Xavier Roberts

Xavier Roberts, Xavier Roberts (born October 31, 1955, Cleveland, Georgia), the inventor and manufacturer of Cabbage Patch Kids, is an American artist and businessman. During the American Folk art movement of the late 1970s[ambiguous], Roberts observed several techniques involving the making of dolls from various materials.

Influenced by the quilts that his mother, Eula, made, he began experimenting with a quilted doll. After much experimentation, Roberts created a type of doll he called “Little People”. Roberts and a small group of friends began to travel from state to state in the southeastern U.S. attending various folk art exhibitions.

At these exhibitions, Roberts began selling these handcrafted dolls he called “babies”. Going into business as Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc., Roberts started producing Little People in his hometown of Cleveland, at a converted medical clinic, which he rechristened “Babyland General Hospital”.

The Little People evolved by 1982 into Cabbage Patch Kids, which quickly became a major toy fad. In 1984 alone, 20 million dolls were bought, and by 1999, 95 million had been sold worldwide.

Cabbage Patch Kids Creator

Cabbage Patch Kids Creator, Cabbage Patch Kids is a line of dolls created by American art student Xavier Roberts in 1978. It was originally called “Little People”. The original dolls were all cloth and sold at local craft shows, then later at Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia. The doll brand went on to become one of the most popular toy fads of the 1980s and one of the longest-running doll franchises in America.

The Cabbage Patch Kids brand of products originally started as dolls called Little People, created by Xavier Roberts with the help of four women, and inspired by Tennessee artisan Martha Nelson.

The name change to Cabbage Patch Kids was instigated by Roger Schlaifer before he secured the worldwide licensing rights to “Little People”, and was the basis of the story co-authored in 1982 by Roger and his wife, Susanne Nance Schlaifer. An abbreviated version of the story was reproduced on every Cabbage Patch Kids product from 1983 onward. Parker Brothers published the original story retitled “Xavier’s Fantastic Discovery” in 1984 and their Parker Records produced a Gold Album using the characters. The characters appeared in many other Cabbage Patch merchandising products ranging from animated cartoons to board games.

Xavier Roberts was created as a ten year old boy who discovered the Cabbage Patch Kids by following a BunnyBee behind a waterfall into a magical valley, where he found the Cabbage Patch babies being born. To keep them from falling into the clutches of the evil Lavendar McDade (and being enslaved in her gold mine), he sought to get them adopted into the homes of loving families outside of Mount Yonah.

BunnyBees are bee-like creatures with rabbit ears they use as wings. They pollinate cabbage blossoms with the magic crystals to make Cabbage Patch babies.

Colonel Casey is a large stork who oversees Babyland General hospital. He’s the narrator of the Cabbage Patch Kids’ story, too.

Otis Lee is the leader of the gang of Cabbage Patch Kids that befriend Xavier.

Lavendar McDade is an evil old woman who wants to enslave the Cabbage Patch Kids in her gold mine.

Cabbage Jack is a large jack rabbit, and henchman of Lavendar.

Beau Weasel is a large weasel and accomplice of Cabbage Jack.

The dolls attracted the attention of toy manufacturer Coleco, who began mass-production in 1982. The Coleco Cabbage Patch Kids had large, round vinyl heads, (originally of a different, hard plastic), and soft fabric bodies, and were produced from 1982 to 1989, many at a factory in Amsterdam, New York. After Coleco went bankrupt, the Cabbage Patch Kids were later mass produced by other companies, including Hasbro, Mattel, Toys R Us, and currently Play Along. Mattel started producing them after canceling production of My Child dolls.

At the peak of their popularity the dolls were a must-have toy for Christmas. Parents across the United States flocked to stores to try to obtain one of the Cabbage Patch Kids for their children, with fights occasionally erupting between parents over the hard-to-find dolls. In later years, Coleco introduced variants on the original Cabbage Patch Kids, and derivatives of the original line of dolls continued to be marketed. Hailey Theeuwen was the first known Cabbage Patch doll.