Post #371911 by bigbrotiki on Sat, Apr 5, 2008 10:43 PM

But, but ...they LOOK like they are from Tr.... -BOOOM!- (Sound of Mai Tai's head exploding) :D

On 2008-04-05 19:23, SilverLine wrote:
So, these are NEW carvings with no restaurant provenance, vintage or otherwise?

Silverline's question points at one of the TWO very reasons why I come down so hard on "Poly-Asian" (mostly Balinese) Tiki carvings: The FIRST and foremost one still is that they are stylistically "off" in various ways that I have pointed out multiple times here.

But SECOND, they have no history, they are not rooted in American Poly pop anywhere....Just like a good amount of the Tikis at the new Vic's locations, and at the warehouse sale (I do not consider Tikis that were freshly carved in Bali and used for late 90s/early 2000s Trader Vic's as having a "history"). All of the Tikis below belong to that category:

And that whole row here (not counting the Mexican mask and the Broccoli head in the back):

So are these two:

And the two left and right of the Marquesan, (which is an authentic vintage Trader Vic's design):

...and this lil bugger:

Now I was glad to hear from eyewitness reports that (contrary to my expectations) the warehouse sale actually DID offer a fair amount of original vintage, Polynesian pop era carvings, especially Tiki posts, and I do not deny anybody the right to enjoy their Poly-Asian Tikis if they like'em, to me they are just not it, simply because of the above reasons.