Cabbage Patch Kids, still marketed today, became a growing fad in the early 1980s. The product itself was actually invented in the 1970s by Xavier Roberts, and was originally named Little People. It wasn’t until 1982 when the name “Cabbage Patch Kids” came into existence.

The name “Cabbage Patch Kids,” according to Roberts, is said to have come from a mother’s answer to where babies come from — the cabbage patch. (If you’re a parent and you’re reading this, I bet you are thinking about how you’ve answered this same question).

The company website describes the “legend” of how Cabbage Patch Kids came into being. Check out the link.

By: Kelly Wilson

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Literally every day, growing up, I had Hot Wheels vs. Matchbox championships. I would tear out a piece of my sketchpad, draw a bracket, make some fake crowd noise and fire up the little plastic engines. Turns out, in 1996, Mattel acquired the Matchbox brand from Tyco. I always wondered why the Hot Wheels always won; must have been a little foreshadowing. The Hot Wheels logo has always been one of my favorites due to its perfect fit for the target audience. Drawn by California artist Rick Irons, the logo is symbolized through its unique retro-esque typography and a distinguishable outer flame shape. Although established in 1968, the brand Hot Wheels really started to pick up speed in the 70’s, and revolutionized the die-cast toy car market, beginning to leave its competitors in the dust.

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Imitated but never duplicated, Barbie is one of the most successful toys ever. Many of my Barbie® memories include my friends and I cutting her hair, searching for her high-heeled shoes and creating our own swimming pool in the bathroom sink. Barbie was certainly my favorite toy and I am sure many of you would agree (yes, even you guys. . . we know you loved to wage war on her with your G.I. Joes).

Barbie was first introduced at The New York Toy Show in 1959, and she was unlike anything else in the market. Barbie had the fashion sense of paper dolls, the realism of baby dolls, and the beauty of a young woman who would go on to inspire the imaginations of millions of little girls. Within ten years, Mattel had sold $500 million in products.

Many people do not realize that Barbie, and her boyfriend Ken, were actually inspired by real people. They were named after the children of Ruth and Elliot Handler, the doll’s creator. That’s right — the original Barbie (Barbara) and Ken (Kenneth) were brother and sister!
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What is Silly Putty? It squishes, stretches, bounces- you can even use it to lift images from the newspaper. This toy has been amusing kids and adults alike for the past 50 years. It seems like every time you pick it up, you can find something new to do with it. But did you ever wonder how it came to be? As it turns out, Silly Putty is an accidental creation from World War II. Silly Putty has its own website with all the Silly Putty information you could ever want to know, including the following history:

During World War II, the Japanese invaded rubber producing countries in the Far East which cut off supply to the United States. This restricted war production efforts- especially for tires and boots. As a result, the War Production Board asked American industry to create a synthetic rubber compound.

James Wright, an engineer with General Electric mixed boric acid and silicone oil in a test tube which resulted in a polymerized substance- that wasn’t exactly what he was hoping for. He removed the gooey putty from the test tube and threw it on the floor… and it bounced! General Electric sent the gooey putty to several engineers, hoping to find a use for it, but no practical uses were discovered.
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