When was the Cabbage Patch Kids doll first produced?

Cabbage Patch Kids are a line of cloth dolls with plastic heads first produced by Coleco Industries in 1982. They were inspired by the Little People soft sculptured dolls sold by Xavier Roberts as collectibles. The brand was renamed 'Cabbage Patch Kids' by Roger L. Schlaifer when he acquired the exclusive worldwide licensing rights in 1982.

The doll brand set every toy industry sales record for three years running, and was one of the most popular lines of children’s licensed products in the 1980s and has become one of the longest-running doll franchises in the United States.

At the peak of their popularity, between 1983 and 1986, the dolls were highly sought-after toy for Christmas. Cabbage Patch riots occurred as parents literally fought to obtain the dolls for children. In later years, Coleco introduced variants on the original Cabbage Patch Kids.

Hasbro took over the rights to produce Cabbage Patch dolls in 1988 after Coleco filed for Chapter bankruptcy, and continued to make the dolls with various gimmicks, including dolls that played kazoos. Some of the more popular doll lines to come out under the Cabbage Patch Kids name included the "Birthday Kids", "Splash 'n' Tan Kids", and "Pretty Crimp and Curl". Hasbro produced a 10th anniversary doll, reintroducing Schlaifer’s original packaging – a practice that other doll manufacturers would do to give sales a boost on various anniversaries.