SEE IT: The wild story of the Cabbage Patch Kid Riots of 1983

In November 1983, America went bonkers for Cabbage Patch Kids. The dolls were so scarce and demand was so high that riots broke out in stores, parents were driving hundreds of miles to buy them, and desperate gift givers were willing to pay big bucks for a rare doll. Read more: 7ny.tv/35scw1i
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#cabbagepatchkids #1980s #ilovethe80s

[@seamripper0000]

I was 7 when cabbage patch dolls came out, i wanted one so badly but my mom was not going to take off work or deal with the craziness. I begged and begged so she said we'd go over to the store after work and if there were any left she would get me one. We went to the store and they were sold out of course. So we were waking around, and what did I see peaking out from behind some other merchandise, a cabbage patch kid someone had hidden to come back for later. I still have that doll to this day.

[@semimad100]

if that story is true it was probably an employee who was trying to buy it later to resell. still pretty common today with things that will sellout

[@djquestionthis]

My Mom still has my childhood patch kid too, lol she kept it when I thought I had grown out of it.

[@Mike-me3sp]

@80's guy You mean to buy later when they're cheaper or what?

[@gilliancampbell6759]

I was also 7 when cabbage patch dolls came out and I wanted one badly too. I got one for my 8th birthday.

[@chaelodoul9401]

@@semimad100 why wouldn’t it be TRUE? are you that cynical???

[@Patrick19833]

This is happening in 2020 right now, but with toilet paper instead of Cabbage Patch Kid dolls!

[@wreshad]

I freaking agree

[@superboy3229]

This isn't happening with POP FUNKO.....Everyone is fine with Pop Funko.

[@jackystarboi3152]

PS5s also

[@anthonyhill7286]

@@jackystarboi3152 you read my mind LOL, PS5's are hard to get but I got one lol

[@mariastewart9820]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@ladygirl99]

I was 6 years old when I got my cabbage patch back then, I wonder who my mom fought to get it for me 🤣🤣 that was crazy.

[@mscupcakedreamson36]

Everytime I get in the Christmas spirit, I think about when Cabbage patch kids came out. I can still see the news clippings, where people were fighting for them. I’m so grateful my mom purchased them for us. I’ll never let them go.

[@uhchief5123]

Good old times the 80’s👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@analogkid4957]

In 1984 I was in my senior year of high school and worked part time as a seasonal worker for Service Merchandise the old catalog store. The Cabbage Patch were huge then. I remember them being on back order and finally getting one for my mom who desperately wanted one. She was 47 at the time and probably more adults than kids wanted them.

[@gregggoldstein3449]

LOL!

[@gregggoldstein3449]

I remember years ago, some guy purchased a doll he took back packing, hiking, camping, ski ing, site seeing. And dressed his little Cabbage patch son in nice threads and shades, shoes, etc. and took slides of their trips together on you tube.

[@cynthiabustamante2884]

I , see them in thrift shops all the time.

[@moniquemitchell5092]

Can you tell me how to find the store. I collect. I'm obsessed since childhood . 80s girl..

[@Jad-TV]

@@moniquemitchell5092eBay

[@keeganbucy5554]

Ah, the days when managers could defend themselves from Karens with a baseball bat.

[@NSnicket]

Literally cackled at this.

[@redblue40rc33]

Play ball....CRACK

[@actionjackson4769]

Wow I’m a life long fan now y’all went back. I really appreciate this vault classic. I’m hitting the like button.

[@teresapflaumer5717]

The security guards throwing the dolls into the angry mob at a department store was like zookeepers throwing meat in a den of angry lions!

[@laurenchristianna2092]

😂😂😂

[@sherri419]

This Vault thing is great I wish you would release all your video archives, I wish all tv news shows would too, I especially like the 1970s and 1980s.

[@laquintaknox6719]

I see why my mom waited a few years after this to get me and my sister a cabbage patch dolls lmao

[@itypethetruthnobshere8975]

You loved your kids if you got one. If you didn’t you were a bad parent.

[@evelyngilvilla7830]

I wanted one Cabbage Patch doll soooo badly, and 40 years later I’m alive, healthy and having a full life. That doll was not so necessary after all. If your kid cannot get that toy they really want, understand their sadness, but they will get over it. Life goes on.

