Under the cabbage leaf: watch your fingers!

I love our mail system sometimes.  This package made it to St. Louis, then got to Cape Girardeau, then got sent back to STL, then got shipped straight to Malden, then got sent back to Sikeston, then BACK TO FRIGGIN' ST. LOUIS before finally making it to Malden on St. Pat's (with one final stopover in Cape Girardeau).  For those unfamiliar with the layout of Missouri, St. Louis is farthest north of the cities listed and is farthest from Malden.  Cape Girardeau is closer (I went to school there), and Sikeston is closer still (a couple'a my doctors are stationed there).  So that trajectory makes ZERO sense, but I finally got my box so it's all good.  Treesa has sent me a Cabbage Patch Kid, one that has been on my wish list for quite some time.  Every so often I update this list, and as of 2024 it was thus.  Red is for the ones I've managed to check off.

*A popcorn:  I own three popcorns now, Idalia Gale, Beryl June, and Rebecca Madeleine.
*A fuzzy red boy:  Any fuzzy boy will do me now.  I think the fuzzy boys are so cute!
*A Tri-Ang Pedigree gaudy yellow:  I'm not betting money on ever finding one of these, but one can still have fun looking, right?  I do have a Tri-Ang that does NOT have gaudy yellow hair; his name is Kitrick Randolph Fergus.
*A Jesmar.  I have two of these, Candela Laura and Joyita Emilia.
*A bean-butt baby:  I own three of these, Esmond Brant, Sandy Eden, and Ingrid Jessica.
*A Snacktime Kid.
*A Twinkle Toes Kid.  Iris Evangeline is my Twinkle Toes Kid.
*An Oriental:  I've since learned that "Oriental" is politically incorrect, so my Asian Kids are Leslie Emily, Margot Madeline, and Sabrina Jane.
*A #30 head.  These are hard to find, but I love a challenge.

Now I can put the Snacktime Kid in red too, because that's what Treesa sent.  Meet Hannah Valerie, y'all!  She weathered the ridiculous journey up and down the Mississippi River, the horrendous weather on March 15th, and the cold on the 16th and 17th, and now she's here!

And a redhead, no less!  I'm very happy to have this young lady in my Patch, as eBay has ZERO listings for a Snacktime Kid at the moment.  Already I love what a ham this poppet is!

Snacktime Kids were made during the Mattel era, and as a result Hannah Valerie is smaller than her Jesmar and Hasbro friends (Joyita Emilia and Rosanna Claire, respectively).  I had yet to put Hannie's hair back at this point, but she doesn't act like she cares.

Jesmar dolls vary widely in size, so maybe comparing Hannie to Alexandria Florida would be better.  Alex and Hannie were delighted to see each other again, by the way; they're both members of the Pennsylvania Club.

Treesa and everyone and their dog knows that I love red hair, and Hannie pairs that with green eyes, a common combo for Cabbage Patch Kids.  These are a lovely, vibrant green, kinda like what I've grown to expect from Mattel Cabbies.

Mattel Cabbies tend to have very pretty eyes...and for that matter, so do Hasbro Kids.

Regarding specs, Hannie and her Snacktime Kid brothers and sisters have their eating mechanism in their head, and as a result these dolls are heavier than your ordinary Cabbie.  If I don't brace Hannie just right, she'll fall over.

No biggie, Geneva is like that too...but Geneva can't break.  Thus I keep Hannie either in my arms or securely on the couch where she can't hit the ground.  Also due to her mechanism (and I didn't even think about this) Hannie's clothes are permanently attached!  This is due to her backpack being permanently attached.

Good thing her clothes are cute!  I did read that that backpack can detach if pulled hard enuff; indeed, it was the only way some parents could get their child's Snacktime Kid to quit (literally) running its mouth!  I don't think Hannie will be biting or chewing on anything since I don't plan on poking crap into her maw, but just the same I keep my hair away from her face.  The stories of little girls being full-tilt scalped by their Snacktime Kids are urban legends, but it's true that some kids DID get their hair caught in their dolls' mouths.  But Hannah Valerie is really cute, regardless of all that.  I had no idea she'd be such a character, but as y'all will see in the coming weeks, she's a spotlight stealer!  I'm gonna tie up her hair too, since she's got thin roots in the back.

