PTP: The Twin Outfit That Isn’t (It’s BBB)

This looks like a twin outfit, but it isn’t!

A while ago, I noticed a BBB outfit that looked a lot like the knit twin outfit. Recently, I obtained tag information from Angel K. Freely and was gobsmacked!

Her BBB outfit had twin outfit tags!

Pictures comparing twin outfit tags with the BBB mimic twin outfit tags. — Orange tags courtesy of Angel K. Freely.

Now, I knew the outfits looked similar, but I never thought they would be this similar! BBB outfits were ONLY produced by the SS and WS factories. I have no record of any BBB outfit being produced anywhere else, until this one. (Update: Made in Thailand)

The similarities are not difficult to see. Take a moment and compare.

Left: BBB outfit courtesy of Jodi’s Punky Patch; Right: Twin Outfit

What is difficult to see is the feet of the BBB outfits. The footies in a regular BBB outfit have an additional piece of circular fabric, like a sole. The twin BBB outfits just have a seam . . . It looks like they’ve just sewn the bottom of the pant legs together!

Pictures comparing the end of the feet on regular BBB outfits and the mimic twin BBB outfits.

Jodi, from Jodi’s Punky Patch, helped me gather information and photographs for this post and observed that we only have evidence of this outfit coming on boxed kids. This means that they either sent the completed outfits from the P factory to the SS/WS factories to be put on kids or sent the kids and boxes to the P factory. Either way, this is the first evidence we have of cross-factory cooperation like this. It’s also the first exception to my statement that BBB’s always came in WS or SS clothes! Jump to: A match made in . . . the factory. Update: Second Exception

Boxed BBB wearing the orange mimic twin BBB outfit. — Courtesy unknown

The knit twin outfits were available in five different colours, and so is this outfit. I theorize that the factory had a lot of the knit material left over and needed to do something with it. At the time, no other clothing lines being produced would have welcomed an outfit made of knit fabric, except the BBB’s. I think that’s why they made a BBB outfit, instead of something that they could more easily put on P factory kids.

I still need tag pictures for the mint green (A), yellow (B), and medium blue (F). If you happen to have this outfit in any of those colours, I would greatly appreciate your help with tag photos. For details on taking the photos, visit HERE.

For more detailed information on Twin outfits see, Twin Outfits, Part 1.

The Perfect Mismatch (Matching Pt. 2)

Generally the doll factory and the outfit factory match, these are the exceptions.

(A Match Made In . . . .the Factory: Matching Part 1)

The consistency with which the doll tag and the outfit tag factories matched changed starting in 1985. Many continued to match, but not all. Here are the ‘situations’ in which you might find a match that doesn’t match!

Situation 1:

From 1986 to 1988 (ish), the most common situation resulted from an overabundance of specialty outfits that were not selling (high $) and a lot of pieces coming from foreign factories that had shut down. In this situation, you might get an OK kid, in a P factory twin outfit, in a single kid box. (Ref. #5, Issue 4, p. 5) Or maybe, a set of P dolls, in IJ animal costume sleepers (Ref #3, p.104), in a twin box. Or even a pair of Jesmar dolls, in PMI World Traveler outfits, in a twin box!

World Traveler outfits on Jesmar dolls in Twin box — Twin outfit in a single box

Some of these outfits were made by the factories which did not produce kids, only packaged outfits that were never intended to be sold on kids.

Situation 2:

A similar situation happened with outfits originally designed for specific kinds of kids. For example, occasionally you will find Cornsilk and Talker outfits on regular kids from 1987 onward. This doesn’t occur as often as situation one, but it does happen. This situation could also be the result of in-store outfit switching.

Regular kid in Talker's dress — Regular Kid in Cornsilk dress

Situation 3:

IC kids were made in Taiwan and, according to their side tags, which are numbered IC to IC7, there may have been at least eight factories. However, there are NO clothes with IC# on them. However, several Taiwanese factories did produce clothing: AX, CY, FD, HP, WW, HRS.

