Design Toscano Tikis

http://www.designtoscano.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=1454&itemType=PRODUCT&iProductID=1454

Any one know what these are made of?

The description says resin. Is this fiberglass?

Thanks

Can't swear to the molecular structure of resin, but I can swear that that is a bad price for that statue. Get ahold of an onboard airline magazine (Continental and/or Delta has it)- they're cheaper there (by about $20 or $30). Happy hunting!

I have one of each, and I can say they hold up quite well outdoors.

They look like resin, sound like resin, smell like resin, feel like resin, and taste like resin. I think they are made out of resin.

My pet peeve is...............RESIN

WHAT? You hate resin. I love resin, all the vintage classics, lamps, light switch plates, door knobs, even tables! My house is plastic fantastic. This should freak you out...

res·in
Any of numerous physically similar polymerized synthetics or chemically modified natural resins including thermoplastic materials such as polyvinyl, polystyrene, and polyethylene and thermosetting materials such as polyesters, epoxies, and silicones that are used with fillers, stabilizers, pigments, and other components to form plastics.

That's what they are alright...and I love both of mine.

On 2003-02-12 08:02, SullTiki wrote:
res·in
Any of numerous physically similar polymerized synthetics or chemically modified natural resins including thermoplastic materials such as polyvinyl, polystyrene, and polyethylene and thermosetting materials such as polyesters, epoxies, and silicones that are used with fillers, stabilizers, pigments, and other components to form plastics.

"I have one word for you, Benjamin -- PLASTICS."

Hey guys - speaking of "plastiki," a friend and I are working on possibly sculpting and casting some large 'outdoor-use' moai and tikis out of some sort of fiberglass or resin. whaddya think the interest level would be for this? (before we waste our time).

(This friend also actually asked me what I thought he could get for a fiberglass/foam FULL SIZED moai.)

I can just see a FULL sized foam moai tumbling down the street during our next Santa Ana wind storm (last winds were 80mph) That would be a sight!

that would be awesome - it's raining moais! that gives me an idea for a painting.

I personally like the resin tikis by Design Toscano. I only wish more people were producing resin tikis. It would be cool to see resin reproductions of Shmaltz, Guanko, Bumatay and others' carvings.

On a serious note, I agree with pop that I love this material. Palm wood tikis are great, but too risky for me and anyone who has palms in their yard or surrounding neighborhood. Two deadly fungus (fungi?) have spread through the palm growing communities of Florida, California, Texas, and more including South American Countries. One, I have been plagued with is Ganoderma another has hit Beverly Hills. Below is a headline from a recent article in LA Times. Estimated loss per palm is 10,000! Total of $6 Million+ and they may not be replaced!

"Beverly Hills Bids a Frond Farewell; A widespread fungus is slowly but surely killing hundreds of the city's signature palms."
The Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.; Jan 18, 2003; Martha Groves

The palms they are speaking of are Phoenix Canariensis aka Canary Island Date or Pineapple Palm but these can affect many different spicies.

I know from speaking to Chikitiki at Bigbro's wine gathering that he often gets this type of palm logs. These two types of fungus can live, grow, and flower in cut palms and is easily spread. There is NO cure or prevention after years of study at the U of Florida! Please beware!

I hope more people make tikis out of materials like resin.

Sorry Laney, when I said I hated resin, I didn't mean plastic, I meant the stuff that looks like this..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3206245781&category=10875

That actually doesn't look like resin at all - it looks more like soap...

Am I right in thinking that when it comes to resin, the look is actually all in the paint?

Trader Woody

the paint and the texture. :)

I guess the paint makes all the difference. When I first received my Design Toscano tiki pair, my wife thought they were made of real wood.

As I've mentioned earlier, I really like the resin tikis. They're easier to move around the room and are easily transportable for parties and such.

I've been looking at the Design Toscano tikis for a while now and now that I hava a yard to put 'em in I think I might pull the trigger...
One question to those who already have them. Are they solid or hollow castings?

