Precious and cozy, these pajamas’s are so cute. If you’ve got the slippers you’re lucky!
This series consists of five outfits, four for girls and one for boys. They are all a type of pyjamas. The girl’s outfits are all made of flannel and come with fuzzy pink slippers. Like with some other series, the boy’s outfit is unique.
Although their code numbers start with a 6, generally indicating that they came out in 1986, most of those I’ve seen mint-in-box are in 1987 boxes. I hypothesize that they were sold in 1987 or even late 1986 into 1987. Most sources list them as being sold in 1987. (Ref# 3, p. 160) These outfits are not common, so I don’t believe they were produced for very long. They are very hard to find with slippers now.
They were all made by the KT factory. There’s only one version of each outfit, and they were not made by any other factory. I believe I have this series entirely recorded, although I could use a better picture of outfit #693 with the slippers.
Girl’s PJ’s
689 – Bon-Bon Two-Piece PJs
This outfit has a dress-like top with matching pants. The fabric pattern is pastel-coloured bonbons and it has a V-neck with two purple buttons and a purple bow.
Photo courtesy of Kat Perhouse.
690 – NO OUTFIT
691 – Two Piece Sheep PJs
This outfit has a dress-like top and matching pants. The fabric pattern is pastel-coloured pink and blue sheep with flowers. The yoke has three bows; pink, teal, and purple.
Photo courtesy of Kat Perhouse.
692 – Ruffled gown
This gown is white with a pink flower pattern and three buttons at the neck. The neck area has a lot of ruffles, and there is a ruffle running around the hem, a few inches from the bottom.
Photo courtesy of Kat Perhouse.
693 – Striped gown
This gown has a large white bib front with three buttons. The remainder of the gown is a thick stripe pattern in pastel shades of teal, pink, and white. There is a ruffle around the bib, and the bottom hem is white with pink hearts.
Boy’s PJ Outfit
694 – Nightshirt and cap
This outfit is unique within the CPK clothing world. Unlike outfits #689 – #693, this one is made of cotton, uses darker colours, and includes a nightcap and booties with suede soles. The nightcap and booties can be difficult to find.
Mimic Outfit
This outfit mimics the look of the Pajama Series and is often thought to be a part of it. Outfit #142A looks very similar but came out in 1989 as a packaged outfit. The dark colours and yellow slippers are the immediately visible differences.
Photo courtesy of Kat Pershouse.
Special thanks to Kat Perhouse for her amazing pictures.
This outfit series came out in 1987, as the 7- on the clothing tags indicate. (For more information about this aspect of CPK clothing codes, visit Tag Codes Continued: A 2nd Theory. ) However, it appears the knit outfits were all designed in 1985 (and copyrighted at that time) but not manufactured until 1987. On the other hand, the terry cloth outfits were designed and produced in 1987. They must have been a last-minute addition. Also, the knit outfits were all produced in West Hartford, CT, whereas the terry cloth outfits were produced in Amsterdam, NY. For more information on the significance of these manufacturing locations, visit Tag Codes Continued: A 2nd Theory.
Like other CPK kids at this time, these kids came with slightly different coloured boxes and newly formatted birth certificates. The new text is blockier, and on the boxes, the BABIES is in purple rather than aqua. Like the previous BBB kids, they also came with a footie outfit, a bonnet, a blanket, and a white felt diaper.
I call this the BBB Mimic Series, as many of these outfits look similar, or mimic, outfits that had already been produced. (See below for details.)
This series goes from #670 – #684. It may go as high as #688, as I know the next series starts at #689, but I have no evidence for that yet. At the moment, I am missing information on at least one-third of these outfits: #671, #675, #677, #678, #679. They may not have been produced at all. I do not know.
Most of this series is knit, like the previous BBB outfits, but the last few are made of terry cloth. This is a significant change that carried on in later BBB outfits. These outfits were manufactured by the SS and WS factories, but SS appears to be the primary factory at this point, as it is most frequently recorded. (See the pictures above.)
The Outfits
The outfits came in at least eight different pastel colours that were used in a variety of combinations. Unlike the previous BBB series, the colours do not correspond to a code letter. (See Series 1 for details.) Like the previous BBB series, I have created names/descriptions for these outfits because I am unaware of any conventionally accepted ones.
