I have found that there are at least two ways that CPK high-top shoes were laced. I’m not sure exactly which factories used which one, but I’ll tell you what I (think) I know.
If you have a MIB kid whose shoes have never been untied and you see a different pattern, I’d love to hear about it! I’d also love to know which factories used which option.
I have seen this procedure used by the P, OK, and KT factories. This is what I would call the normal way of lacing, as the ends of the laces are pulled even as you go.
Option 2
I found this procedure on a few OK factory kids. I don’t believe they were all done this way, but the ones I’ve seen were on OK kids.
I believe that this procedure has a significant benefit over the other option. When you pull the laces tight, there isn’t as much pressure on the holes, and they won’t rip as easily.
Other shoes that have laces
Here are pictures of other CPK shoes and how they were originally tied. I apologize. I don’t have many pictures, but I’m always willing to add those sent to me.
This St. Patricks Day I celebrated by purchasing a unicorn! Join me as I unbox my treasure at the end of the rainbow.
I bought myself a unicorn and it arrived in time for St. Paddy’s Day! Join me as I unbox the treasure at the end of the rainbow.
Spoiler Alert! Only scroll down if you know what the unicorn is!
Meet Mateo Lucas (blue) and Patrick Dante (green). Patrick is wearing my unicorn outfit! How appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day. Of course, what else was I going to name him? After all, he’s all about the green!
As Hasbro took over production of the Cabbage Patch brand, chaos ensued. Find out what collectors means by ‘transitional’ and how this is reflected in the clothing.
Transition: the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.
(Google Dictionary)
In this instance, we’re referring to the transition from Coleco to Hasbro as the manufacturer of the Cabbage Patch brand, 1989 – 1990. This progression, and the chaos it caused, can be seen in the tags used in their clothes. It occurs in five stages.
Stage 1 Tags: 9 – Amsterdam and Gloversville, NY – Coleco
Coleco began using the location Amsterdam, NY, on their tags in late 1987 (I think) and continued until sometime in 1989. Then they switched to Gloversville, NY, the last known Coleco location used on their tags. Consequently, Gloversville tags only occurred in outfits that came out in the first 6-months of 1989. These outfits all have 9 – in front of their outfit code. (See Part 2: The Code Addition for an explanation). Some of the outfits produced in 1989 were designed earlier but weren’t sold until then.
Outfits series sold at this time (that I know of):
The codes in these outfits have the 9 –, indicating they are also from 1989, but they are made by a different company. These tags have a Coleco-like clothing code and factory code but are now listed as being made by Hasbro out of Pawtucket, RI. They introduced a new factory code H101, likely intending the H to indicate Hasbro. This happened because Hasbro bought out Coleco in July of 1989 (Ref#3, p. 176).
Courtesy of Jodi Issacs
Outfits series sold at this time (that I know of):
Following along with the year labelling convention, if 9- is for 1989, then the 0 – would be for 1990. So, these outfits were sold in 1990. However, the tag looks more Hasbro-like than Coleco now. In addition, there are very few outfits with this code. The only outfits produced at this time were the BBB 400s. series (Future Post). These outfits are likely the last of the Coleco designs Hasbro used OR their first attempts at their own designs. My guess is the latter, as all four outfits in this series mimic the look of earlier Coleco-produced outfits.
Stage 4 Tags: Hasbro tag
By this stage, the tags are all Hasbro, and there are no codes on them at all. It appears that, although they considered or tried to keep using the Coleco coding system, they gave it up rather quickly, likely sometime in 1990.