BAD NAME ALERT:  Before I move on, I ran into another Cabbie with a rhyming name during one of my eBay binges, an in-box girl named Sabrina Jobina.  Poor Sabrina costs three hundred bucks and doesn't appear to be rare, despite what the seller claims, so I predict she'll be hanging out on eBay for quite some time.  Seriously, the doll is all but a dead ringer for Elisabeth Clara, and Elisabeth has at least four lookalikes on one of my Failbook groups.  Indeed, Elisabeth Clara is a doppelganger herself, of my friend Christa's Sarah Jane.  

Moving on, Hannah Valerie had a reptilian travel buddy, this Build-a-Bear chameleon.

I don't think I've ever said this on the blog, but I freaking love chameleons.  I think their feet are funny; they have toes that act like little grappling hooks that allow them to climb, and my critter has just that.

She reminds me of a pair of Beanie Babies, Iggy the iguana and Rainbow the chameleon.  When Iggy and Rainbow were new in the Beanie circuit their fabric was reversed:  Iggy had the tie-dyed fabric that Rainbow was supposed to have, and Rainbow had Iggy's dark green fabric.  Ty, Inc. eventually corrected the error, but for awhile Rainbow wasn't very rainbow-looking.  As to my chameleon...I need to decide on a name and get back to y'all.  I'm leaning towards "Niji," the Japanese word for "rainbow."

Treesa also included a cute little set, and I love the colors on it!

Treesa advised that this outfit won't fit Niji properly since Niji is a quadruped and the dress is for bipedal Build-a-Bear characters.  She suggested that Summer Daisy wear it, but I think I'll give it to Raina, as Raina does not yet have something just for her.  

Tucked in at the bottom were two sets of patterns.  The first is honest-to-goodness American Girl-branded, and they're versatile little items like skirts, pants, and T-shirts.  With the right fabric these could even be scrubs!

The other pattern set...oh my goodness, look what kind of outfits they are!!!  Dig these, Christa!

Doctor Who for the win, baby!  Again, I'm convinced that Treesa is semi-psychic, because I saw these exact same patterns on Etsy and passed 'em up because I was on a buying fast, and then when I got paid again someone else had bought the patterns!  LOL, anyway, these are sized for American Girls, so now Luciana and Rita Cheryl and River Song can get in on the cosplaying gig...if I ever find my sewing machine, that is.  I like the Dalek dress the best.  By the way...the Doctor Who bunch looks like a group of Journey Girls!  <pauses to look>  Journey Girls and American Girls can share clothes for the most part, so problem solved (I don't own a Journey Girl).

You're the best, Treesa!  These items are right up my alley.  Thank you a bunch for sending these.  Oh, and Treesa said it might be time to give my bucket list a do-over, since I've crossed a lot of them off now.  Here goes.

*I'm keeping a Tri-Ang gaudy yellow on the list, because you never know.  
*I'm also keeping the #30 head on the list, for the same reason.
*I love the exuberant #19 head too.  Sorry, Treesa, that one's got teeth, LOL.
*A Pretty Crimp 'n' Curl.  Treesa sent me one of the pets, and now I want one of the dolls.  Truth be told, I've liked Pretty Crimp 'n' Curl Kids from the word go.  These are easy to find, and I've already got one sized up on Etsy.
*A Tsukuda Kid, because they have butterfly eyes.
*A Lily Ledy Kid, to round the foreign bunch out.  These are the hardest foreign Kids to find, apparently, and they're expensive!!!
*A Teeny Tiny Preemie.  I remember those from childhood and I think they're cute.  Those aren't terribly hard to find.
*Mayyyybe a male Kissin' Kid to be Rowena Skylar's friend, since the boys' hairstyles are so nineties.  They wear rattails and mullets, and I think that's hilarious.  I still say that a well-maintained mullet has its place in the hair world.