670 – Scalloped neck, waist tie onesie671 – Mimic Body suit and booties672 – Dress set, two bows at the waist, white stripes673 – Onesie with wihte yoke and waist ruffle674 – Sweater set with dotted chest decoration676 – Sailor suit with tie 679 – 2 piece with wavy pattern decoration680 – Striped onesie with waist tie681 – Dress set with one waist bow682 – Moon and stars terry onesie683 – Tri-ruffle teerry onesie684 – Terry onesie with white yoke and ruflePictures courtesy of Sabrina Vanissa Adams, Jodi Isaacs, Sarah Ransom, Zoe Milburn, and Kris Prieto Sams.
Outfit Colours
BlueMint GreenPeachPinkPurpleSteel blueWhiteYellowPictures courtesy of Jodi Isaacs and Sarah Ransom.
Version Information
My goal is to record every version of every outfit that was produced. Below is a record of the outfits in this series that I have recorded. To understand clothing codes, factories, and variations, please refer to What are Clothing Tag Codes? and 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.
671 is similar to #192. There are no holes in the sleeves and booties of #671 and the necks are very different.
#672 and #681 are similar to #203 and #193. They are all dresses.
#673 is similar to #194 and #202. The chest area is the most obvious difference for all three.
#674 looks similar to #195, #199, #201 and #679. They are all two-piece outfits with sweaters and footie pants. The hat and the pattern on the sweater are the most obvious differences.
#676 is similar to #197. The collar style is the most obvious difference.
#670 and #680 are very similar to #202.
#682 is almost identical to #400. (FUTURE POST)
#683 is similar to #128, with the number of chest ruffles being the obvious difference.
#684 is similar to #103, #130, and an outfit with the number #12_(complete code unknown).
Other Information
> Unlike the previous BBB series, these outfits do not have ribbons used anywhere except for the odd bow. > The 670s appear to be harder to find outfits than the 680s. This may change as more information is acquired. > At this point, I believe the outfit hardest to find in this series is outfit #672 – Dress set, two bows at the waist. Having said that, those unrecorded at this time also likely fit in the HTF category!
> Fun fact: Examples of these outfits can be found in the 1987 Coleco Catalogue on page 7. The picture shows a combination of Series 1 outfits and Mimic Series outfits. Can you determine which one is from is which?
Coleco continued to produce Twin sets in 1986 wearing the original four outfits, but they also started to use twin sets as a dumping ground to get rid of overstock. At this time, it wasn’t unusual to find a variety of combinations in twin boxes, for example:
Twins wearing Fun Furs, animal sleepers, and World Traveler outfits. I have confirmed that they used all 5 WT outfits on twins.
Especially in the Canadian market, it wasn’t unusual for the dolls wearing these non-twin outfits to be Jesmar as it was at this time that Coleco was looking to rid themselves of the remaining stock from the recently closed foreign factories. (See Jesmars and J Clothing for details.)
Jesmar dolls wearing World Traveler outfits in twin boxes, or who came as twins.
The dolls used for twins in 1986 weren’t always P/OK factory and weren’t always the same factory. For example, there are records of sets being OK and PMI. (Ref #4, March 1988, p. 4) This was rare, but apparently, it did happen.
They also dumped twin outfits by putting them on individually boxed regular kids and Cornsilk kids in 1986 and 1987.
Courtesy of Christy Ho.
Finally, in a last-ditch effort to get rid of stock, twin outfits were sold packaged separately. Often these packages didn’t come with accessories like gloves or shoes.
Other Cabbage Patch Twins
> The Tsukuda factory is the only foreign factory that manufactured Twins (Ref #3, p. 247). Their twins wear regular 1983 outfits with the word “TWIN” silkscreened on them. These sets are very highly valued by collectors.
The first two photos are courtesy of Carolyn Dahl.
> Preemie twins were never produced, but prototypes are visible in catalogue pictures from 1986. (Ref #3, p. 178, 192)
Many prototype outfits can be seen in catalogues from 1986. The outfits aren’t exact, but they’re pretty close! It’s too bad the white dresses were never produced, they’re very pretty.
These 11” dolls were called Babies by Coleco, but most collectors call them Beany Butt Babies or BBB for short. They are the smallest of the Coleco dolls and have bags of ‘beans’ in their bum or tummy. If the bag is in the bum, there is stuffing on top at the neck.
Babies were manufactured by Coleco from 1986 – 1989 and then by Hasbro until 1992. (Ref. #2, p. 14) Early accounts indicate that they sold very well (Ref. #4, May 1986, p.5)
Babies’ boxes are quite different from the other Coleco boxes. The doll itself is laid down on its side, so the box is longer than it is tall. The look of the boxes, where the birth certificate was displayed, and the look of the birth certificate changed over time.