[@laurenchristianna2092]

💚💚💚✨

[@chasformer3091]

40 Years later, no one will ever forget the madness. This was Vietnam for our parents..... especially our moms.

[@TOCC50]

Why didn’t that guy get a chocolate doll

[@rrurangi]

vietnam for mother. atleast no ptsd

[@alexiscupid2610]

OH GOD BLACK FRIDAY AT TOYS R US

[@rosannaanisi4642]

You can still purchase them online from Babyland General Hospital in Georgia. They have soft sculptures as well.

[@thelooplala]

I was 8 when these came out. I wanted one so badly and surprise! I got one Christmas morning that had brown hair in pigtails (like me) brown eyes and dressed like me. The only reason why I got one and the one that “looked” like me is because my older sister worked at Service Merchandise and she found one who just so happened to have my mothers uncommon name and put it aside for my mother to buy for me.

[@emily7103]

It really is beyond sad and unnerving how greedy humans are (by nature!) and retailers just encourage it. Especially around the holiday seasons and it gets so bad to the points people have been killed during Black Friday crowds. And it is all about money and materialism. AKA greed, greed, greed.

[@laurenchristianna2092]

And when the kids saw this footage on the news and their parents bring them back what they see being so greatly fought over, all that did was just encourage yet another generation to act just the same.

[@blankityblank6029]

Thank God all these people came back to their senses! ...... and then repeated the whole thing again with Beanie Babies! LOL

[@Denizen-Unknown]

What do you mean "came back to their senses"? Liteally every single fad throughout history is just a repeat of this. Take it from someone who used to work at a toy store. Humans are just worthless cuvitous creatures. Nothiing's changed since this.

[@CambodianPeaches]

@ 1:07 She ran around & got another ticket 🎟; genius! 😆

[@JoseTwitterFan]

This is why online shopping was invented. lmao

[@clunkster]

Yeah. Fighting for toys is now called bidding

[@zeked96]

And to think, I see them in thrift shops for 5$ now.

[@AnzuMiruku]

Brand new ones sell for quite a lot on eBay though!

[@jurgenwind]

yup I've seen quite a lot in thrift stores, and the ones from the 80's!

[@jaydee5156]

I bought a Cabbage Patch Baby for my wife on visit to the Cabbage Patch Hospital in Georgia. If you're a fan, you have to go there.

[@sharker102s]

def wanna go there and your wife very lucky for you to get her a cabbage patch baby and def want one

[@Rebecca-zr3lu]

Thank you. I took my doll to school with my friends. 😊I’m appreciative of those days. Thank you God in heaven for them. I pray for healing over all obsessions for all people, no matter the age. This is me during the days of fighting over dolls like mine. 😳 I prayed every one that wanted one, got one too. Maybe 🤔??? Lol They did. 🤍

[@Murph1331]

Bless that man who risked it all sneaking away from work to get a Christmas present for his child

[@Pinkkermit17]

I have 2 of the originals, my mom bought them from ad’s in the newspaper,, we didn’t even know what we were getting.. a boy,, a girl… premie,,I still have them and always have loved them.

[@anti-ethniccleansing465]

Yeah I think it’s weird how kids can pick pick out their own baby at Babyland, AND they name them themselves. To us in the 80s, it was special seeing the surprise of what your baby was going to look like and what it’s unique name was. Of course, my mom and grandma were smart enough to pick out babies that all had blue eyes and light skin like me. I would have been really confused if they gave me a black doll lol.

[@musicbuff9]

I got my first Cabbage Patch Kid in 1984 from my Dad who sold toys. He had samples he gave to our friends daughters.

[@scottakanumba1heathen379]

So exciting!!

[@briannas.3887]

This is why we need to re amp these amazing nostalgic past times

[@QueensNativeNYC]

I don't see that happening.. If you gave a kid a cabbage patch doll for Christmas today they'd probably throw it in the garbage and be like where is my PC game..

[@sharker102]

@@QueensNativeNYC if they threw it in the garbage you can take it out and give it to people who can't afford gifts for their kids for christmas

[@QueensNativeNYC]

@@sharker102 Well yeah.. That would be a good idea I guess.. But my comment was really meant to be Metophoric.. I don't think they'd really throw the doll in the garbage.. My point was that kids these days are more sophisticated then kids from past generations.. And dolls, toys, and train sets just don't interest them as much..

[@sharker102]

@@QueensNativeNYC I know where you are coming from because i've seen it throughout the years and the reason they don't have that much interest for these kind of things is because they lack value and have lot of influence from other kids kids in school what are spoiled where they get anything they want and if other kids don't get what they have at Christmas their gifts won't mean as much to them and they should be thankful for what they have and for having parents that buys them things and not be looking for stuff everyone else has because if they do it's really hurts the parents and parents shouldn't be in that position

[@QueensNativeNYC]

@@sharker102 I hear you.. Kids today have just become so spolied and lost touch with all reality.. When folks like us were young we were just grateful to celebrate Christmas in a warm place and be with family and friends and whatever gifts we had under the tree was not really so important..

