A sign of the 80’s, these Solid Form Boots/Sneakers are unique to certain CPK outfits. Find out which ones.
I call these shoes Solid Form Boots, but I’ve also heard them called High Top Sneakers as they look a lot like the sneakers that came out in the late 1980s and 90s.
Ava Sneaker 1989Cabbage Patch BootAvia photo reference; Boot picture courtesy of Callie Anne.
I know Boots came with Cornsilk outfits #321-324, #326, #328, #332, and #333, but the transitional outfits are more difficult. Transitional outfits came on both Poseable Kids and regular transitional kids. It’s possible that these outfits did not come with a consistent shoe type. At the moment, I know that the outfits below came with Boots, but they may not have come exclusively with Boots. Other options include Ballet Flats, Striped Sneakers, and coloured Mary Janes.
Purple boots photo courtesy of Monica Sholvic. Black boots photo courtesy of Carolyn Dahl Wood.
Like most Coleco shoes, Boots have a factory mark. It can be found on the top opening edge. Likely, the boots that came with Cornsilk outfits were only manufactured by the P, KT, and OK factories. Later transitional Boots are likely marked with CHINA or have no mark at all.
Photos courtesy of Callie Anne.
So far, I have nine colours recorded. Do you have any others?
Large photo courtesy of Callie Anne.
Special thanks to Callie Anne for providing pictures and incentives.
Harder to find than the Portrait Dresses, I believe only three versions of this outfit were made. Do you have any?
Summary of 500s Series outfits and a list of the outfits: The 500s Series
Description
This outfit consists of a dress and solid coloured tights. The dress has an arched Cabbage Patch Kids patch in the center of the chest. It changes colour with each version of the outfit. The trunk and skirt are made of fleecy sweatshirt material, and the sleeves and waistband are a different material and striped. I am unsure which type of shoe this outfit came with. It was either Mary Janes or regular lace-ups.
511H
Although the majority of this series came out in 1985, and some are thought to have come out in 1986, this outfit is the oddest of all. It is a mimic version of the original Portrait Dress and sources are unsure when it came out. One source believes it was 1986 (Ref. #3, p. 401); another source lists them as having come out in 1987 (Ref. #4, Vol. 3 Issue 9/10/11, p.7). Either way, it likely wasn’t in production very long and is considered a harder-to-find outfit.
I hypothesize that Coleco found the large CPK doll patch of the Portrait Dresses to be too costly to produce and switched to the logo patch to reduce costs.
I believe that this is a complete list of the versions of this outfit, that only three were produced, and that they were only produced by the OK factory. However, I could be wrong. If you have an outfit that is not recorded here, I would like to hear from you. Information is best sent in the form of pictures. For details, visit Taking Clothing Tag Pics.
Take a close look at the cover of this book. Does anything stand out? Come on an adventure as we take a closer too!
In 1984, Parker Brothers published a book called A Cabbage Patch Kids Adventure, photography by Paul Debe and Mark Gooby. This book stands out from other CPK books as the illustrations are staged photographs taken of real Cabbage Patch Kid dolls.
There are seven characters in the story, and some of them are wearing regular Coleco brand CPK clothing. Others are in random dolls clothes, nothing highly distinctive. However, a few do stand out.
p. 5
Farley Page is wearing overalls that look like they were made using a Koosa outfit pattern and straps! Although not identical, they’re very close.
Tommy George is wearing a regular white CPK shirt from the Elephant Romper outfit and has matched it with a pair of jean overalls. The overalls are not CPK, even though the Casual Wear Line Engineers Overalls and the Denim Romper did exist. In addition, those overalls are way too long for him. Check out how much they’ve been rolled up!
p. 22
inside cover
source unknown
Cheryl Sue is the most interesting. Unbelievably, she’s wearing a common aftermarket outfit! This outfit was produced by Totsy as part of their Garden Doll Fashions line. You would think an item approved by OAA would ensure they used their own merchandise!
Fun Fact: Totsy also produced clone versions of Barbie and Jem dolls which were popular at the time. (Ref1, Ref2)
Finally, as a small extra, it’s obvious that the kids had been played with, as Willie James is in dire need of a hair defuzz! Poor kid!
inside cover
Fun Fact: Mr. Dube and Mr. Gooby were co-owners of Hotshots Advertising Photography in Salem, Mass., in 1984. Parker Brothers must have hired them to do the photography for the book. I wonder if they were provided with the dolls or if they had to find their own? The business operated from 1982 – 2017. (Ref)
This outfit looks awful! The elastic has disintegrated! Can I fix it? Yes! You can . . .
