1985 was the height of the Cabbage Patch doll craze.... Parents were fighting with each other to get hold of one of those hard-to-get Cabbage Patch dolls! They couldn't make them fast enough!



Each Cabbage Patch doll was slightly different from another (the manufacturer used some kind of randomized computer variation in the manufacturing process) - so each Cabbage Patch kid was "unique". And of course their look was completely different from other dolls!

(The original Cabbage Patch dolls were actually hand-made - only when it really started to take off were they mass-produced.)

Another great "marketing" angle on Cabbage Patch dolls were that they were not for "sale" - they were up for "adoption"! Each Cabbage Patch doll came with its own unique name, birthday, adoption papers, and birth certificate.

Children could send in the "adoption papers" to the manufacturer (Coleco) and receive a birthday card on their doll's first birthday!

It's been 17 years since the height of the Cabbage Patch doll craze.... Could this be a fad (unique dolls that you adopt) that's ready for a revival?

What other big fads were there of the mid-1980s?

- Dien