Cabbage Patch Kids set for TV film return

The production company making a live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film for Paramount has bought the screen rights to the pudgy, wrinkled dollies that provoked punch-ups between parents at the height of their popularity in 1983.

Original Appalachian Artworks, which owns the brand rights to the Cabbage Patch Kids, has sold TV rights to Galen Walker, who is said to be developing an animated TV film special. A Christmas special aired on ABC in December 1985 to high ratings; that same month, Newsweek featured the toys on their cover.

The Cabbage Patch Kids were first created in 1978 by Xavier Roberts, before going into mass production four years later, when the original cloth faces were changed to plastic. But their popularity waned in the 90s, despite innovations to the brand, including the Talking Cabbage Patch Kid, which was equipped with a voice chip, touch sensors and an infrared device for communicating with other dolls. When another Kid was detected in the vicinity, the dolls were programmed to say such phrases as "I think there's someone else to play with here", and to initiate simple conversations. The uncanny effects, limited play potential and high price tag were blamed for the innovation's failure.

In Christmas 1996, another high-concept tweak was launched: the Cabbage Patch Kids Snacktime Kids, who were designed to "eat" plastic snacks. Each doll had one-way metal rollers fitted behind rubber lips, which would transport food stuffs into a backpack. The mechanism was triggered simply by any object being placed in the lips, rather than by on-off switch. In January 1997, the line was voluntarily withdrawn by then-owners Mattel following incidents involving children's fingers or hair being gobbled by the dolls.