TOY FIRM TURNS OVER OLD LEAF COMPANY RE-RELEASES `80S FAVORITE CABBAGE PATCH KIDS.Byline: Candice Choi Staff Writer Adoption papers and solemn oaths to forever love your new child - in a toy store A toy store, or toy shop, is a retail business specializing in the services of selling toys. No longer held to the limitations of the brick and mortar outlet, the toy store has successfully created a presence within the e-commerce industry. ? The makers of Cabbage Patch Kids Cabbage Patch Kids are a brand of doll created by Xavier Roberts in 1978. The original dolls were all cloth and were available at local craft shows, and later at Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia. are hoping to conjure up or make visible, as a spirit, by magic arts; hence, to invent; as, to conjure up a story; to conjure up alarms s>. See also: Conjure a tsunami of nostalgia and sales of a doll that became a sensation in the 1980s. The reintroduction of the original version is evoking warm and fuzzy memories in women like Jessica Littlefield, who had seven Cabbage Patch Kids when she was younger - all selected for having brown hair like her own. ``But now I'd need one with blond hair and some highlights,'' said Littlefield, who took a stroll down memory lane at the Kay-Bee Toy Store in Sherman Oaks on Thursday. The dolls - strictly referred to as ``kids'' by the makers - are the latest in a string of retro toys hitting the market in recent years. Malibu-based Jakks Pacific JAKKS Pacific, Inc. NASDAQ: JAKK is is a multi-brand company that designs and markets a broad range of toys and consumer products and is based in Malibu, California. Its product categories include action figures, art activity kits, stationery, writing instruments, performance Inc. is also hoping to re-create the buying frenzy between 1983 and 1986, when the Cabbage Patch Kids became a $2 billion industry. The start looks good. Thousands of girls turned out for the doll's official ``delivery'' this week at the Mall of America Mall of America (also MOA, MoA, or the Megamall) is a shopping mall located in the Twin Cities suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. It is just southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, and is across the interstate from the in Minneapolis and recited their adoption oath in unison. The Cabbage Patch Cabbage patch may refer to:
``It felt like the 1980s again,'' said Carlin car·line or car·lin n. Scots A woman, especially an old one. [Middle English kerling, from Old Norse, from karl, man.] West, senior vice president of marketing and licensing at 4Kids Entertainment, the company in charge of Cabbage Patch branding. In about nine months, Cabbage Patch lovers can take another trip down memory lane when Mother Cabbage ``gives birth'' to Cabbage Babies. 4Kids is linking up with Play Along, which also reintroduced the world to Care Bears a few years ago. Toy maker Jakks Pacific recently bought out Play Along. Jakks Pacific experienced a 49 percent growth in sales over the last year after introducing retro video games See video game console. and toys, said spokeswoman Genna Goldberg. The company expects to sell more than 1 million Cabbage Patch Kids this year alone. That would bring the total number of Cabbage Patch Kids sold since they were introduced to 100 million, she said. The Cabbage Patch phenomenon was fueled in part by the idea that each doll was unique - one might have a dimple and blue eyes Blue eyes are eyes that have blue irises (see eye color), and may also refer to:
And little girls don't purchase Cabbage Patch Kids - they ``adopt'' them, company officials are quick to point out. It's a responsibility women like Littlefield took seriously in their childhoods. She even remembers sending in the birth certificates of two of her dolls to have their names ``legally'' changed by the company. ``I renamed them after the two coolest girls in school,'' she said. Littlefield said she formed a special bond with her Cabbage Patch Kids because they were ``the most like a baby'' of all her dolls. Like Littlefield, the women who remember having a Cabbage Patch Kid are now between the ages of 17 and 35, said West. Care Bears and Cabbage Patch Kids are just the latest icons to be resurrected from the childhoods of the past. Old favorites such as Easy- Bake ovens, Shrinky Dinks and Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberry Shortcake is a licensed character owned by American Greetings, originally used in greeting cards and expanded to include dolls, posters, and other products. dolls have also been reintroduced to the public in recent years. It's easy to understand why. The risk of reselling timeless favorites is low, and parents likely want to share fond experiences with their children, said Steveanne Auerbach, editor of the Dr. Toy Web site. ``There's definitely a strong interest in bringing back what was golden in the past,'' Auerbach said. West agrees that the memories the dolls bring back are impressive. One woman even told West about how her brothers threw her beloved Cabbage Patch Kid out the window of a moving car during a family road trip. The woman's father, a police officer, put out a missing person's report for the doll. ``If it's something people really loved years ago, there's a real good chance they'll love it again,'' West said. ``Kids don't really change.'' Candice Choi, (818) 713-3634 candice.choi(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Jessica Littlefield, the former owner of many Cabbage Patch Kids, checks out the dolls at Kay-Bee in Sherman Oaks. (2 -- color) A new edition Cabbage Patch Kid awaits sale - or ``adoption'' - at the toy store in the Valley. (3 -- color) David Gomez stares at the chubby-cheeked, yarn-haired dolls, just reintroduced, that started a craze in the 1980s. John McCoy/Staff Photographer |
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