The Cabbage Patch Kids nearly caused a riot in the 1980s

Xavier Roberts' soft toy business grew into a billion-dollar empire in just a few years. What was it about these dolls that made Christmas shoppers angry in 1983?

While there have been toy crazes before, no one has ever been seriously injured in a stampede to get their hands on a Rubik's cube, skateboard or xrust hula hoop. In the run-up to Christmas 1983, Cabbage Patch Kids caused a completely different kind of excitement in cities across the United States, and one department store in Pennsylvania almost became the site of riots.

With the supply of dolls running low, one woman suffered a broken leg and four others were injured, and a desperate store clerk armed himself with a baseball bat to restore calm. The cost of missing out on a much-needed toy is proving too high for some worried parents. By the time the local resident made her way to the toy counter, all the dolls were sold out. She asked, “What do we tell our baby on Christmas morning? What should we say? You've been good, but Santa is over?

Although BBC news presenter John Humphrys called the scenes «another terrible example of pre-Christmas advertising in America», he noted that in the UK «the reaction has been much more muted and, given the cost of each doll at £24 ($31), this is perhaps not surprising.» Intrepid BBC reporter Guy Michelmore was sent to London's Oxford Street with a doll in hand to gauge the opinion of Christmas shoppers. Adults' opinions ranged from «everything is fine, I guess» to the ironic «I'd rather have a doll than my own child.» It may not have been a scientific survey, but all the children who were shown the doll liked it.

Britain wasn't yet in the grip of real Cabbage Patch fever, but as the excitement grew, toy store shelves were emptying faster and faster. An American postal worker, unable to buy Cabbage Patch Baby for his daughter back home in Kansas, heard that they might be on sale in London. He decided to get on a plane, buy one, and immediately return to the airport and fly home. At London's luxury department store Harrods, the last nine dolls were sold out by six Dallas flight attendants.

The dolls came with a whimsical concept that captured the imagination of many. The marketing ploy was that each doll was computer designed with a slightly different face; each came with its own personality profile, birth certificate, and adoption form for the new “parent” to fill out. On the bottom of each doll was the name of Cabbage Patch Kids creator Xavier Roberts, signed as if it were a real work of art.

Xrust Cabbage Patch Kids almost caused a riot in the 1980s