Coco Joe's Tikis Melting?

Greetings all, I have started adding to my Coco Joe's collection that began when I was a ka'amaina. Found some really cool ones on eBay, which go great in my office with my Wyland art and other Hawaiiana. My question is this: a couple of the eBay purchases I've made are "bent", for lack of a better word. They look like they should stand up straight, but they bend at the knees/waist about 15 degrees or so forward. I know they're not actually melting, but that's what it looks like. However, I really don't think this is possible. Were/are there some that were just made this way?

Thanks!

The newer ones seem to be more prone to bending and they were not made that way originally. Over time, they start to lean.

From old posts about this on the cocojoes thread:

On 2006-12-19 12:14, Bay Park Buzzy wrote:
Some of my best "leaners"

Degenerative disc disease, just like me...

Buzzy

On 2007-01-28 12:16, Bay Park Buzzy wrote:

The subject is a male Lono figure(COCOJOES HW26-017 c.91), 8.75 inches in height, born on Jul 06 of some year during Cocojoe's years of operation. He came to the Buzzy Back Fixin' Kitchen Clinic due to a disfigurement of his lower back.
The initial examination by Buzzy showed a displacement of approx 3" from true square:

Buzzy advised the patient of his options: the boiling pan of water or the oven, and due to the tag on his back, he chose the oven.
The oven was preheated to 220f.
The volunteer sat in the 220 degree heat for 10 minutes, where the heat was then raised to 230 for 10 more minutes.

It was observed that the tiki was slightly pliable at this point. He was returned to the oven for an additional 4 minutes
After the additional time, he was placed on his back with a heavy pyrex tray to keephim straight while cooling

After a substantial cooling off period, the tiki was again measured to see the progress:

About a half inch off. Good progress for one attempt.

Published Findings: This method was easy, and it worked very well. Two and a half inches of bend were corrected. There was no cracking or deterioration of the piece during this process. The tag was left on and remains in preprocedure condition. I would recommend this method, but take no responsibility for you forgetting your tiki in the oven.

My one concern would be cracking a black one if I tried it...

Buzzy Out!

[ Edited by: Bay Park Buzzy 2007-10-06 14:25 ]

Very interesting! That's exactly what I was thinking - pop him in the oven for a bit.

I'll let you know how it turns out - and thanks for the info!

the newer ones are made of a more inferior resin than the originals....as for the old ones, remember years ago there was a fire at the original cocojoes plant..alot of their stock tikis were warped by the heat but they sold them anyway, which is why some of the older ones are bent...there is an extensive thread about this somewhere here on t.c. if you search it out....

On 2007-10-06 14:22, Bay Park Buzzy wrote:

My one concern would be cracking a black one if I tried it...

did you ever straighten out one of the black ones? i have one that is leaning pretty badly.
thanks.

I've straightened out a black HIP dancer. I heated it in the oven, but when I took it out, I didnt lay it down with a weight on it because it wouldn't flatten all the way out. Instead, I just pressed it down with my hands (mine was warm, but not hot enough to hurt) and slowly "massaged" it back to it's original shape. It looks as good as new.

Here's the old leany Lono thread:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=6050&forum=5

F

On 2009-05-24 13:15, exquisitecorpse wrote:

On 2007-10-06 14:22, Bay Park Buzzy wrote:
My one concern would be cracking a black one if I tried it...

did you ever straighten out one of the black ones? i have one that is leaning pretty badly.
thanks.

30 mins at 220 degrees and some slight pressure = success.

Well proceed with caution: I tried this procedure on a black one last week and was not so lucky. The figure got overheated and cracked, the eyes sizzled and melted a bit, and there was a terrible smell in my house for a couple of days. There is an issue with the thermostat in my oven apparently, so I did not follow the instructions to the letter, but I was keeping a pretty good eye on things, yet it overheated very quickly... I still have quite a few Coco Joes figures with this condition. Perhaps a microwave oven set low might be work, has anybody tried that? Another option would be to display them on a high shelf lit from below, so that they appear to gaze down upon you rather like a gargoyle or a perching vulture... Hope this helps, Chuck

Kevio, Did you ever get an answer to your question? Mahalo