WEBVTT - Cabbage Patch Kids: Must-Have Toy of the Century 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.520 Heart Radio. Hey, I'm welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:19.840 um Josh, Malcolm Clark. There's Charles Wayne Bryant. This is 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:24.239 stuff you should know about cabbage Patch kids who have 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:29.840 two names, which is why I just did that. That's right. This, uh, 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:33.240 remarkably the third time we've talked about cabbage Patch kids 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:36.760 on this show. I only remember one other time. When 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:39.400 was the When was the third time or the second time? 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.519 I guess, well, the last time was not even a 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.680 year ago. Um on our on our episode on must 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.800 Have Christmas Gifts. And then that's all I remember. Yeah. 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.400 And then while I was telling the story of my 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:59.200 cabbage Patch kid experience, he said, yes, you've told everyone 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:01.880 this story before, so I think this will be the 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.840 third time that we hear these stories. I thought you 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:08.800 didn't have a cabbage Patch kid, so you don't remember 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.920 the other two times I told the story. No, you 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.640 gotta tell it again. It's called it's called a hat 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:19.240 trick baby. Uh yeah. He My sister has one of 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.840 the first, like seventy five of them, of the little 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:27.640 people dolls. Oh wow, that she bought when she was 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:32.400 a kid. Now, I now I know why it didn't 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.959 stick with me because I didn't understand what the heck 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.720 you were talking about. Now I totally get it, and 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.160 I think it will stay with me forever, Chuck, when 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.600 we do our fourth, fifth, and sixth podcasts on Cabbage 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:47.319 Patch Kids, I will be the one telling that story. 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:49.760 How about that? Well, and you also told the story 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:52.680 of yours that you uh ripped the head off and 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:57.400 gave it a mohawk. Yeah, yours, Webberdno met a pretty 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.360 terrible demise. And I have two of them myself that 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:03.840 my mom every once in a while says, hey, do 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.920 you want these? And I say, no, I don't. I 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:10.720 don't think they're worth much money. And I don't know 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.240 even though if my Sisters is worth a lot of 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:16.320 money now, even though it's hand signed and one of 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:18.760 the first ones, I just I don't think the market 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:23.280 is is robust as it was at one point. So 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:29.160 was HER's a colliqo Little People or as Xavier Roberts 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:34.160 like original Appalachian artworks, um Little People know hers was 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:40.959 one of the handmaid Xavier Roberts Kraft Fair dolls. I 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:45.920 think those go for like one to maybe two thousand dollars. 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:49.560 I think yeah, just I guess depends on where you look. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.200 Like I saw the one that of mine that was 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:54.000 one of those originals, and it wasn't one of the 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:56.400 first one hundred. But people are asking like a hundred 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.760 and fifty bucks on eBay for those Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.799 UM I'm surprised to see that, Like from what I've seen, 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:05.960 if like if, if you really want the big Bucks, 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.919 it's the original Xavier Roberts little people. But UM, we're 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:12.320 probably getting ahead of ourselves a little bit because some 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:17.000 people are probably like, what's the cabbage patch kid? Right, 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:20.000 So well we'll tell everybody what a cabbage patch kid is. 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:24.720 It's a little doll that UM was a huge, huge 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.760 deal in the Christmas of EREE and like Chuck said, 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:31.200 we talked about this on UM. I guess it was 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:34.760 our I think it was our Christmas episode or was 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:39.680 it a different standalone UM episode from last year? Now. 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:41.440 I think the first time we did it was a 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.000 Christmas episode and then last year it was in November. 