If I add any more to my list the house is gonna explode...or Mama is gonna kill me, one or the other.

All my love,
RagingMoon1987

Under the cabbage leaf: snow rose

I don't know how our mail folks managed to deliver our stuff, but I got a bootle of mail today.  The temperature is up to 28 Fahrenheit, which is a heatwave compared to the weekend, and things are melting her and there, but most of Stevenson Street is still covered.  No one on the block can get out of their driveway.  There's not a lot of stuff, but it's slick. 

And yet my mail is here!  Two things I bought for myself and two things that Mama got for me.  If I'd been thinking ahead I could've named this new doll "Snow Rose" or "Crystal Gale," seeing as both Malden, Missouri and Bangor, Pennsylvania (the new girl's origins) got hit by snow and ice.  Indeed, there was a Garbage Pail Kid named Crystal Gale, itself a spoof of country artist Crystal Gayle (LOL).  I ordered this doll on the eve of the big winter storm (January 21st, to be exact), and she's only now getting here.  After some discussion Mama and I chose the name "Rosanna Claire" for this pet.

All I wanna do in the middle of the evening is hold you tight, Rosanna, Rosanna!  LOL, I guess eBay figured out that I like redheads, since this doll popped up as a suggested purchase when I bought Rubia Emilia.  Rosanna is a Hasbro Kid with...guess which head???  Looks like Hasbro's version of the #4 head, particularly since it can take a binky.  If I'm right then that makes my sixth #4 head.  

But I don't see dimples.  #4 heads have two dimples.

Dang, I wish Rosanna had brown eyes!  I only have one Cabbie in the Patch with that combo, pretty Cleopatra Chantale.  No, my mistake, Gillian Ida and Tammi Jane have that combo too!  But the rest of my redheads have either blue or green eyes, including green-eyed Rosanna Claire.  Apparently Coleco didn't do a lot of brown-eyed redheads; Diana's Matrix only lists a few red-haired double popcorns that had brown eyes, so apparently it wasn't a favorite Coleco combo.  Babyland General doesn't have any Kids with that combo either at the moment.  Jesmar DID make brown-eyed redheads, but I digress.  Rosanna has pretty eyes anyway, plus a bumper crop of freckles.

As far as I can remember my only other freckled Kids are Candela Laura and Gary Collier.  Coleco initially didn't freckle a lot of their Kids either, just head #2 in 1983 and head #1 in 1985.

Now back to that head.  As I fumbled around with Rosanna Claire I noticed that she has some kind of bellow in her body, kinda like the one that Baby Needs-a-Name has.  I squeezed Rosanna's bellow and air came out of her mouth, making me wonder if she isn't a Birthday Kid.  If that's the case then mayyyybe that binky shouldn't be jammed in her mouth.  I mean, it fits fine, but...but nothing.  It fits fine.

In addition to Rosanna Claire I got four little outfits.  This first one here is meant for Rubia Emilia, but it's almost as skimpy as Rubia's onesie so I'll set it back for spring.

The other three came from Mama.  I told her that my other Claire, TRU Kid Alexandra Claire, didn't have much to wear, so she came through with these.  I already know that Alexandra looks amazing in green, so this St. Patrick's Day getup will see her through the bulk of March.

These other getups will do nicely for either spring or summer.  The blue one has tiny Little Bo Peep motifs on it.

That should keep me entertained until I can get to work again!  If our driveway is thawed out then that may be as soon as tomorrow.  The rest of y'all stay warm!  This cold is nowhere near over!

