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.
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.
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.
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.
