The Cabbage Patch Kids doll-craze was an unprecedented phenomenon among children and their parents that swept America during the 1980s, reflecting, perhaps, the cultural leanings of an era intent on expressing family values. By comparison with the Cabbage Patch collecting mania, later collectors of the mass-marketed Beanie Babies, Tamogotchis, and Tickle Me Elmos in the 1990s had it easy.

The 16-inch, soft-bodied Cabbage Patch dolls, the ultimate "must have" toy, were in such high demand during the 1983 Christmas season that the $25 retail Kids were "adopted" on the black market for fees as high as $2,000. Toy manufacturer Coleco Industries never expected that their homely, one-of-a-kind Kids—complete with birth certificates and adoption papers—would be the impetus behind department-store stampedes across the country, resulting in sales of over six million dolls during their first nine months on the market.

Xavier Roberts, a dollmaker in Columbus...