Love and marshmallows, 

RagingMoon1987 

Under the cabbage leaf: a tale of two Jesmars

Ring around the sun or moon, rain or snow a'fallin' soon!  I haven't been outside so I don't know if there was a ring around the sun today, and the moon is barely past new so I can't look at that either.  But regardless, the Bootheel and a large part of the country is looking down the barrels of a significant winter storm this weekend.  "Fern" is the name that the Weather Channel has given this storm, and every type of winter precip conceivable is in the cards.  The ice band is well to the south of the Bootheel, but we might get half a foot of snow out of this, plus some sleet.  Right now we're under a watch, nothing more, but I figure that'll change.  I'm praying that we don't get any freezing rain!

In other news, Coworker A is in the hospital and will be for some time.  Monday night she was in excruciating pain and had a high blood pressure, so her family dragged her to the hospital and the hospital found a lot of fluid around her right lung.  There are some other lovely little details that have me ticked off major league, but they'll keep for now.  So between the weather and my friend's illness I've felt pretty jangled lately.

Great time to talk about dolly mail!  I've taken a break from Cabbage Patch Kids recently, but this little charmer won me over with her red hair and her Jesmar self in Jesmar clothes.  This is Rubia Emilia, from Oklahoma City.

Gotta get out of Tornado Alley while you can, chica!  Not that the Bootheel is any safer these days, LOL.  Indeed, the meteorological scuttlebutt is that Tornado Alley is shifting eastward, though Oklahoma still gets plenty of tornadoes!  ANYWAY, Rubia has a lot in common with my other Jesmar, Candela Laura, but she has some obvious differences too.

Ponytail hair, #4 head, Rubia and Candela have that much in common.  They're also both bigger than the average Coleco Kid, though that's kinda hard to show at the moment.  However, the difference in hair color is obvious (blonde vs. red), and when I get in close, note that Rubia is missing something that most Jesmars have:  freckles.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a given that a Jesmar will have freckles, but most of 'em do have 'em, and Jesmar Cabbies that DON'T have 'em are the exception rather than the norm.  They're still great though, spots or not.  Rubia is blue-eyed (Candela Laura has green eyes), and...I'm not absolutely certain, but Rubia may have lighter hair than your average Coleco.  As I've stated in the past the foreign companies experimented with Cabbie hair colors, and one of the colors Jesmar used was a lighter orange.  I wasn't able to compare Candela Laura to a Coleco gold (the gold shades also vary), but I do have a Coleco redhead that I can compare Rubia to.

Valencia Rose is dusty and old, but her hair is still bright, and Rubia Emilia's hair is the same shade as hers so this isn't a new hair color for my collection.  That said, Coleco didn't make redheads with the ponytail hairstyle.  I think I discussed this when Candela Laura joined my Patch, but Coleco ponytails were strictly brunette or auburn.  Candela Laura and Rubia Emilia are obviously NOT brunette or auburn-haired; indeed, their hair colors inspired their names.

Rubia will need a pacifier at some point, as all good #4 and #6 heads do, but that can wait for now.  By the way, I think that makes Rubia my fifth?  No...<pauses to count>...yes, she's my fifth Cabbie with the #4 head (Valencia Rose, Shelley Fred, Candela Laura, and Ernest John are my others).  #4 is my favorite of the early heads, but I didn't mean to have that many!  LOL, whatevs, when it's a Jesmar you take what you can get.

But we're not done yet!  Y'all know how sometimes eBay and Etsy sellers pack little extras in with your purchase?  Well I'd hardly call this a "little" extra!  Rubia Emilia has a little travel companion!

The Baby Name Genie dubbed this doll "Essence Paris."  I think the name stinks, but...well, Mama likes it, LOL.  She likes it better than "Rubia Emilia," which I picked, LOL again.  Names aside, Essence Paris is one of those dolls intended for babies, as her clothes are sewn on and she's ridiculously soft.  She's a little doll, close in size to Cuties (like Sammy Sloth and Shelly Mermaid are).  I don't know what line Essence hails from, but she's welcome now.  As I've said in the past, sometimes I desperately need something soft to hug.  I also appreciate that she's got some hair, but not enuff to tangle.

