These pants are the bane of my A-type personality. It’s VERY difficult to differentiate one pair of jeans from the other. Jeans are never tagged. Some of the factory differences are VERY subtle. It’s also hard to find correct information as you have to get it from a MIB kid to know the jeans are correct. Jeans can be switched out so easily and it’s done frequently.
As a consequence, this section is rather sparse. Here’s what I know.
OK Factory Jeans Characteristics
Tend to be shorter than other pants but not always
Why know how to identify the factory of an outfit #10 shirt, after all, they’re tagged! But, what if you can’t see the tag in the picture? What if it’s been cut off?
Version 1: A thin cotton t-shirt material. Known factories: OK Version 2: A thicker synthetic material. Known factories: P, PMI, LF, IJ, WW
In general, Version 2 tends to be larger (physically) than Version 1.
OK (top) vs. PMI (bottom)OK (top) vs P (bottom)
Foreign Shirts
I don’t know much about the shirts that come with the foreign outfits except for Jesmar outfits.
Jesmar shirts are sometimes solidly coloured but are generally striped. However, the colours are not always ways and [insert colour here]. I also have one shirt recorded that’s white with small polka dots. They are often a very thin fabric, are badly sewn with very thin hems, and have unfinished bottom hems. Some also have typical Jesmar Velcro.
Other Outfits
The shirt for the 25th Anniversary Windbreaker outfit likely doesn’t have a tag in it. It will be purple and white. However, I can’t confirm this as I’ve never actually seen it myself. This is the only girl’s 25th Anniversary outfit I don’t own.
The shirt for outfit #100 is blue and white striped and the most obvious difference from outfit #10 shirt is the red CPK logo on the chest.
The majority of CPK windbreaker jackets from outfit #10 aren’t tagged. If the jacket gets separated from the original outfit, it can be difficult to tell which shirt/jeans go with it. The shirts are tagged. So, if you can figure out the jacket’s factory, you can match it to the right shirt.
You can use the following characteristics to help determine which factory made a jacket.
Keep in mind that this list is not comprehensive. It is only based on what I can confirm as of publication. I always appreciate getting new or conflicting information.
Hem Elastic
There are two types of hems: exposed elastic and enclosed elastic.
Exposed elastic is visible and is attached using two lines of sewing. Known factories: OK, IJ
Enclosed elastic isn’t visible. It is enclosed in jacket fabric. It is a large strip of elastic, which is only sewn into the jacket at either end. Known factories: P, PMI, KT, LF
Exposed ElasticEnclosed Elastic
Zippers
All Coleco zippers are plastic with a metal pull, and most have KKK on the zipper pull. I have found VKK on some P factory zippers, but not all. If you have another zipper on your jacket, it is likely from a foreign factory (See below) or is aftermarket
KKK Zipper PullVKK Zipper Pull
CPK Logo
The logo seems to vary the most. There are two basic versions. One sits at almost 90 degrees from the zipper and bottom hem. The other is at more of an angle/curve.
Logo at 90 degreesLogo at different curve/angle
The logos also come in varying sizes and shades of green. In some cases, they just look a bit different. Here are the logos that I have identified so far.
OK factory logoPMI factory logoP factory logoKT factory logoLF factory logoIJ factory logo
Foreign outfits
Jesmar: The logo is different. It has a shadow outline and is smaller than the OK one. It is applied quite far from the zipper. These jackets tend to be very thin fabric. The zipper pull is a different shape.
Lily Ledy: These jackets seem to come with a zipper or button closure or no closure system at all. For jackets with a zipper, the pull is very distinctive in shape.
Triang Pedigree: These jackets have a wide white zipper but the pull itself is silver metal.
Tsukuda: According to my records, Tsukuda jackets close with velcro. I would like to confirm this.
Special thanks to Andrea’s Cabbie-kids for some of the previous pictures and information.
Other Information
> In the only two examples of KT windbreaker outfits that I have, the tag is in the jacket, not the shirt. So, if you get a shirt without a tag, it must be KT.
> One 25th Anniversary outfit was the windbreaker outfit. It’s purple. Here is a comparison of the PA windbreaker versus a Coleco OK jacket.
