Cabbage Patch Free with ColecoVision

A 1983 promotion pairing the two things Coleco was known for that Christmas - and the year's whole story in one object.

Why it made sense

• Coleco owned the Cabbage Patch Kids, which became the must-have toy of Christmas 1983 - a genuine national craze, with queues and fights in shops.
• Coleco also had the ColecoVision, and was pouring money into the ADAM computer.
• Attaching the doll everybody wanted to the console they were selling is about as direct a piece of cross-promotion as a company ever gets to run.

What happened next

• Cabbage Patch profits masked what the ADAM was losing. When the doll craze passed and the ADAM did not recover, Coleco went down with them - it was gone by 1988.