‘Billion Dollar Babies: The True Story Of The Cabbage Patch Kids’ (2022) – Film Review

When the Cabbage Patch Kids craze hit, I was lucky enough to be just the right age. I was also lucky enough to receive a doll during this craze. I actually ended up with four dolls by 1985. How I got my first doll was a total fluke though! My parents would later tell me the story of how I ended up with her. Friends of the family were strolling through a Toys ‘R Us one day and the store happen to be bringing out a pallet of dolls. They had to go find a pay phone and call my parents to tell them they found and bought one.

These dolls were such a big part of my childhood. It was the first doll that seemed more real. You didn’t just buy the doll, you adopted this doll and you even got adoption papers making it official. The cutest part was, of course, the butt was signed by creator Xavier Roberts. The dolls were soft and not all plastic other than the head. Each doll was unique and there was different hair, skin and eye colors and even freckles on some. It seemed like no two were alike. You could have a doll that had your red hair and they had both boy and girl dolls. They even had Preemies, which was especially important to me, as I was a preemie myself. These dolls were one of the first to represent differences and uniqueness.

I knew I must see Billion Dollar Babies: The True Story of the Cabbage Patch Kids. I wanted to know more about these dolls and get the real story on them. What did I think? Read on to find out. But first? The trailer!

Film Synopsis

Before the Cabbage Patch Kids, no one could have imagined a world where police would need to break up fights between rampaging adults in toy stores. But after the Cabbage Patch Kids, every manufacturer in the world was desperate for their own “riot-worthy” toy. Everything had changed, and we were never going back. Billion Dollar Babies: The True Story of the Cabbage Patch Kids is the evolution of that change, told through the lens of what is arguably the most beloved toy of the 1980s.

It’s one filled with doll hospitals with delightfully attentive staff tending to every need of the “babies” birthed from a cabbage patch before their adoptions, dangerous counterfeit dolls and intense U.S. Customs raids, inevitable black-market sales, a glut of spin-off products, severe doll shortages and a rabid media frenzy that gave rise to a BILLION-dollar toy brand unlike anything the world had ever seen. Oh, and did we mention the “custody battle” over the origin of the idea?

An unassuming and relatively unknown artist from rural Kentucky filed suit claiming she was the true creator of the dolls, setting off a contentious four-year legal battle over the Kids. This is the story you never knew about the dolls that stole America’s heart and turned us all into total maniacs.

Here’s a look at the poster art!

My Thoughts

This film is just so good. Everything about it just makes the film worth watching. Neil Patrick Harris narrating is perfection.  It really touches on so many aspects of the craze. It goes into details, that you didn’t realize were going on at the time. This film has ALL the nostalgic feels.

Cabbage Patch Kids truly started the Black Friday craze, where people would actually push and shove and snatch things out of people’s hands during Black Friday sales. To see that now about 40 years later is insane. Another surprise for me, is I had no idea the creator, Xavier Roberts, was so young when he started his endeavor with Cabbage Patch Kids. He was young, with a lot of passion and ideas and it paid off in the end. The details that he made sure to include and to make this a reality, is amazing. To hear him talk about his creations, you can still see and hear the passion and proudness of being the “father” of these dolls.

It was neat to see the BabyLand General Hospital in Georgia. This is the birthplace of the dolls.  Both back in the day and now.  After all these years, it is still a highly visited attraction. You can still go and adopt your very own Cabbage Patch doll.

I don’t want to give too much away, but I also was interested to learn about Martha Nelson Thomas. I didn’t know about her prior to this film. Everyone needs to know about her. She was the original creator of the soft doll, that Xavier got the idea for Cabbage Patch Kids from. She made each doll by hand.  Her dolls definitely looked like what would be later named Cabbage Patch Kids.  She did sue, however, that lawsuit was settled out of court. Many feel that Xavier flat out stole the idea but it was determined by courts unfortunately you can’t trademark a doll. She passed away in 2013, but her kids are in documentary and they felt that Xavier did good, as their mother would never have been able to reach as many people as his Cabbage Patch Dolls have.

It has many interesting interviews and people discussing various aspects of the craze and it was beyond cool to see Xavier Roberts today reminiscing about his beloved Cabbage Patch Kids.

This film is a must see for any Cabbage Patch Kid fan. It is well done and it is interesting, inspiring and will have you feeling nostalgic.

Billion Dollar Babies: The True Story of the Cabbage Patch Kids is currently playing in theaters.