Medium

Scanlon: We could round up some Ken, some Barbie, and some Cabbage Patches ... Barbie and Ken are best-selling dolls made by Mattel, Inc. They were originally based on dolls discovered in Germany by Ruth Handler, the wife of Elliot Handler, one of the co-founders of Mattel. The design of the doll was reworked from the German example, then named after Handler's daughter, Barbara. Barbie made her debut at the American International Toy Fair on March 9th, 1959. The Ken doll was introduced as a companion for Barbie in 1961 and they have since had a long and varied romance. Cabbage Patch Kids were originally available at local craft shows in Cleveland, Georgia, and caught the attention of toy maker Coleco who began mass producing them in 1983. The quirk with the dolls was that they were all slightly different, and as such were not bought, but "adopted". Each one even came with its own birth certificate, signed by the doll's creator, Xavier Roberts. At the height of the craze, it was not unusual for fights to break out amongst parents attempting to procure one of these dolls for their children.