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:49.400 It was just Christmas toys. Okay, gotcha, gotcha? UM, So 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:53.120 that's worth listening to. But UM in in December of 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:58.400 Christmas of everybody was going crazy for these dolls. But 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:00.400 at the same time there was like because it was 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:02.720 such a huge craze and there they were so a 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:05.440 part of like popular culture at the moment. They were 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.920 on the news every night. UM. People were doing just 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.560 absolutely crazy things to get their hands on these these 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:12.480 dolls for their kids. There was a lot of talk 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.280 about well, what what, what are these things? They're so 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:17.839 ugly that they're cute, and other people thought, well, no, 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:22.080 they're actually just ugly. UM. There was a a art 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:27.000 a journal article that came out in the Semantics Journal, etcetera. UM, 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:31.320 and the cabbage Patch kids were described as open, arm denied, 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:35.960 seemingly dull witted, with mop haired faces only mothers could love, 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:38.880 which I think is pretty pretty. It's a pretty accurate 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.800 description of a cabbage Patch kid, don't you think. Yeah, 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.800 so on that that was And this is something I 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:47.400 never knew. Apparently there was a rumor years after the 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:53.200 fact that UM the design was UM managed by Ronald 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:57.520 Reagan because he wanted to get Americans used to what 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.039 UM mutant offspring my look like. If we ever go 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.200 to if the big One ever drops and we go 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:06.400 to war with the rooskis, Um, we might want to 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.080 get East of our babies looking like this. So it's 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:11.880 just it's sort of in the classic Hollywood, like, you know, 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.560 their theories that that's why we make UFO movies. Their 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.640 commissioned by the government to get people sort of adjusted 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:19.560 to the idea that one day there's gonna be aliens 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:24.720 walking around right exactly. Um, but that's probably not the case. 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:27.240 Ronald Reagan probably didn't have anything to do with it. 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:30.760 But that's just such an eighties thing. Cabbage Patch Kids, 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:34.240 Ronald Reagan in Nuclear War with the USS are that's 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.159 about like the greatest eighties combination I've ever heard of 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.359 in my life. Yeah, pretty good. So, um, if you 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:43.520 go onto the Cabbage Patch Kids website, you'll find the 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:48.120 um enchanting magical story of where Cabbage Patch Kids came 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:51.400 from or how they came into our human world, and 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.600 it goes something like, um, this that when he was 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:59.400 a young boy, Xavier Roberts was wandering around the Appalachian 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.880 mountains and he saw what is called a bunny bee, 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:05.919 which is a magical bee that or magical bunny that 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:09.240 can fly around like buzzes around like a bee. And 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:13.400 he followed it, and the bunny bee went through a waterfall, 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.719 and Xavier Roberts went and looked and saw that behind 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:19.280 the waterfall there was a tunnel, and he went into 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:23.640 the tunnel, being an inquisitive type of Appalachian young boy um. 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:25.240 And when he came out on the other side of 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:27.960 the tunnel, he was clearly in some sort of enchanted land, 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:31.400 because there were a bunch of bunny bees flying around 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.599 over a cabbage patch, sprinkling some sort of magical dust, 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.360 and Xavier noticed that when the dust hit the cabbage, 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:41.040 the cabbage would start to move and a little baby 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:43.840 would be born from it, a cabbage patch kid. And 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.080 one of those kids, a kid named Otis Lee, came 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.280 up to Xavier and said, hey, will you take me 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:52.880 and all of my friends over to your human world 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.600 and help us find homes? And so Xavier Roberts agreed, 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.680 and he found a baby Land General hospital for the 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:03.120 per us of adopting out cabbage patch kids. And that's 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:06.400 where it all came from. That's right, baby Land General, 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.440 right here in Cleveland, Georgia. And I just so happened 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:15.080 to have driven by there but two days ago. I 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:17.840 went up, Oh yeah, yeah, we went on a waterfall 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:21.440 hike the family did on Sunday, and did you see 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:23.400 a bunny bee? Didn't see a bunny bee. But we 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.880 drove right by baby Land General and Emily was like, 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:28.559 did you know that was there? I was like, yeah, 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.560 I've been there, so of course I know it was there. 