222. Cabbage Patch Kids and West Hartford's Toymaker Coleco

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Dec 1, 2025

Natalie Belanger, a producer at the Connecticut Museum of Culture & History, shares her childhood nostalgia for Cabbage Patch Kids. She reminisces about personalizing her dolls and the excitement of toy catalogs. The discussion dives into how Coleco, a once-thriving toymaker from West Hartford, created a retail frenzy with its adoption gimmick but ultimately went bankrupt due to poor business decisions. Tune in to learn about the rise and fall of one of the most iconic toys of the 1980s!

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INSIGHT

Cabbage Patch's Enduring Commercial Power

Cabbage Patch Kids became one of the longest-running and best-selling doll franchises in U.S. history.
The license passed through seven companies, highlighting its lasting commercial value.

INSIGHT

Design+Manufacturing Drove The Craze

Coleco redesigned Xavier Roberts' originals into a cheaper, mass-produced plastic-headed doll with softer proportions.
That design and packaging, produced in China, drove massive retail success at affordable prices.

INSIGHT

Scarcity Fueled The Mania

Short supply and scarce retail distribution amplified demand and caused near-riots at stores.
Parents camped and jostled for shipments in a pre-internet, in-person buying frenzy.

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During this holiday season, it seems like the perfect time to bring you the story of one of the bestselling toys ever - Cabbage Patch Kids! Inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in 2023, Cabbage Patch Kids set every toy industry sales record for three years running from 1983-86, and has become one of the longest-running doll franchises in the United States. How did a Connecticut company produce the hottest toy of the 1980s - and then go broke?

The license to produce Cabbage Patch Kids has gone through a record 7 toy companies. This episode is on the Coleco years - the toymaker with their headquarters in West Hartford. Host Mary Donohue will share her experience buying the dolls and Natalie Belanger, Grating the Nutmeg producer from the Connecticut Museum of Culture & History, her own childhood experience playing with the Cabbage Patch Kids.

It's hard to believe after such a successful toy, but Coleco Industries were bankrupt by 1989. The Hartford Courant published numerous full-page stories about what had gone wrong. The Courant reported that "With its revenues dropping and its debt mounting, Coleco faced some critical decisions. Toy industry analysts said the company should have slowed its spending, cut expenses and waited for sales to improve. Instead, Coleco chose to borrow more and spend more, trying to develop a product to rival Cabbage Patch Kids. But the new toys it introduced-Rambo action figures, Furskins stuffed bears, a talking Cabbage Patch doll and Starcom space toys for boys sold only moderately well."

Find out more in this episode!

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This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/ Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky.

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