I have evidence that IC kids came wearing IC, AX, and potentially WW clothing. The same has been discovered about the UT factory. Although UT kids could come with UT clothes, they also came dressed in AX and WW clothing. (Jump to: AX and the UT Kids)

In addition, IC kids came wearing specialty line outfits that were made at other Taiwanese factories (HRS, CY, FD), so their tags would not match. For example, Western Wear and All-Star kids. (Ref #5, Issue 3, p. 5)

Top: CY Western Wear outfit and AX outfit, Bottom: CY All Stars Outfit

Situation 4:

Hong Kong Tags. Some Hong Kong Kids had no factory indicated on their tag. In this case, for MIB kids, it can be assumed that if the kid is OK, the outfit is OK. However, if the outfit is not original to the kid, it is either P, OK or KT. (Ref#3, p. 28) My personal experience with HK outfits leads me to believe they will be either OK or P, as the tags themselves more closely resemble OK and P tags, rather than KT tags.

Situation 5:

Twin outfits are all P factory. However, some were put on OK kids. In this case, the tags would not match.

Situation 6:

There is evidence that ‘Made in USA’ outfits did come on boxed kids. There are no ‘Made in USA’ kids, so the tag cannot match in this situation.

Situation 7:

It appears that some SS factory outfits came on MIB regular-sized kids. As the SS factory did not make any regular-sized dolls, there will be a mismatch between the kid and the outfit. I’ve confirmed this on one OK factory HK doll.

For more information on clothing codes, jump to: What are Clothing Tag Codes
For information on how to locate clothing tags, jump to: Where are clothing tags located?

A Match Made in . . . the Factory (Matching Pt. 1)

How do you know if an outfit originally came with the doll? Here’s the first step to finding out!

There is no way to know what outfit originally came on a doll. The choices were made randomly. However, you can match the production year of the doll to the production year of the outfits, and in some cases, the factory information.

1983 – 1985ish: A Match!

Coleco dolls produced from 1983 to 1984 (and some stuff in 1985) generally came with clothing made at the same factory. So, if the doll was OK factory, the outfit and shoes were also OK factory.

KT Boy OK Girl

Dolls wearing 500s outfits which came out in 1985 also matched factories.

The 500 series outfits on dolls, sitting on stairs, to display the outfits.

However, I know of at least one collector who admits to taking kids out and switching clothes AT THE STORE, so even if you bought a kid from the store and it didn’t match, that doesn’t mean it didn’t originally come with the correct outfit!

Series Specific Pairs . . .

Some lines of kids had specific clothing created just for them. In many of these cases, the dolls and the outfits always match. There may be two factories producing them, but there is always a match.

Talking Kids	OK
Circus Kids	P, KT
World Travelers WT White shirts	OK, PMI CC, SS
Designer Line	P
1^st Cornsilk Series (160s)	OK, KT
300s Cornsilk Series	OK, KT, P
Baby outfits (BBB)	SS, WS	Exceptions: #1, #2
PJ Series (689-694)	KT
720s series Cornsilk and regular kid outfits	KT
760s Cornsilk series	P
Growing Hair	KT
Toddlers	OK
Koosas	OK, KT

Continued in: Part 2: A Perfect Mismatch!

What’s With the Numbers?

Why 15? Why 125? Why not 485? Who knows, but here’s some thoughts.

# 1 – 20 (1983 Series)

The first outfit numbers in 1983 started at 1, which makes sense.

The first twenty outfits, created for the regular-sized kids, came out in 1983, and some stayed in production for many years. Many of the foreign outfits are based on the outfits in this series. (Visit: Jesmar Clothing)

1983 Regular kids outfits. The original 20. The dolls are wearing the outfits and sitting on stairs. The outfits are numbered.

