The 500s Series

These 16 outfits came out from 1985 to 1986 and are some of the most beloved for CPK collectors. It includes the Teddy Bear Overalls, Portrait Dress, Snowsuit, Country Dress, Apron Dress and more!

Picture of 9 cabbage patch dolls wearing outfits from the 500s Series. They are sitting on a bed covered with a vintage CPK coverlet.


Jump to 500s Series Outfit Quick Links

There are 16 outfits in this series. This equates to between 140 and 150 different versions of the outfits. They came on regular kids from 1985/1986. They can also be found on later kids and in separate packages as Coleco got rid of overstock between 1987 – 89.
Photo courtesy of Rebecca Russell.

It’s believed that most of the 500s Series came out in 1985 but that some came out in late 1985 or 1986. It is interesting to note that the outfits believed to have come out in 1986 are also those considered harder to find. This makes sense as they were likely manufactured for a shorter period of time.

Possible 1986 outfits include:

  • Sailboat Dress (504)
  • Tri-heart dress (508
  • Girls Ruffled Windbreaker Outfit (512
  • Multicoloured Boys Windbreaker (516)

The Logo Dress, a secondary version of the Portrait Dress (511), is believed to have come out in 1987.

Production Factories & Outfit Codes

These outfits are #501 – #518. There was no #509 or #515 produced. It’s theorized that they were proposed but not approved for production.

For an explanation of the clothing codes (i.e. 511A) visit,  What are Clothing Tag Codes?

Like other Series, certain letters seem to have been produced primarily by specific factories. I call these the Primary Factory for each letter.  For example, I think the KT factory produced the letters A and B (if they produced the outfit). Other factories may have made them, but not always consistently.

To the right are my theorized primary factories.

It would appear that not every letter was created for every outfit. In fact, we are quite sure that one outfit only has four options while the largest number for one outfit seems to be between 10 and 14.

Spreadsheet showing the Primary Factory for each letter, and other factories I have found.

For some outfits, there’s more than one version of a code. This is generally caused by variations between factories. This is why it is vitally important to look at both the clothing code AND the description when determining if the outfit has been recorded.  For example, the IC version and the KT version might look slightly different.

Taiwan factory outfits (e.g. IC, AX) have been recorded in the 500s Series; however, they are rather rare. At this time, the Taiwanese factories were more focused on producing specialty outfits.

The PMI factory only operated for one year, between 1984 and early 1985. As a result, it only produced 500s Series outfits for a short length of time. (Ref #3, p. 30) Consequently, PMI outfits in this series are the rarest to find. I am unsure how many 500s Series outfits the PMI factory produced. I have a record of only three, the Snowsuit, the Multi-coloured Jogging Suit, and the Aerobics Outfit.

Tags

The clothing tags in these outfits are generally in either the shirt or the dress piece. The single exception is the windbreaker outfits, which are labelled in the jacket.

The P and PMI factories continued to use stickers for their codes (for details visit HERE). This can make it very difficult to record the complete code. We know that it was made by the P factory but don’t know the letter. If you have an outfit from these factories with the sticker, please check if it is recorded!

Some OK tags in the 500s Series also have stickers. I think this was done when they ran out of a tag and needed to use the tags for another outfit. They just covered the original code with a sticker showing the new one.

Shoes

As for shoes, they were specific to the outfit. Certain outfits came with certain shoes, but there were only three options: Sneakers, Mary Jane’s, and lace-up shoes (sometimes called high tops).

For more details on the individual type of shoe, click the labels in the pictures above or jump to, Shoes – An Overview.

Like with the clothing, the shoe factory should match the doll’s factory. If the doll is KT, the shoes should be KT. For details visit A Match Made in . . . the Factory (Matching Pt. 1) .

Quick Links List

Note: The names I used for these outfits are either used extensively within the CPK Community I frequent or were created by myself where no consensus seemed to exist. If you have another possible name, please contact me.

(Links will be added as the posts are published.)

502 -Country Dress

503 -Velour Jogging Suit

504 -Sailboat Dress

505 – Apron Dress & 505 – Hasbro Apron Dress

506 – Sun Suit

507 – Aerobics Outfit

508 – Tri-Heart Dress

509 – NO OUTFIT

510 – Ruffled Knit outfit

511 – Portrait Dress

511 – Logo Dress


512 – Ruffled Windbreaker Outfit

513 – Snow Suit

514 – Button Romper

515 – NO OUTFIT

516 – Multi-coloured Windbreaker Outfit

517 – Teddy Bear Overalls

518 – Multi-coloured Jogging Suit

References

Ref #4, Vol. 3 Issue 9/10/11, p. 5-7
Ref #3, p. 371 – 437

Poseable Actionwear

These specialty outfits offered us the freedom to pose our Cabbage Patch Kids. What a cool concept!

These outfits came out in 1985. They were designed to help you pose your doll and were intended to be worn underneath other outfits. There were six different colours available (I think).

The boxes say that they were made by factories in China (P), Korea (IJ), Haiti, and Mexico. As far as I know, this is the only CPK item produced in Haiti.

Packaging

Actionwear ONLY came packaged. I’ve seen zero evidence that they were ever put on boxed kids. This makes sense; they were never intended to be the only outfit on a doll.

They originally came in packaging designed specifically for them (1). Then they started showing up in packaging designed for the Occupation Rompers (2). Eventually, they were part of the ‘overflowing inventory’ that they had to get rid of, and they started coming out in basic cardboard packaging (3-5).  

One minor problem . . .

For anyone who has handled Actionwear outfits, you know that it isn’t uncommon for the outfit to be sans the wires. The wires tend to burst out of the outfit, like an underwire bra! However, some may have been sold WITHOUT the wire. The following was noted in 1987:

“A liquidation firm sold off a large number of outfits on boards that did not have the wire in them. They were not labelled as “Action Wear” but sure looked like them! The tag says Mexico!’

Ref#4, April 1989, p. 4

The next generation

Hasbro later attempted to improve on this idea by putting the wire directly inside the doll. Poseable kids are considered Transitional Kids.

Straighten up! A How-To

How to use a flat iron to help with ribbons, tags and clothes.

Crimped ribbons? Wonky tags? Hard to iron? Help!

I can’t remember where I learned this little tidbit, but it’s wonderful.

Use a travel flat iron to straighten and neaten the following:

  • used hair ribbons (Most useful aspect by far!)
  • dolls side tags
  • clothing tags
  • hard to iron spots on clothing

Note: I purchased mine at a second hand store for under $5.