Original subtitles

(soft music)

- Martha nelson thomas was a folk artist in the 1970s.

- She was on a mission by the time I met her.

- She wanted to create dolls

That really touched and impacted people.

- Because it's all handmade,

There are different irregularities,

Different imperfections.

They don't look like every other doll in the marketplace.

- She wasn't interested in mass produced anything.

She wanted that one of a kind.

- I know you think it's weird,

But it's not supposed to be perfect.

It's supposed to be like a real baby.

Unique.

(dramatic music)

- [narrator] martha nelson has no idea

That her counterculture dolls

Will one day trigger a toy craze

Unlike anything the world has ever seen.

(people shouting)

- I've never been this frightened in my life.

- [narrator] over 130 million cabbage patch kids

Will be created, pulling in over a billion dollars annually

In today's money.

But in 1971, martha nelson is just a folk art student

With a passion.

- I think you're perfect.

- [narrator] her creation will remain in obscurity

Until an entrepreneurial young gift shop manager

Strikes a deal that will lead to broken dreams.

- This was outright theft.

- [narrator] an epic legal battle.

- I'd like to speak to a lawyer.

- [narrator] and competitors looking to cash in.

- The blast needs to be coming out of his head.

- [narrator] all for a doll

That will transform the toy industry...

(dramatic music)

With billions hanging in the balance.

(soft music)

- Martha nelson was your consummate artist.

She was a woman, I believe, that led from her heart.

- After she graduated from art school,

She became a sculptor as a profession,

Specifically soft sculpture.

(sewing machine buzzing)

- Soft sculpture has been thought to have originated

In germany in the 1800's

And it was brought to north america by german immigrants.

- With soft sculpture,

You're using needle and thread

To make identifying characteristics.

- She stitched fabric together in a way

That created a sculpture and it really was a piece of art.

- [narrator] martha nelson uses the technique

To create a new kind of doll.

- [romi] in the 60s and 70s, dolls were mass produced,

Primarily made of plastic.

- Here was something as innocent and as pure

As a child's doll that was being made

With these artificial, manufactured,

Highly impersonal materials.

That's what martha nelson

And the folk art movement were responding to.

- The folk art movement is an effort

To go back to craft work.

It's a rejection of mass production of plastics

And it's a return to what's more organic.

- I got to know martha right when she was starting

To create these dolls.

And she experimented, she worked at it.

She's gone in with a needle and pretty tough thread

To get those features.

- She'd do the little half moon stitch,

But it created a big overbite.

The ears, how she worked those in.

- What she really wanted was something

That was cuddly, that was warm,

That was soft to the touch, that had expression.

- She called them doll babies.

She was really a pioneer and she created a new kind of doll

That people hadn't seen before.

- [narrator] and there's another innovation

That sets martha's doll babies apart.

- Her real genius was the adoption principle.

Each style that you bought from her,

You got adoption papers and they were doll babies

And you were adopting them.

- [stephanie] she named each baby and would write down

Their likes and dislikes on a card or a piece of paper.

She saw that as an integral part of her initial design.

(soft orchestral music)

- [narrator] martha starts displaying her dolls

At craft fairs around louisville, kentucky.

- [martha] hello here.

- She chose the life of an artist,

Which many people know does not come with tons of cash.

- She needed to make a living.

Lots of times artists will go along

And they'll make wonderful things, but they might not sell.

- [narrator] but martha's doll babies

Strike a cord in the local market.

- [martha] they're all handmade.

- The connection was almost instantaneous

Because of the way they looked.

- I don't know what it is.

I'm guilty of it, too.

You see one, you want to hold it.

- [martha] you like that one? Oh, great.

- She had found something that people

Were responding to and wanted.

These were selling.

- [martha] oh, don't forget these.

They're the adoption papers.

- One day a man named xavier roberts

Is at the craft fair and he sees these dolls.

- Hello. - How's it going?

So, these are pretty cool.

- Xavier roberts is from cleveland, georgia.