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.160 But that's where Xavier Roberts went to college. He went 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:38.280 to college at trut McConnell there in Cleveland. So that 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:41.120 was a connection, right right, Yeah, if you want to, 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:43.200 if you want to kind of take it down a 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:46.600 notch as far as magical enchantment goes. The the official 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:49.160 story is that, um, Xavier Roberts while he was at 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.560 true McConnell UM, while he was studying art there, he 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:56.560 came across a German fabric sculpture technique from the nineteenth 0:07:56.560 --> 0:08:00.640 century called needle molding, and um, if you've ever seen, 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.560 you know that that really famous tomato pincushion Chuck in 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:07.920 the seventies, So you know how how like the top 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.200 the creases in the top of the tomato are made 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:14.040 by like like taught thread pulled through together to kind 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.400 of create that that molded look. That from what I 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.240 can tell is is a form of needle molding. But 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:23.360 somehow Xavier Roberts was like, I really like sculpture, and 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.160 this is a form of soft sculpture, also like quilting, 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:28.640 and this kind of has to do with quilting. I'm 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:30.480 going to get into this and we're going to figure 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:34.120 out how to make baby dolls using this needle molding technique. 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:38.120 And he did just that starting in nineteen Yeah. And 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.160 for those of you that want to throw your um 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.920 car into a ditch right now because you're screaming about 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.480 the story, um, because you know the true story, just 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:50.720 put a pin in it. We're gonna get around to it. 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:53.960 That was very merciful of Ea chuck. Yeah. I didn't 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.440 want people to to think that we didn't know. Um. 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:01.160 But in nineteen seventy seven, Xavier Roberts, who sort of 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.080 looked like a it's sort of like a shorter haired 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:07.600 Kenny Rogers type where cowboy hat and had this beard, 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:12.240 and um, he developed these uh. They were like you said, 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.120 soft sculpture, but they were dolls called little people. And 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.760 here was this sort of hitch that really drove kids wild, 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.719 is that they were not dolls that you buy. They 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.599 were little people that you adopt, so you got adoption 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:30.880 birth certificates. Um. It was a Um, it was a 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.320 brilliant idea that he had. Could have been in it right, 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:36.160 and the and the some of these things, little people 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:39.040 originals he had. He went to arts and craft shows. 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:43.280 He sold them. We bought ours at Unicoi Lodge at 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:45.960 Unicois State Park in a gift shop there, so that 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:47.439 was a kind of place that would carry this kind 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.080 of stuff. Um, there were about forty dollars. And I 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:55.520 remember distinctly that my father could not imagine paying forty 0:09:55.520 --> 0:10:00.200 dollars for a doll and uh, I think even think 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:02.880 we even left without a little chuck. And he went 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:06.520 back because he felt so bad about how crestfall and 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.760 my sister was and bought the doll later on for 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:12.120 a Christmas gift or something, if my memory served me. 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.040 But there's a lot of money. Uh, forty bucks is 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.000 a lot of money for a doll back then. Yeah, 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.080 it was probably getting pretty close to a hundred bucks. 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:24.160 And I mean, who goes to Unicoise State Parks gift 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.480 shop and expects to drop a hundred bucks on a 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:28.920 piece of folk art that's really just a baby doll? 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:32.200 You know, I could kind of thought it's he thought 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.200 he's gonna have to get a Michelle miniature license plate 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:38.120 for two fifty Sure, exactly. And when you go on 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:40.800 with an expectation like that and you've are faced with 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:45.520 a hundred dollar uh soft sculpture um payment that you 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.480 have to make, that's a big shock. And sometimes somebody 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:50.160 needs to get in their car and drive home and 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:52.560 think about it before they can accept that that's right. 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.400 So um that, like you said, that's exactly the kind 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:57.719 of place you would have bought this. You could have 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:00.120 also found him a like craft fairs or something. And 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:04.760 in fact, um uh Xavier Roberts one first place at 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:09.760 the Osceola Art Show in Kissimi, Florida, UM for little 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.160 people that he named Dexter, which is one of the 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:18.240 most uncanny, haunting, horrid dolls you'll ever see in your life. Um, 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:20.199 but it helped kind of generate some buzz. And at 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:21.880 that point he was like, you know what this is. 