When they created the first line of preemie outfits in 1984, they used the same numbering convention. Unfortunately, that means that if you don’t know whether an outfit is a preemie outfit or a regular kid outfit, they can be easily confused. You have to know by looking at it. (Jump to: Preemie Clothing Summery and 1984 Series)

1985 Preemie series outfits. Dolls wearing the outfits are sitting on stairs and the outfits are numbered.

Year by Number

It was eventually pointed out to me (Ref #4, Vol. 3 Issue 9/10/11, p. 6) that the code numbers used seemed to match the year they were produced.

500s in 1985
600s in 1986
700s in 1987
800s in 1988

This makes sense! For some specific lines of kids like the Toddlers, Growing Hair kids, Splashing Kids, Talkers, and a few others, this theory works.

The second preemie series (BSeries), which came out in 1985, also uses the same year-based numbering convention. They are numbered as a 500s series, but most are numbered B5__. Consequently, they are easier to distinguish from the regular kid 500s outfits. I wonder, did they consider the regular-sized kids outfits the A series?

For information on regular preemie outfits with a B in the code jump here: Preemie Clothing Summary and 1984 Series.

Year by Code Addition

The first theory about the code number being the year it came out works for many outfits, but not for all of them. Starting in 1986, some outfits no longer fit the pattern. A small addition shows up in the code to assist. To learn more jump to: Tag Codes Continued: A 2nd Theory

Series by Hundreds

Which series can be found in which hundred. To see examples of outfits in each series jump to: Series Information in Pics

The 100s

The 100s include many series.

100 – Regular kid ‘mimic‘ windbreaker outfit
101-106: Transitional BBB outfits (1989)
119-149: Transitional outfits (all types) (1989)
150s: Designer Line outfits (1989)
160s: Series 1 Cornsilk outfits (1986)
160s series 2: Sipping Kids outfits (1989)
170s-180s: Designer Line outfits (1989)
190s: BBB Series 1 outfits (1986)

The 200s

There’s only a handful of 200s and they are knit BBB outfits. It’s like they didn’t realize how many numbers they’d need when they started making the series, and just continued into the 200s. That’s it.

The 300s

The 300s contain only the second series of Cornsilk outfits that came out in later 1986. I call these the Wacky and Layered Cornsilk Series 2. That’s it.

Picture 3 courtesy of Carey Reiss Jarchow.

The 400s

There are two different 400s series.

Series 1 – Sold in 1988, they have the 8- in their codes. They are all packaged regular-sized dresses produced by Coleco. So far only 4 are recorded.

Series 2 – Sold in 1990 (Transitional Period), they have the 0- in their codes and often have Hasbro tags. I have 4 outfits recorded and they are all BBB outfits.

Oddly enough, the 14″ Furskin outfits produced in 1986 are also recorded in the 430s.

The 500s

Only one series of regular outfits came out in 1985. For more information visit The 500s Series.

The 600s

650s – 660s: Regular kids Mimic outfits (1986)
670s – 680s: BBB outfits (1987)
689 – 684: PJ series (1986)
695 – 699: Talker outfits (1987)
Coleco Pets (Cats, Dogs, Bears)

The 700s

700 -702: Talker outfits
703 – 706: Regular kid dresses
707-716: Preemie Mimic series
718 – 730: Cornsilk series 3 and Homophome Series
750s – 790s (intermittent): Splashing Kids
760s: Cornsilk series 4
778 – 781: BBB outfits (bunting bags)

The 800s

800 – 815: Regular kids outfits
840s: Growing Hair kids outfits
850s – 860s: BBB outfits
870s & 890s: Toddler Outfits

To see examples of outfits from each ‘series’, jump to: Series Information in Pics

For more information on clothing tag codes, jump to: What are Clothing Tag Codes

For information on how to locate clothing tags, jump to: Where are clothing tags located?

For more information on matching clothing to kids, jump to: A match made in . . . . the factory

Where are tags in clothing located?

Oh where, oh where does the clothing tag hide . . . . oh where, oh where can it be?

Oh where, oh where, can it be?

By clothing tag, I am referring to the information tag found inside the outfit, not the silk flash with Cabbage Patch Kids that is often found on the shoulder of shirts and dresses or pant legs.