1986 BoxLater Coleco BoxHasbro Box1986 Birth CertificateLater Birth certificateTransitional BC
Babies were made predominately by the WS and SS factories. I have seen only two BBBs that were made by the P factory. This may have been a factory mistake, but I have no way of knowing.
Transitional Body TagHasbro Body 1Hasbro Body 2Photo courtesy of Zoe Milburn.Courtesy of an eBay ad.Baby found on eBay with a P tag.
Hasbro later used additional head moulds for their kids. Some of their kids had tufts of hair and they had a wider variety of eye colours and skin tones.
Keep in mind that as Hasbro took over from Coleco some rather strange combinations of kids, outfits and boxes occured. For more information visit Transitional Period CPK Outfits – A Summary.
The pacifiers used by BBBs are significantly different from the original yellow pacifiers. They are made of softer vinyl and are generally translucent. They have a flatter ring for the hand, and the projection for the mouth is shaped differently.
The early pacifiers were the same yellow colour, but later pacifiers came out in a wide variety of colours to match the doll’s outfit. Like the originals, they are marked with the factory, but it is on the flat disc portion. These pacifiers are also used for some transitionalToddlers and for Hasbro Preschoolers.
FYI: Not all colours shownFactory codes
Finally, Furskin pacifiers look similar to BBB pacifiers, but the mouth protuberance is larger in diameter.
Furskin vs. BBB pacifiers
BBB’s and Vinyl Discolouration (Pox)
Unfortunately, early SS factory kids are very likely to have developed or to develop vinyl discolouration. They have the dubious honour of being known as the worst for this, as the type of pox they get is generally darker and often more prolific than P factory kids.
BBB pacifiers, because they are made of vinyl, can also get pox. Unfortunately, zit cream treatment doesn’t seem to work very well on them.
There is one very special knit BBB outfit that doesn’t have a regular code. You can learn more about it at PTP: The Twin Outfit That Isn’t
Courtesy of Jodi’s Punki Patch.
BBB or Preemie . . . That is the question
In general, we can say that if the outfit has footies, it’s a BBB outfit. However, a few of the transitional preemie outfits did have footies. So, if it seems too big for your BBB, it may be because it’s actually a preemie outfit. For information on preemie outfits, visit Preemie Outfits – An Overview.
Courtesy of Heather Woodie.Courtesy of Jodi’s Punki Patch.
Transitional and Hasbro Outfits
Hasbro manufactured Babies until 1992, and the transitional period (1989-1991) BBB clothing is very interesting. Although Hasbro did start to manufacture their own outfits, they also continued to produce some of the Coleco outfits for a time.
There’s evidence that they intended to take some of the Coleco outfits and make them their own. For example, outfit 682 is almost the same as outfit 400. Why are there two of the same outfit? Because outfit 682 is the original Coleco one, and outfit 400 is the one Hasbro created.
Initially, it appears that Hasbro was going to continue coding their outfits but later changed their mind. Outfit 400 was created during this brief period. Instead of using the original Coleco code, they gave it a new one in the 400s. The outfits themselves are almost identical. The biggest difference is in the hat; one has a large fold-over, and the other does not.
Coleco #682Transitional Hasbro #400#400 pictures courtesy of Sabrina Vanissa Adams.
Some Hasbro outfits have tags, generally transitional ones, but most don’t have a tag. In this way, we can determine if an outfit is Coleco or Hasbro, even if they look identical.
Care of BBB outfits
The majority of BBB outfits are knit or terry cloth. Both of these fabrics should be hand washed to reduce damage to the fibres/yarn. I also suggest that before washing, you put small pieces of Velcro on the ‘sticky’ Velcro pieces to stop new pulls or damage from developing in the wash.
They can be soaked in oxi-clean and washed with regular laundry detergent. I suggest hanging knit outfits to dry.
You can also bring them back to life by ‘defuzzing’ them. A sweater shaver works well for most outfits. You may find you need to do the edges or decorations by hand with your ‘defuzzing’ scissors.
BeforeAfterHalf/ Half
Your sweater shaver will also work on the cotton-based outfits as it will remove the pills and pulls.
These babies are ready for a wonderful fall day! Windbreakers, sneakers, and leaves – a great combination!
Summary of 500s Series outfits and a list of the outfits: The 500s Series
Description
This outfit consists of a t-shirt, a jacket and pants. The t-shirt is white cotton with an arched Cabbage Patch Kids patch front middle. The pants are pin-striped cotton. The jacket is made of windbreaker material with a zipper at the front. The main jacket is one colour and the inserts across the chest and on the sleeves are two other colours. This outfit was sold on dolls identified as boys. This outfit came with blue striped sneakers.
