Tiki Statue Wholesalers - A Timeline For Beginners

I admit I still love finding the old Coco Joe's statues and statuettes of Tiki gods - my "first Tiki" were in fact Coco Joe's items, before even getting into Tiki 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... sort of a bookend to my earlier effort to timeline common Tiki mug wholesalers. The below list is sorted earliest to latest/current.

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.
• Identification: They were pretty consistent in stamping or engraving their name/logo on the bottom, and often had a gold-foil sticker with their name and more info.

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.
• Identification: They were pretty consistent in stamping or engraving their name/logo on the bottom or back, 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 (or goofier) as the business was sold several times.
• Identification: Earlier on, they were pretty consistent in stamping or engraving their name/logo as "HIP ORIGINAL" on the bottom. Later items also included a colored paper tag on the back, much as with Coco Joe's.

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

• Actively sculpting since 1956, then wholesaling from the late 60’s thru his death in 1978.
• Mainly produced black coral /resin mix busts, sculptures and statuettes of attractive Hawaiians and a few (rare) “Tiki God” statues.
• Identification: Usually signed (engraved) his name somewhere on the piece (bottom, chest) but also sometimes used a colored rectangular paper label, ala Coco Joe's.

Still in business:

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, including some nicer looking large but inexpensive 11-12" statues as well. Many repeats of Coco Joe's items, but of the currently active producers, they are probably the best and most "authentic" looking, in my opinion.
• Identification: as with most later wholesalers, they use paper hangtags or sticker labels which often get removed, making identification more difficult. Generally these are the "nicer" pieces that look the most like Coco Joe's.

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.
• Identification: They use paper hangtags or sticker labels which often get removed, making identification more difficult. Their statuettes generally look cheap and often have little white "dots" painted all around the eyes, mouths, etc., usually verging on "clown tiki".

Asia Crown Entertainment: (aka Chiefly)

• Active 1998 through present
• According to the US BBB, Asia Crown is related to Chiefly. And it shows - it produces the same sorts of low quality Chinese “Tiki” statues as Chiefly.
• Identification: They use paper hangtags or sticker labels which often get removed, making identification more difficult. Visually the same as Chiefly items.

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

[ Edited by Tiki_Thor on 2025-12-05 06:37:41 ]

[ Edited by Tiki_Thor on 2025-12-05 06:41:53 ]

Awesome resource...thanks for compiling this!

Thank you! Very useful!