His mom worked at a textile factory

And she taught him how to quilt.

- So what were these papers here?

- [martha] these are adoption papers.

- May I? - Of course.

How very cool.

- [narrator] but 21 year old xavier has big aspirations.

- Xavier roberts always had a dream

Of being like a walt disney type of figure,

Creating these magical worlds that was deeply immersive.

He plays up this down home, cleveland, georgia,

Aw shucks type of persona, but he's also really savvy.

- [narrator] and xavier sees an opportunity.

- He worked at the gift shop at the unicoi state park.

So xavier roberts sees martha nelson's dolls,

Realizes that they would have tremendous appeal.

- And he convinced her to let him sell some of her dolls.

- Martha nelson thomas and xavier roberts

Had an understanding that he was buying her doll babies

And bringing them to cleveland, georgia

To introduce to a wider audience.

It was more like a handshake deal and an understanding.

- Let me just...

So they're more comfortable.

- Martha didn't want to part with these babies,

But it was her chosen vocation.

- She believed that they were

Kind of like living human babies.

They had a name, they had a backstory.

- I do believe it was martha's little soul

That she wrapped up in every one of those dolls.

- [narrator] xavier puts martha's dolls

Up for sale at his gift shop.

- He sees that they sell like wildfire,

So he wants to continue selling more of them,

So much so that he invites martha to sell her goods

At the unicoi state park craft fair.

The problem is this, martha goes to the gift shop

And sees that xavier roberts is selling her dolls

For cheaper than she is.

He's undercutting her, selling her own product

At the venue he invited her to.

(soft tense music)

- What's wrong?

- Why would you invite me here

If you're just gonna undersell me in the gift shop?

- The lower the price, the more we move.

- She felt like the purpose of her art

Was being kind of bastardized

And he took it to a level that she was not comfortable with.

- He was a businessman and martha was a craftsperson,

And that's the difference.

- I'm sorry, xavier. This just isn't working out.

- So this handshake agreement

Turns to daggers in the back very quickly.

- She sent him via letter her version

Of like a cease and desist

And xavier roberts then wrote her a letter in reply.

- [xavier] dear ms. Nelson.

We never agreed on a set price.

We will definitely be carrying your type of dolls,

Either made by you or by someone else.

- And that actually was the last martha

Had heard from him for a while.

(soft tense music)

- So like this.

A pinch there. - Okay.

- It's gonna be a single thread.

- Xavier roberts was at one point an art student himself,

And he was very interested in soft sculpture.

So he had the background to take what she had created,

Study it and tweak it just enough

To create, in his mind, a different product.

- He basically dissected the baby dolls

And started making them.

So they used her pattern, her idea, the whole thing.

(dramatic music)

- He's now found the product

That he feels will make him rich,

Bring him one step closer to disney-like status.

There's nothing stopping him.

- [narrator] xavier gives his dolls a new name,

Calling them little people.

And he makes one more change.

(dramatic music)

- In those days, you are required to put

A copyright notice on an artistic work.

You've all seen it, the c with the circle around it.

- Xavier roberts signed every doll

As if they were, you know, a piece of art.

- Xavier is taking credit for all of this.

(tense music)

(soft music) (birds chirping)

- [narrator] by 1979, martha nelson makes a modest living

Selling her doll babies.

- She was doing what she loved

With a product that she believed in,

And she happened to make a little money off of it.

- [customer] my sister just loves your dolls.

- Thank you.

- [customer] these are much cheaper than the ones

You're selling at the airport.

- I don't sell my doll babies at the airport.

(tense music)

- And that's how she found out that xavier roberts

Had essentially created a new version of her doll.

- When she found out that someone else

Was making her dolls and selling them,

It was devastating.

- Xavier roberts took martha nelson thomas's design,

Tweaked it a little bit and started selling

What he called little people.

- The shape of the nostrils is a little bit different.

Every little people has a navel, a belly button.

Not all of martha's did.