516K OK
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. Generally, this outfit came out on kids, but it can also be found packaged. This was likely 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.
Variations
This outfit was made by the KT and OK factories. I have not recorded one instance where an outfit was made by both factories. I can not see any difference between the outfits made at the KT factory and those made at the OK factory.
Similar Outfits
#10 Windbreaker Outfit: This is part of the 1983 series and was likely the inspiration for this outfit. The major differences include a sold coloured shirt and jeans, not cotton pants.
Packaged windbreaker Outfit – I do not have code information recorded for this outfit. It’s likely from the transitional 100s series.
> Fun fact: A prototype version of this outfit can be seen in the 1985 Coleco Catalogue (p. 4). Although very similar, the shirt has a larger transfer on it rather than the usual embroidered patch.
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.
You will find that these wonderfully chatty kids, with their beautiful dresses and demands for their cup, will easily talk their way into your heart.
Talking Cabbage Patch Kids were only produced by Coleco for approximately one year and started becoming available in September of 1987. (Ref#2, p. 86) They are quite large and came with fancy outfits, cornsilk hair, a Parent’s Guide, special birth certificates, and a ‘magic cup’.
They were a remarkable toy for their time and had many surprises in store for their new parents, including a mobile moving face, numerous hidden sensors, and the ability to respond to their new parent and other talking kids! Two or more together will often be heard singing in around. It’s amazing! (Video) There seem to be a variety of different ‘scripts’ that the kids use when speaking, but the dolls can learn new phrases and words from other talking kids they interact with. (Ref#4, Vol. 2, Iss. 5, p.3) The first 250 sold at their ‘opening event’ were signed by Xavier Roberts. (Ref#4, Vol 2, Iss. 3, p.4)
The dolls came in only two head moulds, T-8 (one dimple) and T-9 (big grin, no dimple). Coleco produced AA talking kids but no boys.
Head Mould T-8Head Mould T-9
These dolls were pretty fancy, and unfortunately, may have been ahead of their time. Many considered them creepy. It got worse when the first of the Chucky movies was released in November of 1988. These kids were also plagued with poblems, such as:
A high purchase price.
They used a lot of batteries, four AA and one 9V, and went through them like candy!
Many didn’t work when they were purchased or stopped working soon after purchase.
They weren’t ‘cuddly’ like regular Cabbage Patch Kids.
Clothing Information
There are eight different talking kid outfits made by the OK factory, numbers #695 – 702. I believe there are six versions of each outfit, letters A – F; however, they used eight different colours of velveteen fabric overall. (Aqua, Burgundy, Grey, Medium Blue, Navy Blue, Pink, Purple, Red)
Four of the outfits consist of white cotton dresses with a velveteen pinafore and matching cotton bloomers.
#695#699, Picture courtesy of Kristi Prietos Sams#702#697, Picture courtesy of Denise Maggio
The other four have a velveteen dress and a cotton or taffeta pinafore. The outfits with cotton pinafores come with plain white bloomers, and the outfits with a taffeta pinafore come with taffeta bloomers.
#696, Picture courtesy of Eve Phillips#700, Picture courtesy of Eve Pillips#698#701
The lace used on the bloomers, dress, and pinafore always match. All of them come with solid white tights and odd white or black faux leather shoes. The black shoes seem to come most frequently with the navy blue, burgundy, and red outfits.
There are hints that some talkers may have come with regular lace-up shoes instead of the ‘talker shoes’. I have no proof at this point.
Although these outfits originally came only on Talking Kids, a few can be found on ‘regular’ kids from 1988 and 1989. They likely did this to clear out leftover outfits. However, it is not something you’ll see often.
Recorded Information
I have the following outfits recorded. If you have one of the outfits that I am missing, I would greatly appreciate pictures of the clothing tag and the outfit. For details on taking pictures jump here.
As noted in Part 1: Tag Codes Continued: A 2nd Theory, I originally thought the first number of the code indicated the year the outfit came out.
E.g. 501 came out in 1985, 630 came out in 1986, 720 came out in 1987
This is true for some outfits, but not for all.
A lot of tags had #- in front of the code and I did not know what it meant, until now.
I believe that starting in 1986 and continuing until 1990, those tags with a #-, indicate the actual year the outfit came out. You can’t use the first digit of the code for these outfits.
This theory answers a few questions.
It confirms that the first BBB series came out in 1986. These outfits were among the first to be coded differently.