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.520 Things are kind of going well. People are paying forty 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.920 bucks for for um to adopt one of these little people. 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.320 I'm winning first place prizes. I'm gonna get together some 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:36.240 friends and he uh founded what's known as original Appalachian artworks. Um. 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:39.000 And they they are the ones that actually opened up 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.439 baby Land General. They took an old medical center in Cleveland, 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:46.680 which is super creepy. Um that they they they took 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:51.000 an abandoned hospital and opened it for it's basically like 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:54.000 a doll store, really creepy if you step back and 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:56.400 just look at the contours of the whole thing. Um. 0:11:56.480 --> 0:12:00.280 But it was a no, no, it didn't. I'm just 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:02.680 saying if you just look at the words on paper, 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:05.319 put it like that, it does seem when you know, 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:07.960 it was like a little house. It was, and it 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.720 was the opposite of creepy. Like it was delightful. And 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:12.760 I guess it still is because I mean it's still 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.280 an operation today. But people would show up and like 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:17.920 they were like the people who worked there were dressed 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.600 up as nurses and doctors and and they would help 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:24.480 the the the babies be born from cabbage um from 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.480 cabbage is uh, then they would be incubated. They were 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:30.360 premises that were born. Like it was a big deal 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:33.320 operation to take this this idea of that you were 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:36.720 adopting a cabbage patch kid rather than buying a doll. 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:39.480 And then like adding that whole extra to mention to 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.280 it of going to Babyland general to do it really 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:45.800 helped generate a lot of buzz for for these things. Yeah, 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:48.120 and I should say that my sister's doll, Chuck, who 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:50.080 was they come with their names. She didn't name it 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:54.000 after me, but Chuck had um you know, if you 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.360 see the early versions of these things, like you said, 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:59.120 it was kind of horrific looking. They They weren't the 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:03.560 cutest dolls at Chuck had a very crooked hairline. Um Like, 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:05.480 it looked like it was made by someone who didn't 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:08.199 fully know what they were doing. His little yarn hairline 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.520 was like a good three inches higher on one side 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:15.120 of his forehead than the other. Which again, further, my 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:16.800 dad did not see the charm in this. He was like, 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:19.160 it's not even made well, and I gotta pay forty 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:24.240 dollars for these things. But um supposedly with the premise uh. 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:27.719 Xavier Roberts has given some credit to just raising awareness 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:32.120 for premature babies because the premise in Cabbage patch Land 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:35.760 were so cute. They also had c sections cabbage sections, 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:40.120 and by the time nineteen eight rolls around, he's selling 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:44.280 a pretty good amount of these things. But it really explodes, uh. 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.400 In popular culture from sort of the early eighties, he 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.960 was featured on the TV show Real People, UM, which 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:54.280 I watched a lot as a kid. Uh, made Newsweek, 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.360 made the Wall Street Journal, and so the press is 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.000 starting to kind of come around and these things are 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.480 just getting more and more popular at this point. Yeah, 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.560 a lot of those stories just kind of focused on 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:08.040 people who were paying a lot more than the original 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.199 retail price to start collecting these dolls. So there was 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:15.080 like a whole underground cult market that was developing around 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:19.400 these little people. UM. And it became very apparent that 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.080 Xavier Roberts was not going to be able to keep 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:24.680 up with supply, so he started looking for some help 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:28.320 and he found it in two. And we will talk 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:56.560 all about that partnership made in Heaven starting after these messages. Okay, Chuck, 0:14:56.640 --> 0:15:00.440 So uh, it's two and the little p bull are 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.640 just going bonkers. They're flying off the shelves. They can't 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.560 keep them in stock anywhere. They're selling them. Unicois State 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:08.520 Park is on the phone every day being like, send 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:10.440 us more, send us more. We don't care what the 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:13.680 hairline looks like. We gotta have them, and um, so 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:17.640 Xavier Roberts started looking for some like a legit toy 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:21.120 manufacturer to help him out, and he found it in Kaliko, 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.240 who had made a name I guess around the same 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:27.960 time as maybe a little bit before this year before 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:31.520 maybe as the people who UM came out with pac Man. 