Tourist Tiki Statue Makers - A Timeline For Beginners

I still love finding the old Coco Joe's statues and statuettes of Tiki gods and related Hawaiian goodness... so 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.

Yes, these are tourist pieces sold in gift shops and airports, but many were designed and made with love by true artists of the day. Let me know if you see anyone missing, or anything that's inaccurate.

Notes:

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.
• Mainly produced black lava (resin+lava) and brown "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 a wider variety of ground native materials + resin 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.

Producers That Are 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.

The "Other" Files

Alii Woods (Honolulu)

• Not sure when they were active other than "the 60's and 70's", but they sold a lot of platters, plates and bowls, and also crude monkeypod Ku Tikis and cat statuettes made in the Philippines. Typically they'd have a sticker on the bottom with their name and (rather neat) logo.

Island Woods

• Not sure when they were active, but they resold blocky monkeypod Ku Tikis made in the Philippines, with the larger 8-12" inch examples typically used for trophies/awards with engraved plaques on the bases. Used modern hangtags for their works.

Waikiki Woods

• Not sure when they were active, but they sold crude "peg" style statues as well as "wailing" style tikis in monkeypod or milo wood (also probably made in the Philippines). Typically had a small squarish foiled sticker on the bottom of their products with their name.

[ Edited by Tiki_Thor on 2026-04-17 11:16:29 ]

Awesome resource...thanks for compiling this!

Thank you! Very useful!

Made some updates and added the visual piece.