Outfits series sold at this time (that I know of):
Outfits #148, #151
Outfits #116 – #120
Hasbro produced versions of some 800-815 series
Some early Hasbro BBB outfits
Some early Hasbro regular kid outfits (generally a duplicate in some way of a Coleco outfit)
Hasbro Fashions Line – packaged (likely but not confirmed by tag yet)
Courtesy of Jodi IssacsCourtesy of Heather Woodie
Stage 5 Tags: No tag
By 1991, Hasbro was producing their own kids and clothes. None of the outfits are tagged. Some of these lines include Babies (BBBs), Babyland Kids, Poseables (replaced the regular kids), Birthday Kids, Preschoolers, Designer Line Kids and Kissin’ Kids. (Ref#2, p.104))
Although many dolls were sold in these two years, what most collectors refer to as a ‘Transitional doll’ is very specific and quite sought after, as few were produced. These dolls are an amalgam of Hasbro and Coleco parts. One might have a Coleco head, Hasbro body, and Coleco outfit. Or a Coleco body and head, but wear a Hasbro-tagged outfit. There are several possible combinations. (Ref#3, p. 176)
Selling off Coleco Stock
During the Transitional period, you could find odd packages of Cabbage Patch clothing and accessories that were being sold off by Coleco and Hasbro. For example, you might find a Coleco outfit on a Hasbro board and in others, it’s a mishmash of items that don’t belong together on what looks to be an unauthorized board, but isn’t. Hasbro used a variety of avenues to rid themselves of leftover stock. Refer to PTP: Packaged Outfits: Questions and (Some) Answers for more information.
Make way for “The Greatest Kids on Earth” and join us at the circus! These outfits have lots of bright colours and wacky hats. Which one is your favourite?
Circus kids came out in 1985 and like a lot of the specialty kids, did not sell well. Some may have been sold in 1987, but they were only manufactured in 1986. The series consists of six clown outfits (#100 – #105) and a ringmaster outfit. (see below) There are two versions of each outfit. The outfit names were created by Coleco.
Fantastic picture courtesy of Holly Spencer. Note: The circus ponies came out in 1987. (Ref #3, p. 134)
Circus kids come with a distinctive box, hand tag, and birth certificate. They also came with a clown-themed poster in the box and a trading card in the birth certificate envelope. (Ref#2, p. 72) The original boxes were sort of tent-shaped but later boxes were more rectangular (see ringmaster box below). (Ref #3, p. 133)
They were made by the KT and P factories. I don’t think that each factory produced all six outfits, as I’ve only recorded one factory per outfit so far. However, different factories could produce A and B. These outfits are on the coding matrix but create a duplicate set of #100 – #105 numbers.
One reference noted that these outfits came on P, KT and OK kids. In this case, the OK kids wouldn’t match their outfits. What combination is your Circus kid? (Ref#2, p. 72)
There are several different tags from both factories. This is likely due to changing trends during the production period.
Front – Factory codeBack – outfit code
Each outfit comes with a pair of clown shoes, socks, and a head accessory. The shoes are stamped on the bottom with a factory code, and one shoe from each pair will be a squeaker. The socks are always made of brightly coloured silky material and are quite a bit longer than regular socks. In addition, the socks have no distinctive top edge.
Circus sock vs. regulra sock
As with all the specialty outfits, these outfits were eventually packaged and sold separately from the dolls. In addition, you can sometimes find individual pieces of these outfits in ‘lot’ packages. Leftover Jesmar stock dolls were also dressed as clowns and were sold on the Canadian Market in bilingual boxes. (Ref#2, p.72) I don’t remember seeing a clown in a ‘regular’ box, but it could have happened. Many other specialty outfits were sold this way in later years.
Do I have all the pieces?
Along with the face mask, headgear, socks, and shoes, each outfit includes the following:
Preppy Polka Dot – #100
One-piece romper with sleeves
Pointed hat with ruffle
Neck ruffle
100A – missingmask100B
Cuddly Crinkles
Top with a large neck ruffle and three pom poms
Matching bottoms
White pointed hat with ruffle and pom pom
101A101B
Bashful Bow
Dress
Yellow bloomers with white polka dots
Large puffy hair bow
102A102B
Teasin’ Topper
Shirt (structured like a t-shirt)
Vest with tails
Matching shorts
Small bow tie
Small hard vinyl top hat
103A103B
Rowdy Rainbow
Shorts with suspenders (detachable)
Shirt with collar
Large neck tie (sewn on)
104A – missing socks104B
Preppy Pom Pom
One piece romper with the large pom poms
Small neck ruffle
Vinyl bowler hat
105A105B
The Ringmaster Outfit – #188
This outfit is the only 188 I have recorded, and for some reason, was coded separately from the clown outfits. This outfit was worn by both boy and girl dolls. The doll came in a circus box with a Circus Kid birth certificate and included a black megaphone. I am unsure if these dolls came with a poster.