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.240 So they were riding high by this time, and they said, 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:37.200 I think there's something to this, these little people, and 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:39.680 we're gonna we're gonna buy in here and so UM 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:43.440 Xavier Roberts partnered with Kaliko, and the rest of the 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.520 story just kind of takes off like a rocket from there. Yeah. 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:51.400 So this was in N two and UH. At first 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:53.680 Kaliko said, you know what, we're gonna keep calling them 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:57.080 little People. We think that's a good name, even though 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.360 it wasn't UM. So they stuck with the name. Uh. 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:02.800 They figured out the best way to mass produce these 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.960 things UM was to get rid of that hand done, 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:08.760 hands owned head. That was a real problem. That's what 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:12.720 took the most time. UM. It's also frankly, what gave 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:15.520 those early dolls all the personality. UM. A lot of 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:17.800 that was lost when they went to the plastic heads. 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:22.520 But they did keep the cloth bodies. Uh. The machine 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.400 produced these vinyl heads. They sized the doll down a 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:28.640 little bit to about sixteen inches. Um. The initial dolls 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:32.240 were pretty big. Um. They varied in size obviously depending 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:35.480 on how old um they were when you adopted them. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.320 But um, they were large, Like Chuck was a big doll, 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.640 the two I have her big dolls. Yeah, they were 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.200 like the size where if they were possessed by a 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:45.920 demon and came alive, they could smother you like that. 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:47.960 You'd be in big trouble if they came alive while 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:52.280 you were asleep, Yes, big time. But sizing him and 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:53.920 down made a big difference because then you could just 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:57.280 box them up, get more shell space that way. And 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.360 they were smart early on too, to realize that kids 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:06.800 wanted a lot of variety. Um, they wanted different ethnicities, 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:09.679 they wanted different skin color, different shapes, they wanted some 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.080 with freckles, some with dimples. Um. Obviously, different eye color 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:15.320 and hair color and stuff like that. And that was 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:17.239 one of the big selling points is it wasn't just 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:22.639 this um Sames's mass produced all that that every kid 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:27.240 could have the same one. Every kid wanted a different version. Yeah, 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:29.160 because I mean that was the part of the whole 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:33.440 marketing that you were adopting your own individual kid, your 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.600 own cabbage patch kid who had his or her own name, 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.960 his her own like specific birthdate. Um, he or she 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:44.840 was a unique little baby that you were adopting. So 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:47.719 um the idea that you could take different head molds 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:50.639 and different facial features and different types of hair, and 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.240 you had like a few different from each category. You 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:56.560 suddenly had like millions of combinations that you could randomly 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:00.520 put together. Continued that uniqueness that was part of the 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:02.800 brand from the beginning. And like you said, it was 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.439 like part of like the big the big thing that 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:08.800 like made this craze so so huge. You know, they 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.919 were very smart to to identify that as a big 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.640 part of the marketing and then figure out a way 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.200 to carry it on while also mass producing these things. 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:20.960 It was pretty clever on Clico's part. Yeah, And it 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:24.080 was also clever to change the name. Um. Little people 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.760 just didn't have legs basically in the end, and they 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:31.840 thought cabbage patch kids, they were born in the cabbage patch. 