media storm 

When the mainstream media latched on to the story of the success of Cabbage Patch Kids, said Goodman, that only made the product more popular. 

The incredible popularity of Cabbage Patch Kids was a story that they “couldn’t get enough of,” he said. And in turn, neither could their audiences. 

“And so it kind of just is a self-fulfilling prophecy. They start talking about it being a thing and it just becomes more of a thing.” 

After those complaints from the New York government, Coleco began to pull ads for the Cabbage Patch Kids. Then that became the story, said Goodman. 

“Now, the media starts showing up as people are lining up hours before stores are opening, interviewing people. ‘Are you willing to go and fight for a doll? How much are you spending? Who are you here for?'” 

‘Everyone was looking for that doll’

Paule Rancourt remembers the frenzy. The buying manager at K.I.D Toy in Quebec City has worked in the toy industry for 40 years. 

She said what made people wild about Cabbage Patch Kids was that it was the first time so many children could have a doll in their likeness. 

“[The ads] mentioned you’ll have your own doll that looks like you,” she said. “That’s probably why every little girl was looking to find a doll that looks like them.” 

Over the years, there have been other toy crazes, like when Furbys or Tickle Me Elmo were all the rage, said Rancourt. More recent sought-after toys include Gabby’s Dollhouse, or the TikTok viral Soothe ‘n Snuggle Otter, a stuffed otter that mimics the sound of breathing to help babies fall asleep. 

But Rancourt said no toy has ever come close to causing a consumer storm like Cabbage Patch Kids. 

“Nothing is the same, nothing like that,” she said. “Everybody was looking for that doll. It was crazy at the time.” 

Goodman notes the dolls weren’t just marketed to girls. 

“It was the first doll really mass marketed in this way to boys as well, you know, trying to teach them to be little fathers. So it’s just everything about the way that you interact with this doll.” 

And something about the design of the dolls just compels kids to nurture them, he said. 

“They’re not perfect. They’re, you know, kind of frumpy. They just bring out that, like, you want to care for them.”