[@josephtorres5486]

Shoutout to all those parents of 83🔥🔥

[@fallonskirrow7492]

I have 2 cabbage patch dolls which I bought my two kids back in 1983 they are now in in their middle 30s now got a girl cabbage patch called Lisa malissa and boy cabbage patch called fitz Earl and got the creator signature on the backside exavier Roberts. And there birth certificates

[@anti-ethniccleansing465]

BS. If they are in their mid thirties now, they weren’t even old enough to play with dolls yet in 1983.

[@laurenchristianna2092]

​​​@@anti-ethniccleansing465You think people weren't getting young babies Cabbage Patch so they could play with them as older children? Moore On.

[@Sol-Cutta]

My nan went to get me a cabbage patch doll but she never did get it right as all nans don't, she came back with Chucky...fkd my whole childhood up.😮

[@anastege11]

God, we humans are so vain.

[@babygirl6789]

My question is why did the parents go all out for their kids like this? They are the ones with the money not the kids.

[@uglysongsforuglysouls]

Some people will do anything for their kids?

[@laurenchristianna2092]

Make up for their shit parenting, my guess.

[@rawaas81411]

I got my first three cabbage dolls at the same time when I was 9

[@jonesy2892]

There was another doll called Flower Kids that looked a lot like Cabbage Patch. Does anyone remember those?

[@nickotimegaming3864]

lmaoooooooooo the man was throwing them to the ravenous wolves

[@DreamDancer82]

According to my parents, store employees did that. That's how my sister and I ended up with one when we were kids. For some reason, though, I always picture the masses getting a doll, and then racing to the check out, posing like the little figure on top of the Heisman Trophy (look it up if you don't know what that is).

[@essmhtvny165es]

November 25, 1983

[@m.layfette6249]

Little known fact, when Cabbage Patch dolls first came out there were None that represented African Americans. I remember wanting one for Christmas but it didn't get shipped to my house till February of the following year. Sadly my doll has been lost to the ravages of time. 😫😫😫😫

[@vizionaryentertainment8464]

I dont understand the attraction. They look like regular stuffed dolls to me? Why did kids want these so bad? lol

[@laurenchristianna2092]

@@vizionaryentertainment8464 Those who run 💩 created a hype for it. I feel like they do this not only for money but just to get a kick out of people going batshytte just to get their hands on these things.

[@m.layfette6249]

@@Toywithme200 I never said there was not/are not any Black Cabbage Patch dolls. It just took them a little over a year to create a line of Black dolls. When they did, they sold out extremely fast.

[@anti-ethniccleansing465]

@@Toywithme200 The OP is the typical professional victim who can’t help herself from lying, wanting everyone to feel bad for her and fellow basketball americans. It’s so tiring.

[@nananoodle5020]

@@anti-ethniccleansing465 Uhhh you have mental problems. She was simply pointing out the lack of diversity in children’s toys that existed in the past. Now a days there are Barbie’s of every ethnicity.

[@CrispyFrise]

I wonder if it was the same thing with the I choose you pikachu plush.

[@kobra6660]

That manager had that bat ready to use

[@pixiewinks6897]

Now you can get them for $5 at yard sales 😄

[@silentsiren-de4eb]

And people say that the Stanley cup craze is unusual and out of control. Our boomer parents/grandparents were straight up rioting over an ugly doll. 😂

[@Sol-Cutta]

We had this in uk too...shortly after tho we had something even better , esp for teen boys - the GARBAGE PAIL KIDS. iconic...sidney snot...etc

[@emely5211]

The parent at the end with the little girl was so entitled lol

[@ladysnowman5950]

OMG no wonder we are a spoiled society! Totally insane! I totally remember this, I was in 2nd grade. I started wanting one just cause my friends all had them but my parents weren't into fighting over dolls. It was so stupid! My grandma made a bunch of Cabbage Patch- like dolls with cloth faces and hand-painted eyes that were much prettier.

[@Jad-TV]

People still collecting it, I found one in the original package for 100$, and sold it the same week for 400$ in 2024 😂

[@annettemoolman6504]

I got a cabbage patch doll for Christmas! His name was Traugot Nathaniel ❤😂

[@jellyart89]

I saw cabbage patch dolls on instagram today and then I found this video. I just never knew people wanted the dolls that much. It never happens now for sure.