Why would they put out a second series of BBB outfits in 1986? They didn’t, the 670s – 680s series BBB outfits came out in 1987.
Why are there no 1989 outfits with 900 numbers? Because they put them all in the 100s! The 1989 Designer Line Kids, Sippin’ Kids, and all the transitional and package outfits that came out in 1989 are numbered 9- 1_ _. I have no idea why they chose to do this.
What do the tags with 0- mean? Following the pattern, these are outfits that came out or were slated by Coleco to be produced, in 1990. There are very few outfits with these codes, and all of them are Transitional Hasbro clothing tags. They may have been the last outfits designed by Coleco, or the first designed by Hasbro. Who knows.
Having said all that, not all the factories used this coding innovation equally.
If you have an outfit that has an 8- before the code, you know that it belongs to a kid from 1988 or 1989, nothing earlier. If you have a BBB outfit that has 6- before the number, it has to go on a 1986 BBB kid. If you have an outfit with a 9- or a 0- , barring some exceptions, it could have come on a Coleco kid or a Hasbro kid as it is a Transitional Outfit.
The continuing saga of the clothing tag codes . . . what happened in 1986? Why are West Hartford, Amsterdam and Gloversville so important?
By going through and comparing the appearance of clothing tags, I discovered that something interesting happened in 1986 and early 1987.
The original theory about the numbers used in the clothing tag codes was that the first digit of the codes from 500 onward indicated which year the outfit came out. Jump to: What’s With the Numbers?
E.g. 501 came out in 1985 630 came out in 1986 720 came out in 1987
A Question . . .
This works most of the time, but some things did not fit the pattern. For example, half of the Talker outfits are 690s, and the rest are 700-710. If the original theory held, they should all be in the 700s as Talking Kids came out in 1987. Another example is the 670s – 680s BBB series. BBB kids came out in 1986; why would they put out a second set of clothing almost immediately? As it turns out, they didn’t!
In 1986, Coleco seems to stop rigidly adhering to the original rule that they had in 1985. They still used it, but not all the time. I do not know why, but the change corresponds to some kind of upheaval in the Coleco Company itself.
Possible Answer . . .
At some point in 1985 or 1986 they started producing tags which printed the location of the Coleco Company in the US. The first tags said West Hartford, CT. Then sometime in 1986, the address changed to Amsterdam, NY. By sometime in 1987, they stopped using the CT tags entirely.
CT tagNY tagPictures courtesy of Jodi’s Punki Patch.
If your tag says CT, the outfit is most likely older than one which says Amsterdam, NY. They were likely made in the same place, but the tags were changed. It’s interesting to note that it was around this time that the company’s major financial problems started to become public. It is also interesting to note that some 500s Series outfits have West Hartford, CT tags so they must have been produced into 1986 although, they started production in 1985.
Then in 1989, the company address on clothing tags changed again, from Amsterdam, NY, to Gloversville, NY.
Coleco had owned buildings in both locations for decades. (Coleco – The Official Book.pdf, p. 33) I theorize that as company assets were closed to save money, the main offices and official registered location of the company was moved from place to place.
1986 and Onward
1986+ clothing codes are all over the place. There were some 1987, and 1988 series that follow the original theory (E.g. Splashing kids, Toddlers). However, it was no longer used consistently. More and more outfits show up with ‘odd’ codes.
In some cases, they put 1987 outfits in the 600s (Example A), in some cases they chose a different hundred for the series (e.g. 400s) (Example B), in other cases, they created an entirely new matrix (Example C), and for still others, they didn’t use a code at all ( Example D)!
C – New matrix: World Traveler outfits and their matrix
D – No code: All-Stars baseball kids
A – BBB outfitB – Cornsilk outfitA – tagB – tagPictures A courtesy of Jodi’s Punki Patch.World TravelersC – WT matrixD – All Stars outfitD – tag
Another Question
Where are the 1989 outfits? There are no 900s outfits, so how were they coded? I had a theory, but I had no evidence for it. Now I do. To find out, continue to Part 2: The Code Addition
An overview of the various Preemie outfit series and links to more information.
Preemies are 14″ cabbage patch dolls that came out from 1984 to 1985, and then again from 1987 to 1989. Hasbro then continued to produce them for a few years. They originally used a limited number of head moulds, hair types, hair colours, and eye colours. (Ref3, p.178)
The first series of Preemie clothes came out in 1984.
The second came out in 1985.
The third came out in 1987 and was a series that mimicked many of the outfits that came before.
Finally, in 1989 a few random preemie outfits were produced.
