Post #817470 by Tiki_Thor on Wed, Dec 3, 2025 8:35 AM

I admit I still love finding the old Coco Joe's statues and statuettes of Tiki gods, and the larger pieces can be impressive. My "first Tiki" were in fact Coco Joe's items, before even mugs.

Since I've been collecting those and related items for a few years, I've decided to knock together a timeline of the players involved in wholesaling Tiki statues (regardless of their other offerings) since the 60's, for beginners... sort of a bookend to my earlier effort to timeline common Tiki mug wholesalers.

Let me know if you see anyone missing, or anything that's inaccurate.

.... Souvenir Tiki Statue Wholesalers, 60’s Thru Today....

Poly Art: (aka PolyArt, Poly-Art Ltd.)

• Active 1960 thru the 80’s, when it was destroyed by a warehouse fire.
• Produced funky Tiki god statues and later some knockoffs of Coco Joe’s and Schirman designs. Where the word “Hawaii” is present, the font is notably “chunky”, in a 70’s style.

Coco Joe’s:

• Active 1960 (beginning wholesaling in 1963) thru the late 80’s.
• Produced black lava (resin+lava) and hapawood (resin+wood) tiki statues and related touristy items. They were pretty consistent in stamping or engraving their works for identification purposes, as well as using colored rectangular paper tags on the backs (which often go missing).

HIP: (aka Hawaiian Island Products)

• Active 1964 through 1988.
• Formed after Coco Joe’s, HIP produced resin-mixed souvenirs including tiki statues which were originally more historically accurate, and over time became more like Coco Joe’s offerings as the business was sold several times.

Frank Schirman: (aka Designs By Frank Schirman, Schirman Inc):

• Actively sculpting since 1956, then wholesaling late 60’s thru death in 1978.
• Mainly produced black coral /resin mix busts, sculptures and statuettes of attractive Hawaiians and occasionally “Tiki Gods”. Usually signed (engraved) with his name.

KC Hawaii: (aka KC CO, KC Co. Ltd.):

• Active 1984 thru the present.
• Wholesales “carved” lightweight resin statues that appear to be wood at first glance, as well as Tiki mugs produced in China. Does make some nicer looking large but inexpensive 11-12" statues as well. As with most later wholesalers, they use paper hangtags or labels which often get removed, making identification more difficult.

Chiefly Co. Ltd.:

• Active 1994 through present.
• Mostly wholesales cheap/crude tourist trinkets and small statues (many of which are gaudy), all made in China. Their better designs are knockoffs of earlier, far superior Coco Joe’s items. Many of their statuettes have little white "dots" painted around the eyes, mouths, etc.

Asia Crown Entertainment: (aka Chiefly)

• Active 1998 through present
• According to the BBB, Asia Crown is actually related to Chiefly. It produces the same sorts of low quality Chinese “Tiki” statues as Chiefly.

[ Edited by Tiki_Thor on 2025-12-04 00:29:29 ]

[ Edited by leevigraham on 2025-12-04 02:47:59 ]