Coleco only tagged one piece of each outfit, often leaving the other pieces unmarked in any fashion. This means that that the unmarked pieces can be easily lost and often go unrecognized as Cabbage Patch. This makes it difficult to put an outfit back together. How do you know which pieces belong in an outfit? Well, that’s a question for another post (or a bunch of posts).

In this post, I’m just going to tell you where to look for the informative little things. There are three options when it comes to tag situations.

1. My outfit has no tags

If the outfit has no tag there are four possible explanations:

It’s a foreign CPK outfit.
It’s a fake/aftermarket/handmade outfit.
They’re all pieces of Coleco CPK clothing but didn’t all come together. OR They all came together, but at least one piece is missing.
It is a CPK piece of clothing produced by a later company. eg. Play Along, Wicked Cool Toys

At least one piece in each Coleco outfit MUST have a tag.

2. My outfit has A tag

Regular Tag Locations

Inside the shirt or dress piece of the outfit. If there is more than one top in the outfit, it is generally located on the piece worn closest to the doll’s body.

2. Along the side or back seam of the romper, sleeper, onsie, etc.

NOTE: There are a few outfits that can have them in either location. For example, the ruffled overalls may have the tag in the shirt OR the overalls, but not both, and not neither!

Unusual Tag Locations

There are some exceptions to these rules (of course), most of which involve later outfits (Post 1986) or jackets.

1. The Designer Line outfits that have jackets have the tag inside the jacket, not the shirt, as does the 500s series windbreakers and outfit #100.

2. ‘Made in USA’ outfits tend to have the tag in the pants, if the outfit has pants.

3. Splashing Fun Kids clothing have the tag on the most substantial piece of the outfit, generally the robe, the jacket, or the wrap.

4. Talker dresses have the tag on either the underdress or the pinafore. I see no pattern as to which was chosen.

5. A small number of later outfits (1989 and later) have the tags in an odd location. So look carefully.

3. My outfit has TWO (or more) tags

If your outfit has two or more tags, here are possible scenarios:

It’s a Jesmar outfit. Jump to: Jesmar Clothing Tags
You have two pieces of Coleco clothing that did not originally come together. For example, if your elephant romper has a tag, and the white shirt has a tag, they didn’t originally come together.

For more information on tags (if you haven’t already seen them), jump to:

What are Clothing Tag Codes: An explanation of the codes on Cabbage Patch clothing tags. Learn about the letters and numbers that started it all!
Oddball Tags: Not all clothing tags were made equal. Some have codes, some don’t. Which do? Which don’t?
What’s With the Numbers?: Why 15? Why 125? Why not 485? Who knows, but here are some thoughts.

PTP: Hung up on Hangers

Do yo have any CPK hangers? Are they still in the original box with the original outfit? Maybe you can help . . .

Do you have any CPK hangers? Have you ever looked at them closely? I hadn’t, not until Jodi (Punki Patch) told me that she had noticed they are factory coded.

That’s right, they have a factory code on them!

Going through our collections, we found that we have hangers from many of the factories, but not all of them.

PIcture of a bib dress in a box, packaged separately. The dress is white with a yellow flower pattern. — Packaged bib dress

The hangers came in packaged outfit boxes. They came in two sizes, and some were coloured.

Some have Made in information, some don’t. Some are numbered, some aren’t. Some factories produced hangers in both sizes, most didn’t.

Here is what we have recorded.

Picture of spreadsheet data showing which hangers we have recorded based on their shape and colour. — For more information on the various factories, jump to: Factory Synopsis

Unfortunately, neither of us have any hangers in the original box with the original outfits hanging on them. However, we have come up with some theories. Can you prove or disprove any of these theories?