So there were differences.

(tense music)

- [narrator] but despite the changes, to consumers,

The dolls are nearly identical.

- He had managed to recreate them to the point

Where it was almost impossible to tell who had made them.

- The marketing concept was the same.

- Each doll came with a birth certificate.

Each doll came with adoption papers.

- He planted his flag on that

And I think that was part of the brilliance.

It started with martha, for sure,

But he really took it to the next level.

- He's claiming on the birth certificates

And the adoption papers that he's the father

Of all little people.

- [narrator] they're now selling throughout georgia,

Far surpassing martha's business.

But xavier wants more.

- He really wants to create a walt disney-esque empire.

Xavier roberts realizes to really create

An immersive world, his toys have to have a story.

There's a southern fairytale bit of folklore

That babies come from cabbage patches.

- So these dolls sort of grew out of the ground,

Which really added a layer to the story

That was sort of fantastical.

- [narrator] xavier has his concept,

Now he needs his attraction.

- He found this abandoned doctor's clinic

In cleveland, georgia, and then he got the idea

To refurbish it.

- He creates babyland general,

Which is the birthplace of his baby dolls.

It's just the most bizarre thing ever.

Like, oh, okay, mr. Roberts,

What color is the sky on your planet?

- Babyland general hospital would be a place where people,

Not just children, but adults too,

Could go and buy these little people, these dolls.

- [narrator] but xavier doesn't have the startup capital.

- He has to go to banks and tell them

He wants to build a hospital where baby dolls

Are born out of cabbages.

It's bizarre, but he commits to it fully.

- [narrator] xavier gets his loan

And puts everything he has into his new tourist attraction.

- He's using his car as collateral.

He's basically broke.

- And when you are so personally invested

And your product doesn't succeed,

It could be financially devastating.

- Could be completely genius or completely nuts.

- [narrator] in the fall of 1978,

Babyland general opens to the public.

- And nurse leslie, if you'd like to come over

When you're ready and we'll take care of the incubators.

We have some prospective parents there already,

So they'd love to see the babies while you're doing that.

- From a mainstream shopping perspective,

The babyland general hospital is completely unconventional,

And dare I say, totally bananas.

No one had ever done anything like this before.

- [xavier] nurse kate, make sure that they're all facing

Our prospective parents.

Exactly like that.

- You don't go there to buy a doll,

You go to babyland general to adopt a baby.

- So this is the one is available for adoption.

And make sure that when you do so,

You don't forget his adoption papers.

- You went, you spent some time in the nursery.

You see all of these dolls slowly materializing.

- There weren't necessarily staff,

There were people dressed up as nurses.

- The cabbages themselves

Are injected with a imagicilin,

Such that the leaves will dilate and reveal the baby within.

- [narrator] in less than a year,

Babyland grows from a handful of xavier's friends

To a staff of 56 doctors and nurses.

- People are rabid for it.

It is a huge tourist draw

And people are buying lock, stock, and barrel

Into this fiction.

- So this little guy is gonna grow up to be a fireman.

He could be yours to adopt.

- Xavier really took martha nelson thomas's idea,

But added a space and a mythology around it

That really resonated with that region.

- I think he was just a genius when it came to marketing.

When people went home, they didn't just go home with a toy,

They went home with a toy and a story to tell.

- Make sure you pick up the papers as well.

You can sign them and make your pledge as the new parent

Of one of our wonderful little people.

- Essentially it's the same dolls martha nelson was making,

But sold in a whole new way.

(dramatic music)

- [narrator] but as his little people

Become a regional phenomenon,

His past is about to come back to haunt him.

- Martha did not want to get legal representation,

But friends and family had told her,

"your integrity is being challenged."

- Enough of her friends rallied around

And enough people said, "martha, we gotta stop this guy."

(dramatic music)

- Hello?

I'm martha nelson.

I'd like to talk to a lawyer. (dramatic music)

- [narrator] at 26 years old,

Xavier roberts has turned his one of a kind

Little people dolls into a regional phenomenon.

