Mug questions

Picked up two new interesting mugs this week.

1. Large brown ku style that says either (I can't remember exactly which) "Aloha. Waikiki Showroom" or "Waikiki. Aloha Showroom" across the bottom. Anyone know anything about this?

2. Also found an all-brown Tiki Bob with no other colors, and a blank lei wreath on the back. Plain white bottom. Very odd...I suspect this might have been used when Tiki Bobs didn't want to pay for fancy mugs anymore. Anyone got any ideas?

-martin

You'll find old Bali Hai lidded mugs that might be missing white paint on their tusks, or they have no eyeballs... sometimes the blank ones get past quality control at manufacturing - this has happened to some of my mini Bali Hai's, too.

In the case of the Tiki Bob I think it is more likely that someone put it in a dishwasher and all the paint came off

Don't you ding-dongs know the difference between cold paint (like on Mr. Bali-Hi) and different colored glazes (like Tiki Bob and a dozen other mugs?). Yeesh! If you think that Tiki Bob is all brown underneath I've got a bridge to sell you. There are other Tiki Bob style mugs (knock offs & home ceramics) floating around out there. I have seen some in solid brown.

Um, OK. Mahalo to you too, ahilava!

Ahilava,
Just so you know, the dingdongs are

Holden Westland: Owner, Operator of Tiki Farm (TikiFarm.com). He is in business producing Tiki Mugs. Along with his own excellent line of mugs he produces mugs for Trader Vic's as well as Disneyland's Enchanted Tiki Room.

Otto Von Strohiem: Creator, editor of "Tiki News", the only fanzine dedicated entirely to Tiki. Since 1995 the first and last word on the Tiki scene.

Just a heads up. I don't want anyone thinking you're a loudmouth, newbie, zoot (FNG).
Mahalo,
Al

[ Edited by: Alnshely on 2003-01-29 13:14 ]

Ahilava,
Calling us ding-dongs in your first post? That's Mr, Mrs, or Miss Ding Dong if you please.
Mahalo.

No Comment (no really!)

On 2002-10-04 20:57, smogbreather wrote:
sometimes the blank ones get past quality control at manufacturing - this has happened to some of my mini Bali Hai's, too.

aargh! it's production control that failed ~ then if QC misses it, it's a failure of the QA system.
sorry..this continual improvement moment brought to you by elicia, CQE, retired.

PS: you can feature the eyeless BaliHais as R@RE Master Po Tiki Mugs

OK where's TikiFreak and Bax when you need them?

Here's the dope on your mugs-

The aloha showroom mug is a cool one. I think they changed the name at some point down the road, as I've found a few in various locales with white paint over the "aloha showroom" text on the foot. Attempts made to scrape this paint off proved it to be the strongest bonding ceramic paint I've ever come across. It IS paint, but it simply WON'T come off.. anyway, thats a very nice mug.

Re: the tiki bob mugs- they did not use paint anywhere on the real TB's. It is all coloring under the glaze. There are a number of techniques on how they did that, but I won't get into it. Suffice it to say all the Tiki-Bob mugs (except for the yellow maori mugs) won't have any paint flaking off.. HOWEVER, the tiki-bob style mug from the Bali Hai in New Orleans is a weird exception. That mug is actually white-glazed, with black glazed eyes, and then a brown cold paint applied over the body. In many cases, that brown paint will start flaking off. Later on they seemed to have wised up and gone the same route as the Tiki Bob mugs. Nonetheless, the older Bali Hai (ponchartrain beach, new orleans) tiki-bob style mugs, are very cool as they are "jumbo sized" and sorta different, yet very attractive in execution (when not flaking)

The mug you have, though, is most likely a hobby-mug. I have a few like you describe.. somehow, I don't know why, the tiki-bob design turns up alot as a ceramics-class type mug. Usually the red flag for that is a mono-chromatic motif.. basically just dunked in one color of glaze.. although recently there have been some cool ones on ebay that were glazed in the same whiteface/colored trunk style, but were in pink, lime green, blue, etc. The pink ones had little eyelashes added.. Tiki Belles :)

Flip your mug over and look for a completely flat bottom, perhaps with a slight seam-bump running through the center. That is a hobby-mug sign.

Also look for incised lettering and little pinprick marks in the glaze.. those are from the kiln stilts and also indicate a hobby mug.

The fact that yours has the lei on it, and has a white bottom is a little puzzling, though. Is the bottom white CLAY, or a white glaze? Its possible that the mug was made of porcelain, then dunked in brown.. if you can post pics, go for it and we'll see if we can't unravel the mystery

[ Edited by: fatuhiva on 2003-01-31 02:38 ]

"Ding-Dongs?"

I've been called much worse.

Ding-Dongs: a tastey Hostess chocolate snack cake with creamy filling, containing 370 calories per serving (170 Calories from fat).
Mmmmm-mmmm! Love them calories!

Ding Dong! Whose there? Somebody get the door! Oh it's you - I'm so happy that there are only a dozen other mugs that aren't cold painted... I could've sworn there might have been more! Oh and how much do you want for that bridge - think I've got a buyer!
Holden

Holden Westland
Tiki Farm
"Purveyors of Polynesian Pop Culture"
http://www.tikifarm.com
800.357.3360

[ Edited by: smogbreather on 2003-02-01 00:02 ]

Is the bridge made out of Foil, chocolate, cake and cream?