The hanger factory matches the factory of the outfit that came on it.
The ‘blank hangers’ that have no ‘Made In’ or factory code are from the OK factory. There appear to be very few of them, and the OK on the one we do have seems as if it was an afterthought.
The ‘blank hangers’ are often numbered (but not always). The coloured hangers are blank. Could these hangers be from the IC factories? There were potentially upwards of 8 of them so numbering to keep track would make sense.
The full-sized hangers appear to only come from factories in China, and most are original factories. Theory: This was the original shape; the half-size came later.
The ‘blank hangers’ are generally numbered (but not always). There were upwards of eight IC factories. It would make sense that IC factories would need to number things to keep track of them. Could the numbered hangers be from the IC factories?

PTP: Mystery Fancy Frock

One of these dresses is not like the others, one of these dresses just isn’t the same . . .

While visiting a friend, I noticed that one of her boxed Cornsilk Kids had on a beautiful dress that I had never seen before. Naturally, I asked to take pictures! Wham! A mystery was born!

Her doll’s cornsilk dress . . .

Picture of a Cornsilk kid with large brown curls still attached to the inside of her box. She is wearing a very fancy sateen peach coloured dress with numerous decorations.

. . . has the same tags (162H KT) as this dress. But they aren’t the same dress, not quite!

Picture of a Cornsilk kid with large platinum curls still attached to the inside of her box. She is wearing a very fancy sateen baby blue coloured dress with a large lace neck ruffle.

There is an orange version of 162, but ALL of the recorded versions of that dress that I have so far, look like the blue one.

Can you see the differences?

lace ruffle along the bottom hem
three bow and flower accents
coloured ruffled socks (all the others I have recorded wear white ruffled socks)

I’d love to know if there are two versions of this dress in every colour, or if this was a one-off. Is it possible there are ‘fancy’ versions of the other outfits in this series?

Do you know anything about this dress?
Do you have this dress?
Do you have another colour for this dress?
Can you shed any light on this mystery?

To learn more about Cornsilk outfits, visit: Cornsilk Kids and their Confusing Clothes

PTP: Packaged Outfits: Questions and (Some) Answers

Many outfits were sold packaged separately, some that came on the dolls and some that didn’t. When were they produced and what outfits were they?

Packaged Outfit: an outfit that was sold separately in its own box, without a doll.

Early Coleco Packaged Outfits

Coleco marketed four different packaged clothing lines.

Line 1

The first was produced in 1983 and was never sold on the kids. It was called the Casual Wear Line and included at least eight outfits.

Packaged Engineers Overalls from the CPK Casual Wear Line — Photos courtesy of Kat Perhouse.

Packaged Red Teddy Bear suit from the CPK Casual Wear Line — Photos courtesy of Kat Perhouse.

Line 2

The second line was small, with only three outfits, and was produced in 1984. I call it the 1984 Knit Series. It was produced by the EX factory.

Yellow and white knit outfit with sweater, pants and hat.

Packaged knit outfit with purple knit shortalls with suspenders and a matching white sweater with purple accents.

Line 3

The third came out in late 1983 I think, or early 1984. The contents are all 1983 series outfits. Although outfits from many factories were packaged, the CC factory only produced clothing for packaged outfits. If iti’s a CC outfit, it didn’t come on a doll.

Collage of pictures showing packaged outfits including a blue ducky dress, red elephant romper and yellow trimmed kitty track suit.

Line 4

The fourth ‘line’ consists of the specialty outfits that were produced in 1985 and later. Some of these outfits were intended only for sale as packaged outfits but were sold on dolls eventually. Eg. Sports outfits. Others were only packaged when Coleco found itself with an overabundance of outfits. Eg. Twin outfits, World Traveller Outfits. Although these outfits were not officially promoted as a ‘line’, they all came out around the same time.

Pair of dark green velveteen twin dresses with tams on a board packaging. — Twins (Courtesy of Holly Jean)

Spanish World Traveler girls dress on a board package. — Twins (Courtesy of Holly Jean)

Transitional Coleco Outfits

In 1989/90 Coleco started producing a number of outfits that were only sold in packages. These make them hard to find as they were not sold for long and were only available separately from the kids.