- Xavier roberts was revolutionary when he came up

With the idea for babyland general.

This vision that he had to do this was incredible.

A man before his time.

- But being a very big success in georgia

Is not enough for xavier roberts.

He realizes that he has something with mass appeal,

But mass production takes someone

With marketing experience

And he finds that in an atlanta marketing executive

Named roger schlaifer.

- I thought, gee, there's something really magical.

It's unmistakably different.

I decided to go up and meet xavier

And see if I could do their advertising.

(tense music)

- He helped create the logo

And he suggested that the brand

Doubled down on the mythology.

- Schlaifer says, "we need a name change.

Little people just isn't unique enough."

Schlaifer has seen how xavier roberts

Inside the hospital has these dolls

Being born from cabbages.

So he says, "why don't we call them cabbage patch kids?"

- [narrator] xavier is finally ready to bring his dolls

To the masses, but there's a problem.

- The idea of mass production went against the grain

Of what cabbage patch was supposed to be.

- It is their uniqueness that makes them so desirable.

But how do you do that in a mass produced toy?

- [narrator] and he has an even bigger issue

That isn't going away.

- Martha nelson thomas filed her lawsuit

Against xavier roberts and his company.

- Somebody mentioned legal aid

And that's how she found jack.

- When I first met martha, she said,

"I really don't want to get involved in a lawsuit."

- She simply wanted an acknowledgement

That his inspiration came from her idea.

- [narrator] while xavier prepares

To fight off the lawsuit,

Schlaifer searches for a manufacturer.

- Then I got a call from the marketing vp

At coleco, who I'd never heard of.

- Coleco was primarily a manufacturer

In video game consoles,

But the video game console bubble had burst.

Now, they were exploring other opportunities

To invest in different toy products.

- The marketing vp at coleco says,

"we wanna do a deal with you."

- [adam] but coleco realizes it's impossible

To soft stitch each individual face.

- Everyone was different and that was the challenge.

- So they decide that they're gonna make

The faces hard, out of vinyl.

- [narrator] vinyl allows coleco

To use variable molds on the assembly line.

- They go, we'll do six molds to start,

Change the eye colors, the hair colors,

The hair styles, the skin tones.

- [sheldon] blue eyes, brown eyes, hazel eyes.

- You have rotational molds for the head.

You've got a dozen sources, at least,

For different clothes from different factories.

- There was a matrix of permutations

And combinations where you could basically make

Every doll totally different.

- Xavier robert dolls can still keep their individuality,

But can now be mass produced

And sold all across the united states.

- The day that the samples were delivered,

Tell you, the nervousness,

You could have sliced it with a butter knife.

- He was scared. I don't blame him.

He didn't want anything to compromise

Or interfere with what he had already established.

- It's perfect.

- [narrator] coleco puts in an order

For two million cabbage patch kids

At their factory in hong kong,

But no one knows if xavier's success with traditional dolls

Will scale up in a technology-crazed toy industry.

- Here is xavier roberts making dolls

That didn't do anything.

They didn't have batteries, they didn't move,

They didn't have sound.

And that's a huge risk.

- If you looked at it, they were not attractive.

They were totally different

From any of the other popular dolls.

- The words that people used

To describe these dolls were homely, grotesque,

But still some part of you felt sorry for them

And wanted to rescue them.

That was martha nelson thomas's idea.

But what started as a very, very intimate product

Became mass produced.

- [narrator] and now martha is at his heels.

- Her lawyer, jack wheat, tries to say to the court

That xavier roberts had misled the copyright office,

But the court rules that his copyright is valid.

And the first round of the court battle

Goes to xavier roberts and team cabbage patch kids.

- [narrator] but martha and her lawyers

Build their case for a second trial.

- The main issues are the ones

That are scheduled for the next trial.

Was it false advertising?

Was he taking credit for more than what he did?