In addition to that, the seller packed four, count 'em, FOUR little outfits.  Or three and a half, since there's one stray pair of shorts.

I love that little knit set!  It's soft like the ones that Esmond Brant and Matthew Tommie wore when they were new-to-me.  Indeed, I think it may very well be for bean-butts.  I'll try that on Esmond Brant and get back to y'all.  The green getup is for preemies and will look very nice on Malinda Irisa, my green-eyed neon Preemie.  The others are (I think) for full-sized Kids.

So that's my dolly haul, and my weather predicament for the foreseeable future.  It looks to be a very interesting weekend, but as long as the power holds up I'm good.  I may put Rubia Emilia in something warm too, as her bare legs look COLD!!!

Warm wishes,
RagingMoon1987

Under the cabbage leaf: fakies and clones

All popular dolls (and a handful of unpopular ones) end up being copied at some point in their lives.  Some of these "clone" dolls are of great quality, some are so-so, and some aren't so great but have character of their own.  This is true with Barbie, with the Bratz, with the Monster High bunch, with older dolls like Dawn, and with lines that eventually tanked, like La Dee Da.  Today's post is for Cabbage Patch Kids again...or rather, for their clones.  Cabbies were so popular and hard to find during parts of the eighties that there was a healthy market for knockoffs, for homemade lookalikes, and for out-and-out counterfeit dolls.  I have a few of these (since I love clones), and some of them...I gotta admit that some of 'em are every bit as nice as the real thing.  I'll start as close to the beginning as I can and go in some sort of rough order.

DOLL BABY

In a way I guess y'all could say that Doll Baby was here before the Cabbage Patch Kids were.  Most Cabbie fans know the dirty little secret that Xavier Roberts didn't actually invent the Cabbage Patch Kids. Rather, he bought a few Martha Nelson Thomas's handmade Doll Babies and had the idea mass-produced!  Ms. Thomas stopped selling him her dolls when she realized what he was up to, but the damage was done.  The whole story gets messy, but it can be read here.  Ms. Thomas sued and eventually settled out of court, suggesting to me that she likely would've won her case if it had reached its conclusion.  What Mr. Roberts did was backhanded, but in all honesty I can't say that I wouldn't have tried a similar stunt if I were smart enuff (I'd have given her the credit, though, I promise!).  So Mr. Roberts made a killing with his Cabbies and is still a wealthy man today, but Ms. Thomas didn't let her Doll Babies die.  When the Cabbage Patch Kids became super-hot commodities she sold her Doll Babies as kits...for a fraction of the price of a regular Cabbie!  The Doll Baby's face is a little different from that of a brand-name Cabbie, but the resemblance is definitely there.  Note the doll above, with his long nose and one dimple on each cheek, and compare him to Matthew Tommie, who also has a long nose and one dimple on each cheek.

Not all Cabbies look like Matt the Brat does, but y'all get my point.  Since these Doll Babies were assembled from kits I presume that their bodies varied wildly in quality, but I need another doll like this like I need a hole in the head so I can't talk too much about that.  I'm just gonna say that Doll Babies are...sort of Martha Nelson Thomas's way of getting the last laugh.  Indeed, Doll Babies aren't as common as Coleco's Cabbage Patch Kids, but they ARE out there and they're not thunderously hard to find, suggesting that Ms. Thomas had some modest success with the kits.

HOMEMADE DOLLS

Of course one didn't have to buy a Doll Baby kit in order to throw together a handmade Cabbie clone.  Some folks took doll-making classes or just winged it, and I presume that Primrose Jessalyn is one of those.  She is very obviously homemade, presumably from a Pennsylvania resident named Diane A. Weisen.  A Google search turned up ZERO information about Ms. Weisen, so Prim is something pretty special, possibly even a one-of-a-kind thing.  What differentiates her from your regular rag doll is her body shape, and the way her arms and legs are attached to her body.  Her arms stick straight out like a Cabbage Patch Kid's arms do, rather than flopping like Raggedy Ann's.