[@pmcpmc8005]

20 dollars then is like 150 dollars now

[@MageMaggie]

Came after listening to the SYSK episode. Worth it haha

[@goo83]

a beautiful picture of what Christmas is all about 🙄

[@laurenchristianna2092]

😂😂😂, disgusting right?

[@kyleboulanger170]

This is why we have Amazon.

[@MSW96]

Boomers: Parents these days spoil their kids ROTTEN Boomers, 40 years ago: *see video*

[@sabrina19ization]

❤❤❤i colect cabbage patch so cool they are 🔥

[@ShugaAnnSpyce]

All to see their kids happy...

[@fytghggyungf7601]

These were the days! I remember body checking some bimbo in a Kmart to get mine ❤

[@rosannaanisi4642]

I remember going to consumers distributing to get one with my parents and it felt like hell. It was chaotic like a stampede but I managed to get my orange haired Coleco 1984 girl I still have and love .

[@lankytor6396]

I remember them. In the store near our house they sold knock offs and they smelled like gasoline? Even when I was little, I’d rather have play dough. They weren’t good looking in my opinion. Creepy dolls and rude grownups. It was crazy how adults were so adamant to get these weird looking dolls with phony birth certificates

[@arthurimusprime2177]

Me in 1984-1986: *transformers g1 mode on*

[@Buddycoop1]

I wish my biggest problem in '83 was trying to get a toy for my spoiled brat kid. Such problems these people had. Sad then, sad now.

[@ravenbaa7989]

Im lucky I still have mine. He smells like vanilla over 30 years later plus he belonged to my older brother his name is sam and he came with blue overalls blue checkered shirt and those stripes tennis shoes. I was 6 when I got sam I sleep with him every night. Im over 40 now

[@somecitrus7561]

1:04 Well good thing that little chat wasnt televised or the boss would've really gave it to you hahaaa

[@magvs_mæstro216]

It was crazier than the LA riots

[@americangiant1003]

😂

[@magvs_mæstro216]

@@americangiant1003 never forget est. 1983, t-shirts, out soon

[@americangiant1003]

@@magvs_mæstro216 I was about 11 years during that Christmas Season in 1983. So sorry not into that Cabbage Patch Kids. I wanted video games 🎮 for Christmas.

[@magvs_mæstro216]

@@americangiant1003 lol I hear ya.....pac man shirts it is

[@shannonhall1465]

My sister worked at a Dept Store and was able to score one.

[@HeatherNeese-o5u]

I had the one that you could feed and my long brown hair got caught in it and I had to get a bob haircut because of it😂😂😂😂

[@Aly.knuckles]

Why are the trading post dolls black?

[@SignorinaMia1217]

OMG

[@anthonyfortunato9336]

Ugliest dolls ever! Never understood why they were popular 😅

[@frozenfan1850]

That's exactly what my mom said "people where losing there minds over the ugliest dolls she'd ever scene" 😂

[@lollipopcorndog]

Ikr. I mean, I definitely understand the beanie babies considering how adorable they were.

[@FlowerPetals12]

I blame this video for making me have so many cabbage patch kids vids in my recommended

[@pattiepattie6385]

wow that’s awesome

[@gregggoldstein3449]

Just like real Mom’s and Dad’s pray for a girl and after the ultra sound get a boy instead. Wonder if the toy maker ever thought of helping those Mom’s whose parents could not help them have a cabbage Patch Doll to receive a testube Cabage Patch doll baby from a cabbage Patch Heirloom Seed Bank? Now that the craze is almost forgotten by most, these rare dolls are sold to collectors and possibly some retired doll baby Mothers.

[@Literally_Kyle]

Nope! Why would they help them? Lol they want ur $

[@gregggoldstein3449]