The Outfits line included outfits in the following code series: 120s, 130s, 400s (that I am aware of to this point) and transitional Hasbro outfits. Some of these outfits were also produced by Hasbro and do not have recognizable tag codes.

A packaged peach bunting bag with ruffle accents, two flower patches and a hood.

A packaged jean skirt with suspenders over a shirt that has a red trunk and purple sleeves. The transfer on the front is neon green.

The COLECO Deluxe Outfits line includes outfits in the 140s series along with other new pieces.

Packaged jacket of red, white and black plaid with red accents. — Photos 1 & 3 are courtesy of Jodi (Punki Patch).

Packaged pair of purple, pink and white cameo patterned overalls with a white shirt with purple trim. — Photos 1 & 3 are courtesy of Jodi (Punki Patch).

However, there was a concurrent HASBRO line.

Transitional Hasbro Outfits

Hasbro must have found themselves with an overabundance of Designer Line (DL) outfits, as the Deluxe Outfits that they packaged (on virtually the same packaging as Coleco) consisted of entirely DL outfits. Currently, I have evidence for the use of the 170s and 180s series of DL outfits, not the 150s series.

Outfit 180A packaged. It includes the jacket, overalls and shirt. — Middle photo courtesy of Holly Jean.

Outfit 179 packaged. It includes the jacket, sweater, and skirt. — Middle photo courtesy of Holly Jean.

Hasbro then produced three packaged outfit lines independent of Coleco. This most likely occurred from 1989 to 1990+. As they are not numbered in the ‘traditional sense I cannot slot them into the clothing record I am creating. However, they are interesting, nonetheless. They are:

Packaged Deluxe Fashion yellow ducky raincoat — **Deluxe Fashions** – Not to be confused with the Deluxe Outfits.

Packaged Deluxe Fashion red and white western themed dress that includes the dress, shirt and bandanna. — **Deluxe Fashions** – Not to be confused with the Deluxe Outfits.

Packaged "Fashion" of a pink dress with blue sleeves and a matching blue bow. — **Fashions** – Hasbro; Photos courtesy of Nichole Sorensen Barnes.

Packaged "Fashion" of a pink sleeveless dress with a matching pink silk bow. — **Fashions** – Hasbro; Photos courtesy of Nichole Sorensen Barnes.

Packaged Fashion Separates on a board. It's a pink shirt with heat transfer patch. — **Fashion Separates** – Hasbro; Last two photos courtesy of Nichole Sorensen Barnes.

Packaged Fashion Separates on a board. It's a steel blue dress with little colourful pockets. — **Fashion Separates** – Hasbro; Last two photos courtesy of Nichole Sorensen Barnes.

Splash and See Surprise Pouches.

During the transitional years, Hasbro also produced a type of packaged outfit which included a ‘gimmick’. As many of the outfits used were already in production, it may be that they were trying to get rid of extra stock. This is not clear.

The Splash and See Surprise packages contain an outfit and a small pouch with a surprise in it. When you wet the pouch it would melt away and your surprise was revealed. During a 2020 Facebook group discussion, it was noted that these pouches were included with kids as well. (Ref. FB discussion, Jodi (Punki Patch), Feb. 7, 2020) The surprise items included sunglasses, hair barrettes, hair combs, or outfit pieces. Some of the clothing came from the 150s clothing line produced by Coleco in 1989 and some only have Hasbro tags.

Surprise pouch and contents of a dark pink comb and silver hair bow. — The first three photos are courtesy of Jodi (Punki Patch).

Surprise pouch and contents of a pair of sunglasses. — The first three photos are courtesy of Jodi (Punki Patch).

Foreign Packaged Outfits

Some of the foreign factories produced packaged outfits as well.

Italian Jesmar packaged outfit; striped jogging suit. — Jesmar

Packaged Tsukuda Kimono outfit. — Jesmar

If you have any packaged outfits that you can ‘unpackage’ safely, or that have already been ‘unpackaged’, I would love to get pictures of the outfit and its tags! I have many information holes that need filling.