When did mattel start to distribute cabbage patch kids?

please help
When did mattel start to distribute cabbage patch kids?
I remember them in in 1984.

In 1976, Xavier Roberts invented 'Little Person' dolls, the first Cabbage Patch Kids. Roberts was a teenager when he started the Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia, where people could adopt a baby (the hand sewn dolls were never called dolls) complete with adoption papers. Roberts and five friends started the Original Appalachian Artworks company to produce the dolls. The Coleco toy company liked Roberts' ideas and began mass-marketing the dolls in 1983, under the new name of 'Cabbage Patch Kids.'
Reply:I bought one for my son for Christmas of 1982; they'd been around maybe a year at that point, although I know their inventor had been selling them boutique-style for a few years before that.
Reply:Cabbage Patch Kids were Coleco toys in the 1980s. When Coleco died, I suppose Mattel picked up the slack. Check out ColecoVision and the Adam (cassette-drive computer) as well under failed game/PC platforms. ColecoVision actually outperformed Atari 2600 (they made the 5200 to "catch up).
Reply:1982... is when they started selling them too the public ...