I have created a video the described how to replace elastic in CPK clothes, even if you’re not a sewer (I’m certainly not!). Most outfits look a lot better once the elastic is replaced. In some cases, it helps the bloomers and tights to actually stay on.
This adorable outfit holds a great surprise, if you’re willing to look closely.
This is Helenna Storm. She’s a TransitionalBBB wearing a Hasbro outfit. If you take a close look at this outfit, there’s a fascinating detail.
If you look closely, the middle panel has words on it. Can you read them?
Did you get it? Yes! It’s the Legend of the Cabbage Patch Kids that was originally printed on the Coleco boxes.
Isn’t that awesome! Someone who’s creative and pays close attention to detail was involved in designing this outfit. I bet they loved CPK’s as much as we do!
I also have this outfit recorded as coming in teal.
Every collector wants the portrait dress that looks like them, or one of their kids. Which one is your unicorn?
Summary of 500s Series outfits and a list of the outfits: The 500s Series
Description
This outfit consists of a dress and solid coloured tights. The dress has an embroidered patch of a CPK (from the waist up) that is wearing a CPK Logo Dress. The patch has pigtails and two ribbon bows. The hair, eye, and dress colours change for each version of the dress. The trunk and skirt are made of fleecy sweatshirt material and the sleeves, are a different material and striped. This outfit came with mary jane shoes.
511K
Coleco started selling this outfit in 1985. It likely ended production no later than sometime in 1986. If it is found on later kids, it was likely because the company was using up old stock.
If you have an outfit that is not recorded here, I would like to hear from you. Information is best sent in the form of pictures. For details, visit Taking Clothing Tag Pics.
Variations
This outfit was made by the P and OK factories. There seems to be a significant amount of variation between factories when it comes to the hair, eye, and dress colours used. Kat Perhouse has created this very helpful and easy-to-follow chart. I assume that all the outfits that match visually, for example, the two mint greens 511D, are an OK version and P version. I don’t have enough data yet to know about the ones that are not the same.
According to Kat Perhouse “The OK factory ones are the common colours and the P factory ones are HTF colours. The P factory ones stripey material is more course, while the Ok stripey material has a looser weave and is softer. Also, the embroidered girls/decal on the Ok factory seems to be sewn into the waistband, whereas on the P factory it’s not sewn into the waistband.” (FB Thread, Mar. 19, 2020)
Similar Outfits
Logo Dress: This is a variation of the outfit that came out later. For details, visit 511 Portrait Dress (Post Coming Soon).
Toddler Outfit: This is a later Coleco Toddler outfit (code unknown) that looks somewhat similar.
Courtesy of Pat Slovak
Other Information
> Fun fact: A prototype version of this outfit can be seen in the 1985 Coleco Catalogue (p. 2).
Sailor Suits (#20) are made of heavy cotton fabric, almost jean heavy. They all are. Sometimes the fabric is slightly different, Taiwan vs. China, but it’s still a heavy cotton material. Right?
Apparently not. Recently, I acquired a Sailor Suit made of thin cotton material, similar to the material used in the 1983 dresses. It’s hard to see the difference in the picture, but it’s there.
Regular vs Odd
Regular vs Odd
Top: Odd, Bottom: KT
The accent cord appears to be different as well.
However, everything else is the same. Same patch, same structure, same sizing . . . even the same tag! That’s right, it’s tagged KT factory.
Why?
My only theory is that they ran out of fabric but wanted to continue production. They grabbed another red material that they had handy from making other outfits and continued the run. Another factory fluke.
What do you think? What else could have caused this to happen? Have you ever seen something similar?
With only three versions of this outfit produced, it’s difficult to find. Obtaining one with the hat is even more difficult! Learn all about this cute warm and cuddly outfit.
