The Sports Collection

Our kids love to play outside, and these outfits help them join their favourite team and cheer on their siblings. Go Team CPK!

Catalogue picture of the Cabbage Patch Kids Sports Collection. There are 6 kids, each wearing a different outfit, posed in front of a blue curtain. — 1985 Coleco Catalogue, p. 18

This collection started selling in 1985, along with many of the other speciality outfits. However, these outfits were originally only sold packaged. Late in 1985 and early 1986, it appears that Coleco did put them on individually packaged kids, and a small number of the Football outfits made it on twin sets . It is interesting to note that almost all of the boxed kids with these outfits on are in 1985 boxes, I have recorded only one 1986 box, so it appears they didn’t do this for long. Eventually, like all other CPK clothes produced prior to 1987, sports outfits became part of the mass ‘sell-off’ where they put all sorts of weird combinations together and sold outfits on plain boards.

Red haired, green eyed paci girl wearing a cheerleaders outfit MIB, 1985. — Courtesy of Andrea Crick Huckaba.

A set of brown haired shag, brown eyed boys wearing football outfits in a twin box. — Courtesy of Andrea Crick Huckaba.

The Collection

There are six outfits in this collection, each of them depicting a different sport. Each outfit came with at least one accessory and striped sneakers. They were made by the Taiwanese CY and FD factories, and in some cases, there are visible differences between outfits produced by them.

The Outfits

NOTE: Each outfit is tagged in only one piece. I have put (tag) beside the piece with the tag.

Baseball

Outfit Pieces: top (tag) and stirrup pants

Accessory: baseball helmet

Sneakers: some coloured stripes, some not)

Cheerleader

Outfit Pieces: green sweater (tag), sateen bloomers, white and green sateen skirt

Comparison picture showing three different cheerlearder sweaters in various shades of green.

Matrix showing the various cheerleading outfit sweater colours.

Accessory: yellow/green or Orange/green pompom

The pompom came in two different colours. I’m assuming this was either a factory difference or because of a supply problem.

Picture comparing the different Cabbage Patch Cheerleader pompoms. One is yellow and green, one is orange and green.

CY Factory pompom still in the factory wrap, fresh from the packaging.

Sneakers: green stripes

Basketball

Outfit Pieces: sleeveless jersey, shorts (tag), headband, armbands, knee pads
The 55 may represent 1955, the year Xavier Roberts was born.

Accessory: basketball

Sneakers: white stripes

Hockey

Outfit Pieces: jersey with padded shoulders, padded shorts (tag)

There are two possible accent colours on this outfit, blue and purple. Both factories made both colours. There are visible factory differences in the stitching of the jersey’s bottom hem and in the colour of the thread used to sew on the silk label. The FD factory used orange thread, and the CY factory used white thread. These differences are important as they allow you to determine which factory made the top, even though it is not tagged.

CU versus FD factory hockey jerseys. — CY vs. FD

Accessory: hockey stick (no manufacturer marks)
Sneakers: white stripes

Football

CY Factory

FD Factory

Outfit Pieces: jersey with padded shoulders, shorts (tag)

So far, this is the only sports outfit found on sets of twins.
We don’t know exactly what the 27 stands for. Here are two theories:
1) Xavier Robert’s parents were born on the 11^th and the 16^th, which when added together, equals 27.
2) Xavier Roberts was aged 27 when the mass market Cabbage Patch Kids were copyrighted in 1982.
What is your theory?

Accessory: football helmet
Note: The helmet can be fragile. Once put together, it can split apart easily, and the chin guard connections can break easily as well.

Sneakers: Green or white stripes

Tennis

Outfit Pieces: tennis dress, sweater (tag), skirt, bloomers, matching striped hairbow

The accent trim is sewn on differently by each factory. FD is much cleaner than CY. This difference is important as it allows you to determine which factory made the dress, even though it is not tagged.

Comparison picture of the CY and FD factory trim sewing.

Accessory: tennis racket (has factory markings), sun visor

Manufacturing mark saying "Made in Taiwan CY" on a white Cabbage Patch tennis racquet.

Sneakers: white stripes

Similar Outfits

All Stars Baseball Series – This collection came out in 1986 and is an entirely different series. (Future Post)

Coleco catalogue page picture showing the All Stars Uniform collection on a variety of dolls. — 1986 Coleco Catalogue pg. 34 and 35.

Hasbro Sports outfits – Two poseable Hasbro CPK outfits (1990/91) are sport related: Tennis and cheerleader.

MIB AA poseable girl with brown hair and brown eyes wearing a Hasbro red, white and yellow cheerleaders outfit and green and white saddle shoes.

MIB poseable girl with wheat hair and green eyes wearing a Hasbro tennis outfit with pink shorts, white visor and white shirt with pink, blue and yellow stripes. She has blue socks and pink striped sneakers.

Other Information

It appears that at least the Football outfit was put onto Twins in a twin box. As far as I know, none of the others have been seen on twins.

A JCPenney Catalog picture shows the football outfit in blue; however, it was never produced. The back of the original packaging also shows the outfits, but three of the shoes depicted were never sold with the outfits.

Back of the Sport Collection packaging showing pictures of each outfit being own by a different kid.

Picture of an AA boy wearing a blue and white Cabbage Patch football uniform. From their catalogue.

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)