The big eyes, the big head, and the floppy yarn pigtails also bring a Cabbie to mind.  And yet Prim, like all handmade dolls, has a character and an appearance that's strictly her own.  She fits in okay in my Cabbage Patch, but she's also her own self.  I love that about homemade dolls; they take away with them a piece of their creator and become little individuals themselves.  Of course Prim isn't representative of all homemade Cabbie clones; some are better even than she is and some are worse, but they're all Cabbie clones, meant to be loved.

MY DREAM BABY

Now we're getting into mass-produced territory.  Autumn Leah is a My Dream Baby, and My Dream Baby had...well, she had something to do with a company that utilized the letters B.B., or rather b.b., lowercase.  She's got those letters on her neck.

My Dream Baby was created in Spain, and they have many similarities to Cabbage Patch Kids, namely the chubby faces, yarn hair, and soft, thick bodies.  They also have freckles, I suspect to make them look like Jesmar Kids, who were also produced in Spain and usually have freckles.  However, Autumn Leah has plenty of attributes that Cabbies of the eighties do not.  Her eyes sleep, and as far as I know no Cabbie had that feature back then.

She also has vinyl arms and legs that are molded to look like fabric.  Again, no Cabbie had that in the eighties.

Since Autumn Leah has more vinyl parts she's significantly heavier than a Cabbie, and I thought she'd be bigger than one as well.  But lookie-lookie, Autumn Leah and Kitrick Randolph Fergus are very close in size!

My Dream Baby also came in a smaller size like Preemie Kids, and they're funny because their tufts of hair grow out the side of their head, not the top like a tufted Cabbie.  The first three full-sized Dream Babies I saw had orange pigtails, or bright yellow pigtails, or a deep red ponytail like my doll's.  This reminded me of autumn leaves, hence my doll's name.  After talking to some Failbook friends I also learned that these dolls can have pale blue or light pink hair as well, kinda like cotton candy.  So this is a fun bunch of dolls.  I like how my Autumn has a nice weight, but she's not a tremendous handful like some of my other dolls.  I have to carry Geneva/Real Baby in both arms, for example, but that's not necessary with Autumn.  One drawback is that Autumn is very, VERY top-heavy, a problem that she does share with Geneva.

Clio Teresa and Primrose Jessalyn don't have that issue.  We'll get to Clio Teresa in a bit; she's VERY unique.

THE PUMPKINS

I finally found my Pumpkin!  These dolls are also sometimes called Pumpkin Patch Kids, but their faces and postures remind me more of My Dream Baby.  

The Pumpkins consist of Penny, Patty, and Peggy, and a baby named Li'l Pumpkin.  Penny has a snarky look on her face, while Patty and Peggy look incredibly smug.  My doll has a slightly wider smile, so even though she was labelled "Penny" on her eBay listing, I think she is in fact Peggy.

Regarding size, Peggy has a smaller body than Candela Laura (Jesmar) and Cleopatra Chantale (late Coleco), but her legs are longer.

Overall Peggy feels lower quality than Candela Laura and Cleopatra Chantale.  Her body is lighter, and her vinyl is softer and thinner.  This body is made of fleece, and Peggy has a hole under one arm that needs mending.

She has vinyl hands like Autumn Leah does, but not legs.

Peggy's hair was loose when she arrived and I had to tie it back up.  The yarn is only rooted along the hairline and the part, but when your hair is yarn that kind of root job is more than enuff.

Sometimes I call Peggy my little Papillion, because her pigtails remind me of a papillon's perky ears.  The Pumpkins could have blonde, sandy, red, brunette, or no hair, with my doll's hair being sandy.  I like sandy-haired Cabbies, by the way.  They don't seem to get the love that redheads or lemon blondes do.  

Overall I love these Pumpkins, mainly for their expressions, though Peggy is also soft and has nice hair.  I don't think her body can take a lot of rough treatment like a Cabbie's body can, but if not abused these dolls should hold up okay.  I had a moderately difficult time finding an affordable Pumpkin, by the way, so I wonder how common these are.  

