Post #342869 by bigbrotiki on Thu, Nov 8, 2007 9:50 PM

I personally would not go any further than maybe the mid-70s. An art style should always be judged by its peak period of creative innovation, and for Tiki that was the early to mid 60s. It was then that is was expanding, affecting apartments and Motels, and that the most new designs were executed. By the late 60s, except for the Mauna Loa in Detroit (which swiftly disappeared) no major Tiki Temples were built, and nothing was added to the style, it all became repetition from then on. And in the case of all the Orchids of Hawaii-equipped Chinese Tiki places that proliferated in the Mid-West and East coast in the 70s, cheap repetition.
One could call 70s or 80s Tiki mugs LATE vintage Tiki maybe, because stylistically they still came from the classic vintage Tiki period. But most of them are globby, worn out mold versions of better made pieces. There is only ONE shining example of cool new design in 1980 I can think off, the Trader Vic's Moai bowl. Otherwise, for me 80s Tiki stuff is off the chart..as in the BOT "Evolution of Polynesian Pop" chart.