Aloha and Mahalo

:tiki:

They are solid resin castings.

No, they are hollow. there is no way to tell (no holes) other than that they are light weight. If you remember a post weeks ago about the God of Wind killing my tikis-this was one of them. You can see the hole and crack

It dosen't look so bad from the front though, I say it faired pretty well considering it toppled over into the pool.

Here is it's former site. There is a huge clump of Raphis palms which knocked it into the pool. There is now a plaster tiki from O.A. It is not as tall and hollow in the bottom so I drove a stake into the ground and up into it, to hopefully stablize it in the wind. (fuzzy pic but it's starting to rain!)

No, they are hollow. there is no way to tell (no holes) other than that they are light weight.

Wow, I guess the only way I would have known that was if mine were cracked open like yours! Bummer. But hey, maybe you can try to repair them. I'd pickup a small peice of fiberglass cloth and resin and try sealing the crack similar to the way you would repair a ding on a surfboard. That and some touch-up paint might do the trick.

I'll have to search around for the airline catalog for cheaper tikis. Who would have thunk it - tikis in Sky Mall...

As for a fiberglass/outdoor use tikis, BRING 'EM ON, Rain!!! I want a garden of giant tikis surrounding my pool this summer. Shipping on a large outdoor moai would probably be a consideration, though.
I know my brother was looking for moai heads for his patio...

Just checked skymall.com and they are the exact same price as the design toscano site:

http://skymall.com/webapp/skystore?process=prodDisplay&action=&pid=85442867

Wow $125 for the set, not bad, btw laney I love your pool/yard. soo tropical, sucky vegas, we got pools but not the tropical atmospher.Way to dry. :(

You can get both of these for $135 plus shipping on the Design Toscano website. http://www.designtoscano.com/product/more+themes/tropical/outdoor+tropical+decor/tiki+gods-+the+art+of+celebration+statues%3Cbr%3E%28set+includes-+luau+%26+three+pleasures+gods%29+-+ng931189.do?sortby=bestSellers

If you don't want them both Wayfair through amazon.com has them for $89 and $45 each plus shipping.
http://www.amazon.com/Tiki-Gods-Three-Pleasures-Statue/dp/B001U5URU2/ref=?ie=UTF8&m=A2RFSIF56F6W5J

The God of the Luau: 6"Wx5½"Dx24"H. 8 lbs.
Gods of the Three Pleasures: 9"Wx8"Dx35½"H. 14 lbs.

-Lori

[ Edited by: tikilongbeach 2012-11-30 14:49 ]

Not much inflation on those 2 tikis. 9 years ago the price was $125 for the pair and now they're $135.

On 2012-11-30 15:32, tikilongbeach wrote:
Not much inflation on those 2 tikis. 9 years ago the price was $125 for the pair and now they're $135.

if you get on their email list eventually they have a 30% off sale once or twice a year; that is when i got mine.

Right you are, esquisitecorpse, I got a 25% off email today. The discount code is share25.

http://www.designtoscano.com/home.do?code=CELSG107

They've got a 6 foot resin Moai for $995. How do those things age out in the elements?

http://www.designtoscano.com/product/code/NE90076.do

Various sizes:
Giant: 36"Wx28"Dx72"H. 92 lbs.
Large: 23"Wx20"Dx48"H. 40 lbs.
Medium: 6½"Wx5"Dx16"H. 4 lbs.

Hi tikilongbeach, we have several resin sculptures outside and inside our home. Here in New Hampshire we see temps range from 10F below to over 90F with humidity sometimes. The only time we have had a resin sculpture get damaged was getting partially encased in ice. I have not seen damage from sun, rain, etc. On one of our Lowes shell fountains there is some slight fading when comparing sun-to-shade side of the piece, but other than that not much else.

These Toscano heads appear to be a dark grey-to-black color. They likely added carbon black to the resin to help with UV protection plus help fill the resin with less expensive raw materials (carbon black is cheap & used all over the place).

I felt the need to use my two Plastics Engineering college degrees for something useful today. :)