Summary of 500s Series outfits and a list of the outfits: The 500s Series
Description
This outfit consists of a top, bottoms, and hat; all of it knit. The top is a striped white and coloured pattern with eyelet lace that runs along the join between sleeve and trunk. There is an arched Cabbage Patch Kids logo patch on the bottom left side. The bottoms are solid coloured pants with ballooned legs with ribbed extra-wide hems. The hat is the same colour as the pants and has a pom-pom on top. This outfit came with regular lace-up shoes.
The colour of the logo patch does not appear to stay consistent across production. For example, both outfits below, 510A, are from the KT factory.
Coleco started selling this outfit in 1985. It likely ended production no later than sometime in 1986. If it is found on later kids, it was likely because the company was using up old stock.
Long-time collectors believe that this outfit only came in the four versions described below. I wonder if there is an orange KT version of 510A? If you have an outfit that is not recorded here, I would like to hear from you. Information is best sent in the form of pictures. For details, visit Taking Clothing Tag Pics.
> Fun fact: A prototype version of this outfit can be found in the 1985 Coleco Catalogue (p. 3, 17). As far as I know, a purple version of his outfit was never actually produced.
This is a great sporty outfit but the kids are always losing their leg warmers!
Summary of 500s Series outfits and a list of the outfits: The 500s Series
Description
This outfit consists of a dress, tights, and leg warmers. The dress has mesh sleeves and neckline. The attached skirt is pleated. The front has a silk-screened Cabbage Patch Kids arched logo above three hearts. I’m not sure which shoes this outfit came with, either pink striped sneakers or regular lace-ups.
#508A KT, Photo courtesy of Kat Perhouse.
It is believed that the outfit did not start being manufactured until 1986, instead of 1985 like most of the others in this series. Consequently, it has a shorter manufacturing time and is harder to find. There’s no known explanation for this. For details, refer back to the summary post. This outfit only came out on kids. If it’s found packaged, it was done during the ‘inventory clean out’ that happened later.
If you have an outfit that is not recorded here, I would like to hear from you. Information is best sent in the form of pictures. For details, visit Taking Clothing Tag Pics.
Factory Variations
I have only one factory, AX, to compare to the KT outfits. On the AX factory outfit (508B), the hearts appear to be slightly bigger, the skirt is hemmed differently, and it has larger skirt pleats.
Photo courtesy of Chris Hansing Tallman.
Other Information
> Fun fact: A prototype version of this outfit can be found in the 1985 Coleco Catalogue (p. 3, 16). There’s also a purple version on the 1st Birthday card. I don’t believe it was ever produced.
What the heck?! Can you figure out what is wrong with each outfit before reading the description?
Odd, weird, unique. These are all words used to describe things that happen outside the ‘normal’. Many such factory flukes can be found among Cabbage Patch Clothes. Here are some examples I have come across. Do you have any in your collection?
This Pinafore Dress has two silk labels! One on either shoulder. Oops.
This could be a bad ‘repair’ after the patch fell off, but the current owner feels it is in the original location. This is more typical of Jesmar jogging suits!
This Ducky Dress, owned by Jamie Osterbur, is missing the duck patch and has the silk label in an odd spot. This may be because it’s a Hong Kong version of the dress, but it’s still odd!
This Yoke Dress appears to be missing the bow and the ribbon that normally runs around the edge of the neck area. Photo courtesy of Alicia Rose.
The pocket on this Sailor Suit is on the wrong side!
The silk label on this CC Preemie Elephant Romper is in an odd location. Normally it is on the sleeve.
This one is a double whammy from Kathy Lucy Uher. The silk tag on the jogging suit is upside down, and the shirt from the windbreaker outfit has two tags instead of one!
This Swing Dress had two labels, one of which was completely wrong. This outfit is 1C! Photos courtesy of Jodi’s Punky Patch.
This hat normally comes with a different outfit, Preemie Outfit #8, but for some reason, it came with this packaged Yoke Gown. Maybe they ran out of the correct bonnet? Photos courtesy of Becky Alvery.
This outfit is the Elephant Romper, Outfit #7 . . . not #1! This outfit had the wrong tag completely! Photos courtesy of Melanie De L’Etiole.
Many CPK outfits have animal patches on them. A Bib Dress normally has a giraffe patch on the bib. This outfit has the wrong patch. Although this happens quite a bit, it is still a ‘mistake’ made at the factory. For more information on these patches, and where the outfits they can be found on, visit PTP: Plentiful Patches Pt. 1.