FLOWER KIDS

These are such obvious Cabbie mimics that I'm surprised Xavier Roberts didn't sue.  Ironic, rather, that he stole the idea for Cabbage Patch Kids and then threw a fit over the Garbage Pail Kids.  Anyway, these dolls are sometimes called Blue Box dolls, as Blue Box is the name of their holding company...but not all Blue Box dolls are Flower Kids!  Some of these dolls took things a step further with foreign-themed dolls named International Flower Kids, which are a lot like Coleco's World Travelers.  The dolls mostly represented European countries, with the exceptions being the U.S. and Mexico.  Scotland is my favorite of the International Flower Kids.

POPCORN KIDS

When I dig around on eBay for popcorn Cabbies, I inevitably find at least one Popcorn Kid.  I've seen both Techni-Max and Q-Q Toys listed as the makers of these dolls, and I know absolutely nothing about either company.  These are cute little dolls, though.  They come in black and white, male and female, and like several entries on this list there's not a lot of information and not a lot of dolls available for looking.  The ones I do see for sale are cheap, so I guess there's not a lot of demand for these knockoffs like there kinda is for My Dream Baby and the Pumpkins.  That's too bad, because they're cute.  Now...I can't tell too much since this doll isn't mine, but I can say that these dolls have vinyl hands like My Dream Baby does.  As I said above, no Cabbage Patch Kid before 1990 had that feature that I know of.  The yarn hair, though...most of my Cabbies are yarnies, so Popcorn Kids got that part right.  I don't know a lot about Popcorn Kids since I don't have one and am trying not to buy anything, but I do like their sweet little faces.

KUDDLE LOVE KIDS 

I was unaware of this line until Setsu-P sent me this one back in March/April (it was right at the end of March and the post didn't go up until April).  Like most of these other lookalikes the Kuddle Love Kids have personalities of their own, but it's still obvious who they're imitating.  I don't know the full size range of these dolls, but Clive Elliot here is about the size as my bean-butt Kid, Esmond Brant.  They can share clothes.

Kuddle Love Kids came in both genders and at least two races, some of 'em had fiber hair like the Cornsilk Kids.  Some of 'em are even dressed up as teddy bears, like so.

I don't think the head mold varied much though; all of the dolls I've seen look like Clive Elliot does.

Eye colors varied, but they all had the same angled, slightly soulful shape.  Would these classify as kaleidoscope eyes?

If so, I've got Clive Elliot with his kaleidoscope eyes, Emily with her eclipse eyes, and Bopsy with her poison eyes.

Tangent for music fans:  who did "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" better, the Beatles or Sir Elton John?  Cast your votes.  For me it's hard to beat the original, but Sir Elt's version is trippier.

RICE PADDY BABIES

Then there's the controversial ones.  I usually love a controversial doll, but I'd forgotten about the Rice Paddy Babies until Treesa reminded me.  Rice Paddy Babies were based out of Hong Kong in the final years before Hong Kong became part of China, and instead of adoption papers they have passports with a specific date:  1997.  March 1st, 1997 was the date that the British handed Hong Kong over to China, and the dolls' passports reflect the concerns of some citizens about that.  Immigration fees for the dolls were STEEP, at $199.70 in 1997 dollars; as of writing that would equal about $395.26.  For comparison 1997 the Cabbage Patch Kids were still going for about twenty-five to thirty bucks (fifty to sixty bucks today).  Despite the price tag and the racial aspect, the Rice Paddy Babies proved to be a boom for Hong Kong's toy industry.  While the Reddit thread I found discussing these dismissed the Rice Paddy Babies as racist, folks who owned them as kids seem to have fond memories of the dolls, and from what I can tell the names are authentic.  Not like THESE names.  The example that I've found above does have eyes like those of my Asian Cabbies, so the resemblance is there...