PA vs Coleco OK PA vs Coleco OK
> Outfit #100 is a windbreaker outfit. The most obvious and unmistakable difference in the jacket is the lack of a logo. The outfit tag is in the jacket, not the shirt.
I’ve completed the sleeper set; my first completed set! Meet my little dreamers.
My first, and probably only ever, complete outfit set!
The Sleeper outfit (#2) is one of the original 1983 Series outfits and has the least number of letters used in the clothing codes. It is the ‘easiest’ to collect all the different versions. Although I have a few that are recorded as being produced by two factories, I have decided that my ‘set’ is complete with one example of each letter. (AKA, one of each colour)
As this outfit was only produced for one year, and I am an A-type personality, I wanted to make sure the kids and the clothing matched. Therefore, the majority of these kids are 1983 bald kids, and the clothing factory matches the doll’s factory. It took me quite some time to find the last kid, Walker. I’ve had his sleeper for over a year!
Outfits may look the same, but take a closer look. There may be more differences than you thought.. Learn more about WHY I want to record all the factory variations when it comes to CPK outfits.
You get a new outfit, and you wander over to Hilary’s Cabbage Patch Clothes Closet to see if it’s already been recorded. You look at the spreadsheet. Yep! The red and white gingham dress is already there.
But wait! You’ve only looked at the description. You still need to check the factory! What if the one you have was made by a different factory? This is important!
“But why?”, you ask. Well, this is why.
I have four swing dresses that look almost identical but were all made by different factories and use three different clothing codes. How can I record all of the outfits if I don’t know how many factories made each outfit?
The WW and SS factory dresses are 1Q. The PMI dress is 1S. The P dress is 1G.
I have noted in the past that letters P, Q, and R have the primary factory SS and tend to replicate previous letters in pattern/style/colour. In this case, the swing dress PMI letters S and T have as many as six different patterns/looks for only two letters. It’s a mess! To learn more about the multiple PMI dresses, visit PTP: An abundance of patterns – PMI swing dresses.
This may explain why they all look almost the same, but more importantly, how do you tell them apart?
Differences
The lace on the sleeves of the PMI dress is gathered. None of the other versions have this.
The PMI dress is sewn with red thread (to match the dress). The others are all done with white thread.
The SS dress has elastic in the sleeves. The others don’t.
The fabric of the collar of the WW dress is lighter, not as heavy/thick as the other three.
The width, fabric weight, and shade of red of the ribbons vary by factory, although this may also be fabric lot variability.
How wide the lace at the sleeves is varies by the factory.
The WW dress has a Taiwanese silk label. The others are China factories.
By knowing the factory of the dress, you can determine if it’s potentially original to the doll and/or what factory the doll may be.
The Mystery Dress
I have a 5th dress, but this one is different from the others. I can’t remember where I got it from, and for some reason, I had originally labelled it WS. Based on the Velcro, I would label it WS. However, it has no tag. It doesn’t look like a tag was ever removed.
Is it a factory fluke? Is it handmade? Is it an aftermarket copy? Is there some other explanation?
Although very similar to the others, it has some significant differences too.
For the most part, it is the same size, pattern, and fabric. It even has a silk label, but . . .
The silk tag looks odd, not like any of the others.
The collar isn’t white, it’s the dress’s gingham pattern.
The ribbon is made of actual ribbon, not fabric.
There is no ‘flap’ of fabric at the V of the collar.
The sleeves have elastic (similar to the SS dress, but unlike any of the others).
The sewing was done by machine, but the finishing is slightly different from all the others.
I believe this to be an amazing handmade replica of a classic Swing Dress. What do you think?
Happy Birthday to me!! Thanks to a friend I’ve got more space for kids. 🙂
I’ve wanted to put up shelves in my spare room for quite a while. I wasn’t sure about doing so. I didn’t want the room to feel too cramped. However, I finally decided to just go for it!
After determining that buying pre-made shelves was too costly, I purchased wood shelves and the brackets and did it myself! (Well, a friend helped me a LOT!)
She came over to help me celebrate my birthday, and we spent the day putting them up and moving around kids. It was a great cabbie day! Special thanks to Michelle for all her patience and encouragement on this project.
The best part, the project gave me more closet space for the CPK clothes! I added a whole new hanging rod.
