It's time to talk about where Cabbage Patch Dolls come from
August 16, 2022 12:22 PM Subscribe
On Twitter, Sarah Baird describes a visit to where Cabbage Patch Dolls are "born." (Wayback Machine) It’s adorable, terrifying, and bonkers!
Not a replacement for a twitter thread with pictures, but a nice supplement might be this episode of the Decoder Ring podcast about the Cabbage Patch craze: “The Cabbage Patch Kids Riots”
posted by Going To Maine at 12:32 PM on August 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 12:32 PM on August 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
That's....weird.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:32 PM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:32 PM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
I don't believe that stork has been to medical school.
posted by Horkus at 12:33 PM on August 16, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by Horkus at 12:33 PM on August 16, 2022 [6 favorites]
did cabbage patch dolls always look so...off? I can't tell if it's just that style of photography but wow they look terribly distressed
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 12:52 PM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 12:52 PM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
I misread Sarah Baird as Sarah Taber and was extra excited and confused for a moment there.
posted by miles per flower at 12:53 PM on August 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by miles per flower at 12:53 PM on August 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
The thread features some homemade ones, very sweet to see now but received with mixed reviews at the time.
I was unprepared for all the, uh, dilation. It's also pretty surprising that this place has held up as a tourist attraction, but then, I guess Cabbage Patch Kids never really went away, even as the fad did.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:08 PM on August 16, 2022
I was unprepared for all the, uh, dilation. It's also pretty surprising that this place has held up as a tourist attraction, but then, I guess Cabbage Patch Kids never really went away, even as the fad did.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:08 PM on August 16, 2022
All this needs is one of those hamfistedly exoticising tour guides tying it in with America's religious fervor and violent past or something.
posted by acb at 1:13 PM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by acb at 1:13 PM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
the Decoder Ring podcast about the Cabbage Patch craze: “The Cabbage Patch Kids Riots”
Came to the thread to specifically mention that episode.
And if you haven't listened to Decoder Ring, you should because it's such a good podcast. For another great 80s episode, check out the one about the Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Wars.
posted by msbrauer at 1:40 PM on August 16, 2022
Came to the thread to specifically mention that episode.
And if you haven't listened to Decoder Ring, you should because it's such a good podcast. For another great 80s episode, check out the one about the Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Wars.
posted by msbrauer at 1:40 PM on August 16, 2022
A real live human being is paid to deliver cabbage patch dolls from a tree. That's on her resume.
posted by Jacen at 3:37 PM on August 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Jacen at 3:37 PM on August 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Well....I had 3 cabbage patch dolls! A blonde long haired, blue eyed one like me in a cheer leader outfit (I was a competitive gymnast as a young kid so I assume it was the closest), an astronaut in full spacewalk gear (brown long hair, brown eyes.... noted). And a boy with short looped curly hair and glasses that my Nana thought was a girl, but I LOVED too. The astronaut was really fun because my very comfortablely retired grandfather worked part time at Sears to keep busy which meant I got to pick that one from the STOREROOM.
But also, my mom definitely went to a crafting class with friends and made me an incredible homemade cabbage patch with exquisite painted eyes. And I always dressed her in my baby clothes.
I loved all of them equally, but clearly I was spoiled for cabbage sized dolls.
posted by atomicstone at 4:19 PM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
But also, my mom definitely went to a crafting class with friends and made me an incredible homemade cabbage patch with exquisite painted eyes. And I always dressed her in my baby clothes.
I loved all of them equally, but clearly I was spoiled for cabbage sized dolls.
posted by atomicstone at 4:19 PM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Every year I do a writing/presentation project with my students about one-hit-wonders and flash in the pan type things. I have a sample essay about Cabbage Patch Kids to introduce the topic (after we read about Jeremy Lin and Linsanity in our textbook), and I don't think I was really ready for just how insane the story about the dolls really is. You've got lawsuits, intellectual property theft, all sorts of craziness, and that's before you get to the awful creepiness of the still in existence Babyland General Hospital in the twitter thread. That, and the number of companies that have had the license to produce the dolls and then gone bankrupt is pretty amazing. I think it went from Coleco to Hasbro to Mattel to, currently, Wicked Cool Toys, which just sounds off.
On the other hand, I'd like a full on soap opera crossover. Seriously, Babyland General Hospital?! The possibilities are endless!
posted by Ghidorah at 6:59 PM on August 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
On the other hand, I'd like a full on soap opera crossover. Seriously, Babyland General Hospital?! The possibilities are endless!
posted by Ghidorah at 6:59 PM on August 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
I kind of half expected them to be hatched from pods.
Not that far off. Needs more slime.
posted by 2N2222 at 11:19 PM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Not that far off. Needs more slime.
posted by 2N2222 at 11:19 PM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Newly arrived in Atlanta from a tiny town in northern Sweden in 1988, the wife of my dad’s colleague took my mom and I (and another Swedish family) to lovely Helen, Georgia for an excursion. As part of that trip, we visited BabyLand General Hospital and watched the Cabbage Patch kids being “born.”
It was a weird and absolutely surreal experience, as we had no idea at the time what these dolls even were! We were just laughing with each other at these odd Americans with their ridiculous commercialization of everything. And the way grown women were behaving as if they were real babies! It was a very odd, to say the least, introduction to living in America…
posted by gemmy at 4:01 AM on August 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
It was a weird and absolutely surreal experience, as we had no idea at the time what these dolls even were! We were just laughing with each other at these odd Americans with their ridiculous commercialization of everything. And the way grown women were behaving as if they were real babies! It was a very odd, to say the least, introduction to living in America…
posted by gemmy at 4:01 AM on August 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
Why are the dolls growing out of cabbages if they are born from a tree?
posted by Comet Bug at 10:10 AM on August 17, 2022
posted by Comet Bug at 10:10 AM on August 17, 2022
A Magic Crystal Tree and Mother Cabbages. Goodness.
https://cabbagepatchkids.com/pages/babyland-general-hospital-tour
posted by readinghippo at 12:34 PM on August 17, 2022
https://cabbagepatchkids.com/pages/babyland-general-hospital-tour
posted by readinghippo at 12:34 PM on August 17, 2022
Also their heads permanently smell like baby powder. And I never owned one but you could buy cabbage patch preemies. Which....as an adult and mother of technically not but also yes (37 weeks to the day (the docs will till you they're full term, the nurses will remind you no ultrasound is THAT accurate) twins who wore preemie clothes for weeks, is deeply weird.
posted by atomicstone at 1:23 PM on August 17, 2022
posted by atomicstone at 1:23 PM on August 17, 2022
I drive by there from time to time. It's on the way to some of the prettiest parts of the Georgia mountains. I remember my grandparents suggested it as a trip in the 80s (they were always looking for new things in Georgia to take the grandkids to) but it was vetoed. And we're all probably better off for that.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:43 PM on August 17, 2022
posted by hydropsyche at 3:43 PM on August 17, 2022
« Older My god, it's full of cats on synthesizers. | All I Need Are Some Tasty Waves, a Cool Buzz, and... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Pronoiac at 12:25 PM on August 16, 2022 [6 favorites]