- Xavier moves ahead anyway,

Releasing his newly designed

Cabbage patch kids to the nation.

- He had a lot riding on this.

- Would cabbage patch kids fail?

Could they ever be the toy

That xavier roberts dreamed that they could be?

- What if it didn't work?

Is this the end of babyland general?

(soft tense music)

- [narrator] xavier roberts has put his trust

In the toy company coleco.

Together they've released

Two million cabbage patch kids nationwide.

- Xavier had no idea how successful this was gonna be.

Coleco's sales force got the dolls distributed

And basically it was a mad rush for them.

Boys wanted it, girls wanted it, adults wanted it.

Nobody has ever seen demand

Of that nature for anything, including barbie.

- Martha nelson may have created adorable dolls,

But she was not the marketing genius

That xavier roberts was.

- We didn't know we wanted a doll that was unique

'cause we'd never had that option before.

But once you saw it, you had to have that doll.

- Quite frankly, they were ugly.

But here's this doll that kids could relate to

And they could nurture and identify with.

- There's actually been psychological studies

Around this phenomenon.

The uglier something gets,

The kind of like emotional response that that triggers

In our brain to kind of flip it

Into something cute that needs rescuing.

- They are intentionally made to capture

Some of that human imperfection.

So it really allowed the child

To feel something like a hero.

- It was a great feeling of joy

That we accomplished something.

There is no limit. The sky's the limit.

- [narrator] but as the holiday season approaches,

There's a problem.

- Toys is a cyclical business.

Obviously our demand picks up around christmas,

So you wanna make sure you have

The right inventory available,

That your factory has capacity.

- Coleco put out what they felt

Was a adequate number of units in 1983.

The public decided that was not enough for them.

Stores were running out in a matter of hours,

If not minutes. (tense music)

- Yeah?

Well, how many units can we send?

How many, how many can we send out?

- [narrator] coleco has their manufacturing plants

In hong kong working night and day to restock the shelves.

- And they started producing 200,000 dolls a week,

Air freighting it to the united states

And getting it on shelves.

- Anyone that works in marketing knows scarcity sells.

- I guess 'cause everybody else wants one,

It's a challenge to see if you can get it.

- Part of the appeal was they're hard to get.

- This was completely by accident.

Coleco actually didn't see this coming.

- [narrator] when the holiday season arrives,

It's unlike anything the toy industry has ever seen.

- 1983 toy craze was pure chaos.

- Oh my gosh, people were lining up outside the store,

Around the block just to get a ticket.

Just to get a ticket to hopefully be able

To buy a cabbage patch.

- I can vividly remember police barricades.

I remember seeing news stories about people fighting.

- It's actually the first major real toy news

That you see about people fighting,

Trying to get the toys.

- Hold it! Hold it!

Hold it!

- I've never been this frightened in my life.

- This was this toy that was supposed

To be about sweetness and light and love and joy.

None of that was present in the toy store.

- I remember watching the news and said to my wife,

"I hope they don't come and kill me."

- It's crazy in there, yeah.

They trampled everybody.

- At the end of the day,

There was an enormous amount of money

That was generated for xavier.

- [narrator] at 26 years old,

Xavier is worth nearly $150 million in today's money.

- Boy, he rode that wave.

He took a full advantage of it and rode with it.

- I've always thought of this as entertainment,

Kinda like going to the movies, but more personal.

I've never considered myself a doll maker.

I consider myself a sculptor.

- While the lawsuit was pending,

Martha's first child was born.

That changed her perspective.

She said, "I just want to get away from it all

And raise my babies." (soft tense music)

- [narrator] but her lawyer has a breakthrough.

- By the time we got to trial for the second issue,

The cabbage patch craze had hit.

People come in my office daily and say,

"is that a cabbage patch knockoff?"

People are thinking that martha's doll babies

Are copies of cabbage patch.

That's called reverse confusion

And it's a classic trademark infringement.

- [narrator] after christmas 1983,

Cabbage patch only continues to grow in popularity.