The outfit includes a black bowtie, a red velveteen jacket with tails, a fancy white shirt with ruffles down the front, a gold and red vest, white satin jodhoppers, high black boots, and a large black top hat.
The boots are factory labelled on the inside rim and are easily confused with the Russian World Traveler boots. The more obvious differences are the detailing and the height. The Russian boot is shorter than the ringmaster boot.
Russian World Traveler bootRingmaster boot
Other Information
These are the photo from the 1987 Coleco Catalogue. It looks like they used actual outfits for these pictures, which is unusual.
Six informative updates that I’ve made to various posts.. See what we’ve learned!
A massive update has been made to the Cornsilk Series 4 post. Like the previous series, I’ve added information on each individual outfit and updated the general information as well. We know a LOT more than we used to! But there’s still more to learn. To learn more, visit Cornsilk Series 4: Wacky and Layered Pt. 2
A recent discovery has significantly changed our understanding of the 400s series. For more information, visit What’s With the Numbers?
More information about 31 tracksuits with the number 84 on them has been discovered. To find out what, visit #8 31 Tracksuit.
An update that was long in coming! See what cooperation has wrought. Happy Holidays!
I’ve been putting off a huge update to a certain post for quite a while, but it is finally done. Working together we’ve been able to add a huge amount of information to Cornsilk Series 2 and the post was sadly out of date. No longer!
It’s been updated with all the information I have, pictures have been added, and spreadsheets for each outfit are now included. It should be easier to place a specific piece of clothing among the crazy that is this series.
These full-form vinyl sneaker-shaped shoes came with all Designer Line Kids outfits (1989) and may have come on kids wearing the Hasbro version of outfit #812 and two Hasbro transitional poseable outfits.
There may also be additional Transitional outfits that came with these shoes, of which I am unaware. In addition, during the Transitional period, Hasbro and Coleco were selling off inventory, so outfits may no longer have come with just one type of shoe. There may be more than one type used for these outfits, including the Chunky Sneakers.
I have not yet seen Chunky Sneakers that were separately packaged. Separately packaged DL outfits sold in the late 1980s either did not come with shoes or may have come with Saddle Shoes (see below).
Beyond their distinctive shape, these shoes also have a pattern on the bottom and no factory indicator on the inside of the shoe.
Colours I know of
Teal/Aqua
Purple
Mauve/greyish
Darker purple
Light pink
Darker pink
Orange
Dark Orange
Royal blue
Red
Black
Lime Green
Pictures courtesy of Eric Botelho and thatcabbagepatchgirl.
Saddle Shoes
Chunky Sneakers are often confused with Saddle Shoes, which came out about the same time (1989) on a few outfits, Coleco and Hasbro. There seem to be two versions, one with real laces in the top two holes and used by Coleco, and one without laces (holes not punched through) and used by Hasbro.
Coleco with lacesHasbro without laces
Outfit #809 may have come with these shoes, and some of the #812 outfits (Coleco version) came with them. I believe that the Hasbro tracksuit outfit also came with them. There may be more; this list is likely not complete. These shoes also came separately packaged.
#809#812Hasbro TracksuitFirst two photos are courtesy of Kristi Prieto Sam and Lori Hamilton.
Their most distinctive feature the is CPK logo located on the bottom of each shoe.
Photo courtesy of Cheryl Parker.
Colours I know of
Darker Purple
Pinkish Purple
Yellow
Royal Blue
Teal/Aqua
Chunky Toddler Shoes
Chunky Sneakers are also confused with Chunky Toddler Shoes. They look similar but are smaller and only came on some Transitional and Hasbro Toddlers. (Future Post)
