AX Factory - Hilary's Cabbage Patch Clothes Closet

#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.

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!

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.

#505 – Apron Dress

Beloved and beautiful, the Apron Dress is a beautiful addition to any patch.

Summary of 500s Series outfits and a list of the outfits: The 500s Series

Description

This outfit consists of a cotton dress with an ‘apron’ overskirt and ribbon shoulder-ties. It is matched with a pair of bloomers and regular lace-up shoes. The apron is edged with scalloped lace and is made of shadow-striped white fabric. There is an arched Cabbage Patch Kid logo patch on the left side of the apron (skirt).

PIcture of #505J OK, a yellow version of this outfit. — #505J OK

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 or does not match my information, (e.g. You have a 504A OK that is yellow, not pink.) 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 -none

Similar Outfits

> Hasbro Apron Dresses – Hasbro manufactured this series of very similar dresses. They were worn by Transitional kids. The most significant differences, other than the fabric patterns, are the lack of shoulder ties and logo patch.

Picture of the Hasbro transitional version of the Apron dress. This one is blue with white polka dots. — Photo courtesy of Jodi’s Punki Patch.

> Outfit #3 – Shoulder-Tie Dress

> USA Version Shoulder-Tie Dress

Blue and white gingham USA version of the shoulder-tie dress. — USA Factory Version

> Mimic Outfit #656

Outfit #656, an outfit that mimicked the shoulder-tie dress. This one is blue with white polka dots and a white blouse area. — #656 – Mimic Series;
Photo courtesy of Kat Perhouse.

> 25th Anniversary Shoulder-Tie Dress (Play Along)

Pink Gingham Play Along 25th Anniversay version of the shoulder-tie dress. — 25th Anniversary Version

> Foreign Factories: There were many variations of the #2 Shoulder-Tie Dress made by foreign factories. The Tsukuda factory used them on their twin sets. For information on identifying a Jesmar version, jump to Identifying Jesmar Clothing

Other Information

> Fun fact: This outfit can be found in the 1985 Coleco Catalogue (p. 2). This appears to be a prototype outfit, as there are numerous differences between this dress and the one eventually produced.

#504 – Sailboat Dress

This outfit is wonderful for a day on the water! Deck your water baby out in the Sailboat Dress and enjoy!

Summary of 500s Series outfits and a list of the outfits: The 500s Series

Description

This outfit consists of a cotton ‘swing’ style A-line dress with matching bloomers. It has a sailor collar with a ribbon bow, lace, and rick-rack. The same rick-rack runs along the bottom hem. On the left side of the skirt is a sailboat patch, with an arched Cabbage Patch Kids logo patch over it. The bloomers match the dress fabric and have no trim around the leg holes.
This outfit came with regular lace-up shoes.

Outfit #504B AX; It's blue with white sail boats on it and matching bloomers. It has red rick -rack and a white bow. — #504B AX

There’s some debate about when this dress began being sold. Although it has a 500s series number, most of which started being sold in 1985, Coleco may not have started selling this outfit on dolls until 1986. (Ref#3 p. 399) It likely ended production sometime in 1986 as well. Consequently, it would have been produced for a limited amount of time. If this outfit is found on a later kid, it was most likely the company getting rid of ‘older’ 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 or does not match my information, (e.g. You have a 504A OK that is yellow, not pink.) 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

> The Collar: The Taiwan factory collars appear to have an extra flap section with rick-rack that the China factory collars do not.

> The Lace: It seems that the lace used by the Taiwan and China factories is different. It’s hard to tell, but it appears that the KT and P factory lace are the same, while the AX lace is different.

> The Rick-rack: The location of the rick-rack around the skirt hem seems to change based on the factory. KT is right along the hem edge, AX is about 1cm away, and P is the furthest away from the hem.

Photos courtesy of Gia Levato and Nicole Sorensen Barnes.

Similar Outfits

> Outfit #1 – Swing Dress

Yellow and red Swing dress. Yellow dress with red tie and red tights.

> Outfit #655 – More basic Swing Dress

Picture of outfit #655, an outfit that mimics the swing dress. It is purple and white. — Courtesy of Jodi Punki Patch.

> Foreign: I am only aware ofJesmar, of all the foreign factories, producing a swing-style dress. For information on identifying a Jesmar version, jump to Identifying Jesmar Clothing.

Other Information

> Fun fact: This outfit can be found in the 1985 Coleco Catalogue (p. 5). It looks very similar to outfit #504B, but may in fact be a prototype outfit like so many of the others in this catalogue.

Picture of the Sailboat Dress from the 1985 Coleco Catalogue. It is blue with white sailboats and red rick-rack. It's being worn by a red poodle single ponytail paci kid.

PTP: Which OTHER outfits came on IC and UT kids?

Your UT kids have more clothing options than you thought.

Thanks to the assistance of another collector, one of my many theories has been confirmed.

Most of the time, when a kid is mint-in-box, the outfit factory and the kid factory match. (For details visit HERE.) However, there are some exceptions.

Recently, we determined that AX factory clothing came on IC kids. For these kids, the outfit tag and the kid’s tag would not match.

There were several other factories in Taiwan, but the only one other produced dolls, the UT factory. I speculated that AX outfits may also have come on UT kids. However, until this past week, I had no proof.