- Sales were astronomical in 1984 and 1985.

- Over $2 billion in retail.

- I used to wake up in the middle of the night

Pinching myself, could this be real?

- [narrator] but xavier isn't satisfied.

- Cabbage patch kids saw an opportunity

To license their brand and the logo

And it kind of just ballooned from there.

- We had vitamins, real vitamins.

Blankets, sleepers, licensing and merchandising

Is really what was the center of all of this.

- [narrator] xavier agrees to over 2000 licensing deals.

Now, companies everywhere want in.

- Art spiegelman worked in the creative side of topps,

Which was traditionally a baseball trading card company.

- Then in the 1960s, topps decided to diversify

And they decided to essentially cash in

On american popular culture by licensing characters

From different movies and television shows.

- Art spiegelman saw the immense popularity

Around cabbage patch kids and knew that there

Was some potential there.

- Hi, yeah. Get me xavier roberts.

- When art spiegelman pitched his idea

For a cabbage patch kid's card line,

Xavier roberts rejected the idea as too low brow.

- And they were rejected and they figured

If I can't have what's best, they'll have what's next best.

- Each individual product that comes into the marketplace

Inspires its equal and opposite reaction

For better or for worse,

And in the case of xavier roberts and garbage pail kids?

Way worse. (tense music)

(soft tense music)

- [narrator] by 1985, xavier roberts's cabbage patch kids

Are a household name.

But he has no idea that his sweet, wholesome doll

Is about to get a grotesque makeover.

- The blast needs to be coming out of his head.

- This ideal of innocence and purity

That's so central to the cabbage patch kid brand,

It becomes a perfect target for the folks at topps.

(soft tense music)

- [narrator] as art spiegelman starts drafting

His new line of subversive trading cards,

Martha and xavier go head to head in court.

- Xavier roberts and his team try

To have the reverse confusion case dismissed.

- [narrator] but martha has an ace up her sleeve.

- She has a physical letter, the letter says it.

"I'll be selling them whether you make them or not."

- That's what we call the smoking gun exhibit in law.

- After six years of legal battles,

Xavier is backed into a corner.

- Xavier roberts and team cabbage patch kid

Settled with martha nelson out of court

For an undisclosed sum and the battle is over.

- Xavier roberts' lawyer actually came out

And acknowledged that the inspiration

For cabbage patch kids

Came from martha nelson thomas, the artist.

- I know they were able to buy a great, big house.

The kids did get to go to college.

And I think she made peace with it because she had to.

She had to move on.

- [narrator] but for roberts,

Another battle is about to begin.

Art spiegelman puts the finishing touches

On his unauthorized parody trading card series,

Turning cabbage patch kids into garbage pail kids.

- So garbage pail kids were actually stickers.

- The image looked almost identical to cabbage patch kids.

Chubby cheeks, small eyes, no chin.

- But as much as cabbage patch kids were sweet

And precious and endearing,

Garbage pail kids were disturbing

And graphic and gory and gross.

- You have to see these cards.

They were grotesque.

I can't, I can't, I can't emphasize enough.

- [narrator] in may of 1985,

Topps releases garbage pail kids to the nation

And the subversive cards take america by storm.

Lines reminiscent of the cabbage patch craze

Are forming outside card shops and candy stores.

- We had no idea that we would become

As successful as we did.

It was clear that, you know, kids were responding.

- I'd like two garbage pail kids.

- Each garbage pail kid had a different name

And it was always really awesome

To find the garbage pail kid with your name,

And mine was the very first one, adam bomb,

And he's pressing the button

And the top of his head is exploding into a mushroom cloud.

(soft tense music)

- And we start seeing all this news about garbage pail kids

And we try to get xavier and company

To stop them, to protect the brand.

- [xavier] I don't care if they're not making actual dolls.

The image is out there.

- The nerve of this guy to be offended

When someone creates a product off of his product,

When his product was created off

Of someone else's product in the first place.

