Welcome to the adventures of Trent, Josie, and Francesca.
If you noticed that Francesca isn’t quite like the others, then you’ve stumbled onto a subgenre of the Cabbage Patch craze. The popularity of Kids overwhelmed Coleco’s ability to keep up. That led Xavier Roberts’ company to search the globe for additional production. Among several new locations selected was a doll-making company called Jesmar in Spain that made Kids from 1984-85.
The idea was that while Coleco's Chinese factories would continue to satisfy the North American market, Jesmar would sate Europe’s demand. They tended to have foreign (non-American) sounding names and their birth certificates matched the local languages. Here’s how the Kids showed up across the Old Continent.
- France - Les Patoufs (translates to The Kids)
- Germany - Kuschel Kinder (means Cuddly Kids)
- Italy - I Bamboli del Campo Incantato (means Field of Enchanted Dolls)
- Sweden - Kal Ungarna (translates to Cabbage Kids)
- Finland - Kaalitarhan Tenavat (means Cabbage Nursery Peanuts)
- Denmark - Kålhoved børnene (translates to Cabbage Children)
In most respects the Kids from Spain are indistinguishable from those from Coleco, but there are a few unique features. Jesmar Kids are a little taller, their eyes give off what many have called a “wild-eyed expression,” and most have freckles. In contrast, only a small subset of the regular Coleco Kids had freckles. (For a deeper dive on Jesmar Kids, here's your rabbit hole.)
By 1985, demand had slowed enough that Coleco closed the non-Chinese factories. However, Jesmar is still going strong today making other dolls as you can see from their website (you may need to use the translate function on your browser) and this short promotional video.
Jesmars are highly sought after in the CPK world because of their relative scarcity. That's why dear Francesca has arrived at our facility and is stirring up so much relationship strife.
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