Thanks to Melissa W., I now have that proof. She was able to confirm that her MIB UT kid did come with an AX outfit. This discovery was accidentally serendipitous!

undefined

So, we now have proof that AX outfits came packaged separately AND on IC and UT kids. This goes a long way to explaining why IC and UT clothing is so difficult to find.

Unfortunately, I do not think we have any way of knowing what percentage of IC and UT kids came with AX outfits.

Some of the other Taiwanese factories produced specialty outfits for the All Stars series (HRS), Sports Collection (CY, FD), and the Western Wear Kids (CY). Like the AX outfits, these outfits normally came on IC kids. Of the remaining Taiwan factories, the only other factory that may have provided outfits for boxed kids would be WW, but my gut says it did not. So far, there is no indication that WW outfits came on kids.
Can you prove me wrong?

Update (April 2021)

I was proven wrong! (read above) I now have proof that regular CPK outfits from Taiwan factories other than IC and UT came on these kids. This includes AX, UT, WW, and HP. This goes a long way toward explaining why there are so few IC outfits and so many IC kids!

The Perfect Mismatch (Mtaching 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 factories that 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 other Taiwan factory 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?

Clothing Tags: With a code or without?

Not all clothing tags were made equal. Some have codes, some don’t. Which do? Which don’t?

Although MOST Coleco clothing has a code on the tag, not all of them do.

The 1983 outfits have a variety of tags! Each factory had a slightly different look to its tags and some factories changed the look often. After 1985 the tags become more consistent in look and information but there were still variations by factory and over time.

Picture of an OK factory cabbage patch clothing tag. — Examples of tags from various factories.

Picture of an P factory cabbage patch clothing tag with a clothing tag code sticker on it that says B5. — Examples of tags from various factories.

In a previous post, What are Clothing Tag Codes, I noted that some factory codes were put on with stickers so that they were washed off (P, PMI, some IC), some were written on and illegible, and some were stamped on badly. Although these tags are rather rare, they can be annoying. Hopefully, somewhere, you will find the same outfit with a code!

Unfortunately, in some cases, they never put the code on to start with!

The 1983-84 Mess

Some factories like CC, KT, IJ, and PMI always have a code on the tag (if it hasn’t washed off).

Some factories, like the OK and P factories, were generally pretty good with putting codes on their tags, but there are some failures.

For example, early P and OK Hong Kong tagged outfits were hit and miss, and some of the later regular tags did not have codes (pictures below).

Picture of the first side of an OK factory cabbage patch clothing tag. — OK Side 1

Picture of the opposite side of an OK factory cabbage patch clothing tag. — OK Side 1

Some Taiwanese factories, like IC and AX, put the codes on a few tags.

Picture of the first side of an IC factory cabbage patch clothing tag

Picture of the first side of an IC factory cabbage patch clothing tag with the clothing code 20J.

Some never put a code on their tags. (e.g. UT, HP, EX, SW, CY, FD, WW, USA)

Picture of the first side of an HP factory cabbage patch clothing tag.

Picture of the first side of a USA factory cabbage patch clothing tag.

I have also seen tags where they appear to be trying to fix a mistake, or they had run out of a tag. They’ll substitute a different one and then make the correction with a pen or a marker!

Picture of the second side of an OK factory cabbage patch clothing tag with the clothing code 17J but the J has been crossed out in blue pen and a K written above it.

Picture of the second side of an OK factory cabbage patch clothing tag with the clothing code 17H but the H has been crossed out in blue pen and a J written above it.

Specialty Outfits

Many of the specialty outfits don’t have codes. For example:

Packaged Tennis cabbage patch kid outfit. — Sports Collection

Backside of the Painters occupation romper. — Sports Collection

Some specialty lines had their own specialty codes.

Twin outfits use T1, T2, and T3 to indicate style change, and letters to indicate colour. (TBC in another post.)

Twin outfit clothing tag with the code T3C.

World Traveler outfits use A-1, A-2, A-3 to indicate the different outfits from different countries.

Holland World Travelers outfit consisting of a blue dress with white apron, white tights, white Dutch hat and white 'wooden' shoes. — A-2 Holland

Scottish World Travelers outfit consisting of a plaid skirt, shoulder sash and tam, white blouse with blue bow, black belt and sporran, white bloomers and brown mary janes. — A-2 Holland

The Circus kids outfits duplicate the numbers 100 to 105. There are two versions of each costume, A and B.

Lemon blonde CPK girl wearing a pink and white clown outfit. — A

Clown outfit clothing tag with the code 101A KT. — A

Later Tags (1985+)

Most tags from 1985 and later have codes. These tags include any numbers 100 and above.

CPK clothing tag with the code 119C-9 H-44.

Foreign Factories

From the foreign factories that produced between 1984 and 1985, only Jesmar outfits have tags. (Jump to: Jesmar Tags and Clothing)

After Coleco

As far as I am aware, none of the later companies that produced Cabbage Patch Kids put any kind of code on their tags. At least, not something I know or understand.

For more information . . .

The number/letter codes, jump to: What are Clothing Tag Codes
Where to find clothing tags, jump to: Where are clothing tags located
Information on the numbers in a clothing tag code, jump to: What’s With the Numbers? and Tag Codes Continued: A 2nd Theory
Matching clothing to kids, jump to: A match made in . . . . the factory (Pt. 1)