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:34.760 It's um And you know, looking back, it's it's a 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:38.800 pretty brilliant name because it ties into being adopted, being 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:43.840 born in the Little cabbage Patch and um it's it 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.640 was pretty brilliant. I think, um it was a kind 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.200 of name like that you could end up making into 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:51.280 a bunch of other things, which they did, and we're 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:53.400 going to talk about that, but I don't think little 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:56.639 people quite had the legs to do that. So um 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.280 Clico also figured out that there was a really good 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:04.040 sweet spot that even if you couldn't really afford it, 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.959 you would still stretch to reach that point, and they 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.120 started adopting these. The adoption fees for cabbage Patch kids 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.840 came to about thirty dollars, which is seventy eight dollars 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:18.120 in today's money. Um. And then they took their um, 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:23.320 you know, comparatively much larger clout um in contacts in 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.320 the media and started getting way more pressed for Cabbage 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.880 Patch kids than Xavier Roberts ever managed to generate for 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:33.560 little People, which I have to say, looking looking back, though, 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.800 Xavier Roberts did some really good work as just some 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:42.280 dude from Cleveland, Georgia who was hands sewing dolls. I mean, 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:48.840 he got some pretty good coverage, but it was right exactly, 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.400 and it wasn't it became a big deal, but Kaliko 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:54.399 just put it to shame. They they m they got 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:57.600 a lot of press, a lot of um interest drummed 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.560 up for Cabbage Patch kids, and all of that kind 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:07.159 of culminated in a December twelve m to edition of 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:10.320 Newsweek when there was a cabbage pet a little girl 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.560 with her Cabbage Patch kid on the cover of that edition, 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.440 just in time for the Christmas buying season. That's right, 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:21.000 because every kid in America was reading Newsweek and saying, mom, dad, look, 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:24.480 it's on the cover, right, we have to get one. 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:27.120 And that was at the very quaint time when when 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:29.640 you would, um, you would just start Christmas shopping two 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:34.119 weeks before Christmas rather than eight months before Christmas. Uh so, 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.040 Clico and by the way, just to save listener mails, 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:39.760 uh Clico did not make pac Man, and we just 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:43.080 want to save you from that fate because is it right? Yeah, 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:45.800 I think I think it was Namco if I remember correctly. 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:49.520 Oh man, I mean they did do video games. But okay, 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:51.800 well thanks for saving me. No, no, no, there'll be 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:54.959 plenty of people that write that probably sent the email 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:58.919 before I even got to this, and that want to 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:02.320 retract the email. But that's okay. So they started selling 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:06.800 these things like hotcakes. They sold um three million plus 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:10.000 by the end of nineteen three. And like so many 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:14.160 Christmas items that came before and after, it is sort 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:18.120 of the frenzy is determined by availability and and supply, 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.439 and they were underprepared and they could not keep up 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.959 with demand. They weren't like the Rubik's Cube where they 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:27.960 just made you know, millions and millions and millions of 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:31.359 these things. Uh, and it became a supply problem and 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:34.320 it became a really big deal. And this is, um, 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.000 this is the first toy where people were angry because 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:39.399 there weren't enough of them to go around. Yeah, and 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:41.679 I mean they still made three million of them and 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:45.320 they ran out like very quickly. And when you say 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:49.600 people were angry, like they were throwing elbows, they were 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:52.879 um pushing one another. They were like they were getting 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.400 physical trying to get these dolls. And now it's like, well, yeah, 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.720 that sounds like a Christmas like must have Christmas toy. 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:02.399 People hadn't done that up to this point. This is 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:05.679 very new. And so in addition to you know, the 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:09.040 normal press they were getting, these dolls were also ending 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.440 up on like the nightly news, a lot that December 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.720 with stories about how parents were like driving across state 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:20.159 lines to get one of those cabbage Patch Kids, or 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:24.800 there was a story about a post carrier in Kansas City, 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:28.600 I think who flew to London to buy one, which 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:31.240 I don't understand why, because London had its own Friendzy 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:34.360 going on as well. Um, there was a whole lot 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:37.240 of stuff going down that hadn't really gone down before 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:41.160 Cabbage Patch Kids came along that Christmas. Yeah, I wonder 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.720