Shoes: Solid Form Boots/Sneakers

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.

As far as I am aware, these shoes came with some outfits in the Cornsilk 300s series, some transitional outfits, and they came separately packaged.

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.  

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.

So far, I have nine colours recorded. Do you have any others?

A collection of pictures showing the different colours of boots available.
Large photo courtesy of Callie Anne.

Special thanks to Callie Anne for providing pictures and incentives.

#511 – Logo Dress

Harder to find than the Portrait Dresses, I believe only three versions of this outfit were made. Do you have any?

Main graphic with a light grey background and black text that says "511 - Logo Dress". It also has a short lemon blonde girl doll with blue eyes and a pacifier wearing a purple version of this dress and white mary jane shoes.


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.

Purple dress with white and purple striped sleeves and purple tights. On the front of the dress is an arched Cabbage Patch Kids patch in pink.
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.

Version Information

My goal is to find every version of every outfit that was produced. Below is a record of each version of this outfit that I have. To understand clothing codes, factories, and variations, please refer to these posts: 1st Blog – Why do this project?, What are Clothing Tag Codes?, Factories and Companies

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.

Spread sheet showing all the outfits I have recorded, and their information.

Variations – none

Similar Outfits

#511 – Portrait Dress: This is the original version of this outfit.

Grey portrait dress with a red haired CPK doll wearing a grey logo dress on the front. Has white tights.

PTP: Come on an adventure!

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.

Cover of the book A Cabbage Patch Kids Adventure.

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.

Picture of a bald CPK wearing maroon pants with rainbow straps and a yellow shirt. He's climbing a rock.
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.

Pair of Koosa shorts. They are yellow with rainbow straps and a giraffe patch.

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!

Picture of a wheat fuzzy CPK boy wearing a straw hat, white shirt, and jean overalls. He's holding a walking stick and hiking through the woods.
p. 22

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!

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)

New Video – Replacing Elastic in CPK Clothes

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.

Video can be found here: How to videos . . .

Samples of Before and After

PTP: BBB Romper Surprise

This adorable outfit holds a great surprise, if you’re willing to look closely.

Caucasian Bean Butt Baby (Coleco Baby) with a dark blond looped tuft and brown eyes. She's wearing a purple onsie with pink footies and two pink buttons shaped like hearts.

This is Helenna Storm. She’s a Transitional BBB wearing a Hasbro outfit. If you take a close look at this outfit, there’s a fascinating detail.

A purple onsie with pink footies and two pink buttons shaped like hearts. The sleeves and both sides are solid purple, and the middle panel is white with purple and pink words.

If you look closely, the middle panel has words on it. Can you read them?

Close up of the words in the white central panel of the outfit.

Did you get it? Yes! It’s the Legend of the Cabbage Patch Kids that was originally printed on the Coleco boxes.

The story "The Legend of the Cabbage Patch Kids" from the side of a 1984 Cabbage Patch box.

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.

Do you have it in any other colours?

An AA Bean Butt Baby (Coleco Baby) wearing a teal and purple version of this outfit.
Source unknown

#511 – Portrait Dress

Every collector wants the portrait dress that looks like them, or one of their kids. Which one is your unicorn?

Main graphic with grey background and black text that says "511 Portrait Dress". It also has a brown haired, brown eyes, brown single ponytail girl wearing the grey version of this outfit.


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.

511D OK - Grey dress with white and grey striped sleeves matched with white tights. The dress has a patch of the CPK on the front who has red hair and is wearing a blue dress.
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.

Version Information

My goal is to find every version of every outfit that was produced. Below is a record of each version of this outfit that I have. To understand clothing codes, factories, and variations, please refer to these posts: 1st Blog – Why do this project?, What are Clothing Tag Codes?, Factories and Companies

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.

Spreadsheet showing the outfits that I have recorded, and their details.

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.

Graphic page that lays out the OK factory version of this dress against the P factory version of the dress.

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).

Long looped lemon haired girl with blue eyes and a paci wearing a purple logo dress with purple tight.s She has one mary jane shoes and there is a bow in her hair.

Toddler Outfit: This is a later Coleco Toddler outfit (code unknown) that looks somewhat similar.

Other Information

> Fun fact: A prototype version of this outfit can be seen in the 1985 Coleco Catalogue (p. 2).

Picture of a single pony brown-haired girl with brown eyes wearing a light pink prototype version of the portrait dress. The 'portrait' has red hair and is outlined with red stitching. The dress is baby blue.

PTP: Sailor Suit Surprise

What happened to this Sailor Suit??

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?

Picture of a red and white sailor suit, outfit #20. 2B KT.

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.

The accent cord appears to be different as well.

Comparison of the collars on a red and white Sailor Suit. The KT collar has very dark red cord that looks nothing like the very washed out cord on the odd outfit.

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?

#510 – Ruffled Knit Outfit

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.

Main graphic with grey background and black text that says "507 Aerobics Outfit". It also has a redhaired, green eyed paci kid wearing the blue and red version of tihs 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.

Version Information

My goal is to find every version of every outfit that was produced. Below is a record of each version of this outfit that I have. To understand clothing codes, factories, and variations, please refer to these posts: 1st Blog – Why do this project?, What are Clothing Tag Codes?, Factories and Companies

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.

Ref #3 , p. 438

Factory Variations -none so far

Similar Outfits

Sweater and hat outfit from the 1984 Knit Outfit Series.

Picture of a yellow Sweater and hat set from the 1984 knit outfits series.

Other Information

> 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.

#508 : Tri-Heart Dress

This is a great sporty outfit but the kids are always losing their leg warmers!

Main graphic with grey background and black text that says "508 Tri-Heart Dress". It also has a mustard haired, green eyed kid wearing the grey and pink version of this outfit.


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.

White and pink version of the Tri-heart Dress. The tights are pink, and the hearts are yellow, blue, and pink.
#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.

Version Information

My goal is to find every version of every outfit that was produced. Below is a record of each version of this outfit that I have. To understand clothing codes, factories, and variations, please refer to these posts: 1st Blog – Why do this project?, What are Clothing Tag Codes?, Factories and Companies

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.

Spreadsheet showing the outfits that I have recorded, and their details.

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.

Close up of the trunk area of the AX version of 508B outfit. It's peach with a yellow, blue and pink heart.

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.

PTP: Fun Factory Flukes

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.

Kitty cat track suit with the patch in the middle under the neck band instead of to the side. The trim is yellow.

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!

Aqua ducky dress with pink stripes. The outfit is missing the duck patch and has a silk label in  place instead.

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!

Packaged yoke dress. It's blue with white polka dots. The ribbon ismissing.

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.

Picture of a bald blue eyes baby in a white sailor suit with blue trim. The pocket is on the left breast instead of the right one.

The pocket on this Sailor Suit is on the wrong side!

Blue preemie elephant romper with the silk label beneath the elephant patch.

The silk label on this CC Preemie Elephant Romper is in an odd location. Normally it is on the sleeve.

Picture of a grey cat track suit with pink trim that has the silk label on the pant leg upside down. Beside that is a white and yellow striped shirt with two labels.

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!

Brown haired brown eyed single ponytail girl wearing a blue flowered bib dress with a white bib. The bib has an elephant patch on it instead of a giraffe. The bib is circled in yellow.

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.