Grating The Nutmeg

During this holiday season, it seems like the perfect time to bring you the story of one of the bestselling toys ever - Cabbage Patch Kids! Inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame in 2023, Cabbage Patch Kids set every toy industry sales record for three years running from 1983-86, and has become one of the longest-running doll franchises in the United States. How did a Connecticut company produce the hottest toy of the 1980s - and then go broke? The license to produce Cabbage Patch Kids has gone through a record 7 toy companies. This episode is on the Coleco years - the toymaker with their headquarters in West Hartford.  Host Mary Donohue will share her experience buying the dolls and  Natalie Belanger, Grating the Nutmeg producer from the Connecticut Museum of Culture & History, her own childhood experience playing with the Cabbage Patch Kids. It's hard to believe after such a successful toy, but Coleco Industries were bankrupt by 1989.  The Hartford Courant published numerous full-page stories about what ha