If you ever owned a Cabbage Patch Kids doll (and if you were alive in the '80s, you almost certainly did), you might remember the signature scrawled on each doll's tush. The name was Xavier Roberts, the man heralded for creating the iconic plush babies, with their distinctive friendly faces and pillowy bodies.
Unfortunately, there's a dirty secret behind Roberts' gangbusters idea, reports Vice in a new mini documentary on the history of the dolls: Roberts didn't come up with it. He copied the concept (eventually making him millions) from American folk artist Martha Nelson Thomas.
In art school in the '70s, Thomas experimented with soft sculpture, and was "flat-out reinventing the doll," her friend photographer Guy Mendes told Vice. She called them Doll Babies, and sold her handmade styles at craft fairs, where people could "adopt" the one-of-a-kind creatures.
Sound familiar? Roberts, who at one time bought Doll Babies from Thomas for his gift shop, marketed his Cabbage Patch Kids with a similar angle. You didn't simply buy them; you adopted them as your own. They even came with a special certificate.
Eventually, Thomas sued Roberts, and they settled out of court. How much money she was awarded was never disclosed, but her family says it was never really about the money for her anyway.
"It was really valuable to Martha that she was presenting a work of her hands to somebody else," her husband Tucker Thomas told Vice. "That's the way she connected with people."
Here are some photos of Martha's original dolls (they even had a place of honor at her funeral in 2013). Though their past has an unfortunate stain, the craftsmanship and the love put into each piece is, of course, still worth admiring. Be sure to watch the interesting documentary for the full report.
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• The Charming Evolution of Toy Kitchens
• An Australian Woman Is Giving Bratz Dolls Serious Makeunders
• A Look Back at Barbie's Dreamhouse