...but some of these dolls also look like the puppets on The Puzzle Place.  So their resemblance to Cabbage Patch Kids is hit-and-miss, but the overall idea is highly similar, as is the name of the line.

THE BOOTLEG

Now we go from controversial to downright illegal...illegal to make and sell, I think.  As far as I know it's safe to own this doll without the authorities banging on your door.  The full saga of my bootleg Cabbie is related here, but in a nutshell, Clio Teresa was made by Greek toy company El Greco, and she is...well, she's exactly what I called her!  She's an illegal copy of a Cabbage Patch Kid, and since a lot of these copies were hunted down and destroyed shortly after production there aren't a lot of them around now.  Clio has some issues with quality, namely mismatched vinyl pieces and eyes that aren't painted straight, but the weirdest thing about her is that she burns one's skin when her fabric gets wet.  I learned that the hard way, LOL.  I wasn't seriously burned, but I'm glad I learned that before I tossed her in the washing machine, the way I usually treat Cabbies that are very groady.  This ability to burn skin has earned Clio Teresa the nicknames "Toxic Dolly" and "Poison Priscilla."

The thing is, I've read stories about bootleg Cabbage Patch Kids pulling such shenanigans, but the dolls in question looked exactly like the real thing.  Clio Teresa kinda looks like the real thing, but she's got enuff differences for one to be able to tell she's a fake.  Her body is all an unnatural color (yellow), she's got vinyl hands (eighties Cabbies do not), and her hair is pink (eighties Cabbies don't have pink hair unless they've been customized).  Here's how Clio Teresa visually compares to the real thing.

Clio is also lightweight, even more so than Elisabeth Clara is (Elisabeth is small for a Cabbie), and her face, a clear copy of Coleco's #1 head, has freckles.  The #1 head only has freckles if its a Jesmar doll or if it's a custom job.

Since Clio was produced in Greece I figure that she is indeed an imitation of a Jesmar.  For all of her hiccups in production and the slight hazard in owning her, Clio Teresa has her own charm and charisma, and is very loved.  And very unique; I said this in November of '24 but I'll say it again:  I've yet to find a Cabbie clone even remotely like her.  I won't say that Clio Teresa is necessarily one-of-a-kind, but I'd have to look a long, long time before I could find another one like her.  I daresay that she's one of my few dolls that's irreplaceable, thus why she was the one I carried during the tornado scare in March.  

?????????

Tabitha Renee here is a woman of mystery, even more so than Clio Teresa is.  She bears similarities to My Dream Baby and to the Pumpkins, but she's not either one of them.  

The Etsy seller says she's similar to Magic Ice Cream Dolls, but Magic Ice Cream Dolls look like little clowns.  Cute, mind y'all, but not like Tabitha Renee.  Tabby has pink hair like Clio Teresa does, and her hands are vinyl like Clio's, but Tabby isn't a bootleg either as far as I know.

Her neck is marked "Ocean Toys," but that information was no help.  By the way, I think I've finally found a doll that's paler than I am.  

I don't know if Tabby is faded or if she was always this pale, but she looks like she's got tuberculosis or some other illness that causes pallor.  She's paler than my fairest Cabbie, who happens to be Elisabeth Clara.  I suspect that Elisabeth Clara is one of those who turned greenish with age.

She's also a small doll, smaller than Elisabeth Clara and about the size of my Splash 'n' Tan Kid, Gillian Ida.

I find it interesting that of all the dolls listed here, the only holding company I'm familiar with is Coleco, the one that did the real things.  The others are companies that I've never heard of and/or could find little information.  Also, with the possible exception of Kuddle Love Kids, none of these appear to have sold well, because pickin's on eBay and Etsy are pretty slim.  Too bad too, because dolls like Clio Teresa and Tabitha Renee have their own special character, just like the brand-name Cabbies do.  So to my Cabbie fans out there, what say you about clones?  Do you have any of your own?  Do you know of any that I forgot?  Discuss.

Cabbage blossoms,
RagingMoon1987