@@Literally_Kyle I doubt most child Mommys understood that part. Now as grown ups they do. The creator of the doll lied to the press how he came up with the original idea when a vender refused to have her dolls mass marketed. Like any great Art Master each hand crafted art piece foundation was geared toward a happy mommy and not profits. I once found a Micro Scope case at a thrift shop that had card board drawers in it falling apart and wondered if it could be converted to a compliment of drawers? Since the micro scope was missing from the case? Some how my Mom and Neice were searching for a wardrobe case for her doll… I showed my Mom the perfect wardrobe case! And got with my neice for her to show me what needs to go into it, have a place for everything for her doll baby. Even room for her doll baby to fit inside. It looked like a Chipendale piece of furniture with hidden drawers and food compartment and extending clothing bracket, nite light. Miniature travel toiletries and a drawer comparment for Q-tips. Hard Wood floor strips, and story book nook with printed tiny hard cover story books. But only one was ever made and her friends went nuts when she brought this wardrobe case to school for “Show & Tell” and her friends pressured her to promise that her uncle would make them one. She let her popularity go to her head desiring me to make her friends one in order to be the most popular girl in school and forgot about where the case came from and the fact that there is only one neice this was hand crafted for even though her friends had cases of their own they could bring me. It was my intention not to make a run to build more. This one is one of a kind as she is one of a kind. Her popularity will not diminish. And she has a family heirloom to pass down now to her own 9 year old daughter who is facinated with it. More than the toys most girls her age do not find the same play value.

[@alison2649]

At the time I had no idea what my poor mother went through because I thought Santa brought them!

[@mflores6903]

I was given one, dought my parent's went through all that.

[@sharker102]

that's soo cool and me too too

[@mikem3789]

Cabbage Patch Dolls!!! 😊😊😊 The history, this was real, it really happened, mania/absolute mania/it was. Sweet nostalgia. Tickle me Elmo wasessentially the same.

[@sharker102s]

i love your comment and love cpk

[@JennyRinehart-h5h]

I got one only because a lady let my mom buy instead of her. I was getting older so it was my last doll.

[@cheeks6310]

Now that's marketing lol. Love the accents but where are the brain cells

[@carlaputnam3171]

I remember this. geez

[@ShowCat1]

My cousin, a grown woman, bought nealry 300 of those stupid dolls with the money she stole from her husbands business. He divorced her.

[@drinkinglotsofsoda]

THAT'S why you don't get married!!😄

[@edgexgamer302]

Came here from DoubleToasted after the current PS5 debacle.

[@RoyalElCapitan]

What is wrong with that generation Dear God.

[@Crazea]

2:18 it says sale price 88.99, that would be 237 dollars in today's money.

[@KYLE1654-v7m]

Nowadays, I see them in goodwills now.

[@CandyCat9462]

0:09 That looks fun throwing the dolls at customers

[@RazorShalom]

My father is still in prison for what he did to a family over my little sisters cabbage patch doll. He accidentally killed a woman. Cabbage patch ruined my sisters life.

[@RichyRichGoldChannel]

I think I am the only one here from the dank memer trivia.

[@garymartin7369]

I actually looked like a cabbage patch doll and "supervisor" would dress me in a jacket made of jellybeans when it was time for me to take the friend dolls away from the playground. Sonetine they would get all squeaka squeak.

[@Literally_Kyle]

Don’t quit ur day job, ur not a comedian

[@MiketheratguyMultimedia]

I've seen dozens of videos of the Cabbage Patch craze featuring people who can't explain why they like them - some even going so far as to call them ugly - yet they still want one anyway. Artificially inflated demand and mass hysteria are dangerous drugs.

[@frankgallacher4799]

jingle all the way 😂

[@chaelodoul9401]

@2:29 best part of this clip is the beautiful brunette. 😳😳😳

[@superboy3229]

Omg! Cabbage Patch Kid is crazy ever than Pokemon and Pop Funko.

[@darkspyofficial]

Black friday in a nutshell

[@shanu3009]

Midnight burger?

[@unclemandragon5670]

Lol yep

[@kellybadea5315]

Parents are NUTS!!! Or I guess we’ll do anything to see our kids face light up! I got two but my mom was not this crazy! She got one when this extreme hype calmed down. I had to wait. It was good for me 👍🏼. I first had a regular and then got a premie later. I loved those dolls!

[@woweric]

the stanley cups of the 80s

[@redblue40rc33]

I remember all the dumb girls in school had those things...us boys use to play keep away and make em cry😅😅😅😅...then there was the he-man and transformer craze.....good times 😊

[@reacting_to_stuff_]

Mind control

[@BeelySalasBlair-uy5wn]

Tell me why we're Twinning 🤣🔦

[@davidpar2]

LOL I watched it on the evening news when it happened. What a bunch of nimrods

[@anngodiva1787]

I never had one, thank God. I never wanted one because they were ugly.

[@analogkid4957]

Yeah I never understood the appeal

[@stratman2348]

Agree

[@jeremymahany83]

This is happening now but it’s with Xbox Xs and PlayStation 5s. I’m the lady in the purple shirt and glasses!