- One day I walked into the office

And all of my files relating

To garbage pail kids were just gone.

That's when we knew that there

Was an actual lawsuit going on.

We didn't know how this was gonna play out at all.

- [narrator] in 1985, it's the height

Of the cabbage patch craze,

But a subversive parody

Is stealing more and more attention.

Topps makes over $70 million

On garbage pail kids in their first year.

- Part of the success of garbage pail kids

Was that they looked like cabbage patch kids.

- They wouldn't have had the appeal that they did

If it weren't for the fact that they were riffing off

Of this already very popular idea.

- [narrator] but xavier roberts doesn't want someone

Profiting off the brand he's created.

- Xavier sued the garbage pail kids

For copying the cabbage patch kids.

How ironic.

- Roberts recognized that garbage pail kids

Are a threat to cabbage patch kids, for two reasons.

Number one, they undermined the narrative

Of cabbage patch kids

And number two, in mocking that narrative,

They'll undermine their fundamental

Market for the dolls.

- [narrator] in early 1987, the lawsuit takes a turn.

- There were documents within topps

Of employees sending notes saying things like,

"make them look more like cabbage patch kids."

- This is a creation that basically owes

Its very existence and all of its marketing power

To its connection to the cabbage patch kids.

- [stephanie] the judge ruled in favor of xavier roberts.

- They collected substantial fee,

A percentage of the 70 million in sales.

- They had to, from that point on,

Change the design of the garbage pail kids

To not resemble cabbage patch kids anymore.

- We thought, well, this is the end.

There won't be anymore,

But we squeezed out another five or six series after that.

- [narrator] but despite xavier's latest legal victory,

He has another problem, right under his nose.

- Coleco had some financial troubles.

It had invested in a couple of other brands

And toys that didn't pan out.

- Coleco came out with adam,

The first personal computer at a reasonable price.

The only problem was it just didn't work.

And they poured so much money and time and effort into it.

They had to overproduce cabbage patch kids

To bring in the money they needed to feed the adam monster.

- But their sales are slowing down

Because the market's saturated.

That's what happens with a finite product.

- 'cause when you're riding the wave of a craze,

A fandomonium craze, you have to know when to get off.

- Coleco had ended up filing for bankruptcy

In the late 1980s, and at that point,

Cabbage patch kids was sold to hasbro.

- [narrator] with cabbage patch on the decline,

Xavier roberts steps back from the spotlight,

But continues to draw licensing fees.

- Cabbage patch kids are still being sold today,

But of course on a much smaller production run.

- Roberts still owns and operates

Babyland general hospital in cleveland, georgia,

But he seldom makes public appearances.

- Xavier roberts was a brilliant marketer,

And I think he wanted to bring to the masses

A unique product with a unique story.

- And the truth is, a home spun soft sculpted doll

That's inspired by the folk art movement

Would never reach my home in brooklyn, new york

If other business people hadn't gotten involved.

You need that artistic side

And you need that ruthless business side as well.

Xavier roberts possessed both.

- For all the commercialism,

There was this heartfelt connection.

- The legacy of cabbage patch kids

Is complete and utter fandomonium.

- Today, companies actually want to create

The craze of people running through doors

And grabbing items that cabbage patch kids did accidentally.

That became the black Friday phenomenon that we know today.

- Cabbage patch dolls having black and brown dolls

In the 80s, there are no words to express

How much that meant.

The fact that they existed,

That meant that those brown and black children were seen

And they were heard and they were validated

Because you too could have a cabbage patch

That looked like you.

- Unfortunately, martha passed away way too young.

I think she was 63 back in about 2013.

And lots of martha's friends and supporters

Brought their doll babies to the funeral

And the front pew was stuffed with 'em.

- Martha wouldn't want us to be angry

Or upset or sad for her because life's just too short.

The whole cabbage patch thing did come out

Of xavier's own imagination,

But the point is, he wouldn't have had cabbage patch

If it hadn't been for martha.

It wouldn't be.