Disturbing reason iconic 90s Cabbage Patch Kids toys were pulled from shelves and aren't available to buy anymore

After booming in the '80s, Cabbage Patch toys became a firm favourite with children across the world.

They became a huge phenomenon with millions of dolls sold and manufactured internationally, first introducing the adoption concept for toys.

Children were able to 'adopt' their dolls, which came with unique names and their own personality profiles.

No two dolls looked quite alike, featuring different eye colours, skin tones, hair styles, and facial features.

There were endless variations of Cabbage Patch dolls (Wallocha/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

There were multiple different variations of Cabbage Patch dolls, which were produced by Hasbro and then Mattel, and later other producers like Play Along Toys and more recently Wicked Cool Toys.

But one range of the dolls in the '90s became known for the wrong reasons, with dolls pulled off the shelves and distribution halted due to a disturbing reason.

In 1997, Mattel announced the voluntary recall of the Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kids dolls which had been sucking in youngsters' fingers and hair and refusing to let go.

Around 100 incident had been reported to the company, with stores sent warning labels urging buyers to make sure that children's hair and fingers were kept away from the dolls.

The toys were recalled (Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma via Getty Images)

It wasn't that the dolls had minds of their own - but rather a risky fault with the mechanics.

The dolls featured a motorised mechanical mouth designed to 'eat' plastic food and drop it into a backpack.

However, the internal metal rollers were unable to tell the difference between plastic snacks and children's hair or fingers, leading to reports of hair being chewed off or fingers becoming trapped.

Production was later stopped as Mattel pulled roughly 200,000 unsold units from retail shelves.

On a Reddit forum discussing the dolls, one person wrote: "I remember this scaring me as a kid because my downstairs neighbour had one!"

As another commented: "I had one and loved it. I still remember being devastated when my parents took it away."

"I definitely fed it my hair on purpose and almost got scalped," quipped another.

Doll did not raise initial safety concerns

Mattel's then-Chief Executive Jill Barad said that tests conducted by the company and the Consumer Product Safety Commission did not identify the doll as posing a serious safety hazard.

"Nonetheless, we remain deeply concerned with the satisfaction of all our consumers and in maintaining their long-standing confidence in the safety and value of our toys," Barad said in a prepared statement at the time.

"Our job is to bring joy to children's lives. If any of our products are causing concerns, we are committed to responding in a responsible manner."

A cash refund of $40 was later offered to customers who had bought them.

The recall notice issued by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission read: "To date, approximately 500,000 Cabbage Patch Kids Snacktime Kids dolls have been sold to consumers.

"The company announced a withdrawal of the product from all retail shelves across the U.S., and will discontinue the distribution of the Snacktime Kids dolls."