Tiki at Old Time Pottery

Old Time Pottery's got some large tiki's that are a knock off of the Design Toscano "God of Three Pleasures." It may be the same one that was sold at Wal Mart Canada. It's fairly close but different enough, I suppose, to keep from getting sued. About 37" tall and resin for $29.99. They also have a couple "tiki" head planters that aren't really tiki but at least one of them can fit in with the motif. I'll post pics in a bit.

This is the knock off tiki:

To compare, here's the pic of the Design Toscano tiki that ZebraTiki posted in another thread:

The DT tiki is nicer and more true to the Disney design. The OTP tiki has the top configured to host a potted plant and just doesn't look quite as "happy" as the DT tiki.

This was labeled as a "tiki head planter:"

It was only $7.99. There was another but it looked even less tiki to me so I didn't get it. Here it is dressed up with some fake plant stuff:

Kind of looks like it would fit in with the other idols on the "Ritual of the Savage" LP cover.

How could I pass up a crab bottle holder?? For only $4?

They had tons of the glass floats that they have had for quite a while.

When I purchased the big tiki I was hoping it was the Design Toscano one but I started thinking, even there in the store, that maybe it's a knock off and that's why Wal Mart wouldn't sell them in the US. I got home and got online and confirmed it that it is a knock off. Then I saw that the one Wal Mart sold in Canada is the other (smaller) DT tiki (or knock off)!

For $30 it's cool. Some of you may not be willing to purchase a knock off but it's out there for those who are. I may still get a Toscano one and then this guy will move outside.

WE'VE GOT MORE KNOCK OF TIKIS AT BIG LOTS IN THE US!

Here they are:

Kono-who would WANT to pass up on a crab bottle holder,and at the very attractive price of four dollars? Love stuff like that.

I stopped by Big Lots and picked up one of those Three Gods pieces. It is very nicely done for a knock off. It is small, about 17" but well done. It's nicer than the Old Time Pottery piece by quite a bit. Honestly, of all the nuevo cheapo tiki (Target, Party City, Big Lots, Dollar Tree, TJ Maxx, Bealls etc etc) this one kicks all their respective asses by miles. It's good enough to sit with any vintage collection. They really made it look like wood unless you get a ding in it and then the underlying material shows. And for just $7.99!

Hey, if anyone doesn't have a big lots near them, and wants one, let me know.

Wow, what a fascinating Tiki "Chain of Transmission" (aka Tiki design rip off):

-I obtain a color xerox of the Enchanted Tiki Room ad from my Tiki agent at Disney's archives.
-I put it in the BOT (page 193 upper right).
-My German editor forgets to put the Copyright next to the image (Only in the first printing, which is now sold out, remedied in 2nd and 3rd printings).
-An almost exact copy by Design Toscano shows up in "Skymall" catalogues.

• A knock off of that shows up for less at Old Timey Pottery stores
• An knock off of that is now available for dirt cheap at Big Lots!

An examplary case study of Tiki devolution.
The next person who rips off the design has to give it away for FREE!

Just shows how these chains operate: "Hey, D.T. has a good selling item, let's just COPY it!"

D.T. not only swiped that design, but also the Tiki candle on page 184 (sans breasts), and to sell the two, they used my chapter 18 slogan "And The Gods Were Amused" in their catalogue.

Yep, I was. Just wish they would identify it as quoting "The Good Book".

Wow. An excellent example of Tiki De-evolution. So does this mean that DT and whoever produces the other knock off (I'll find out who. my mom actually picked it up for me when she was at big lots) are violating your copyright, or disney's? And if it's disney, why haven't they gone to great lengths to stop it? at least DT. I mean, Disney goes after violations all the time. Very interesting.

I just checked all of it out, and sweet mother of mercy that sucks. Talk about some serious BS.

[ Edited by: Hale Tiki on 2005-02-02 12:23 ]

On 2005-02-02 12:20, Hale Tiki wrote:
I just checked all of it out, and sweet mother of mercy that sucks. Talk about some serious BS.

Don't get too distraught, Hale Tiki. Sven recently bought a Toscano so it must not bother him that much. I think he'd just appreciate a little credit, especially for them quoting his book.

Sven, I'm pretty sure that both pieces above are made by the same Chinese source. A lady at Big Lots said that they did have some of the large ones (her description 100% matched the Old Time Pottery tiki) but sold out quickly. Did they steal the design from Toscano? Perhaps, but maybe its the same manufacturer that Toscano commissioned and they decided to do some similar product. The little statuary collection of which these were a part, also included the vaguely (very vaguely) moai-ish heads (see above) and some Olmec or Toltec type heads. I don't think Old Time Pottery is the type of place to commission a product (maybe) and I know Big Lots isn't. We're not talking about a store like Target.

Sven, I'd recommend to venture out to Big Lots and get one of the small ones. It's very nicely made and would be a nice complement to your Toscano. If you've never been to Big Lots then it may be a bit of culture shock for you. Big Lots buys stuff that doesn't sell elsewhere and sells it cheap. This includes items that are overstock, old and expired (like old vitamins), items that are likely counterfeit or are knock offs, non-US food stuffs of suspect origin. I purchased some packages of ramen noodles at Big Lots and the first package made me vomit. I almost NEVER vomit. I figured I was just sick. Ate the second package at a later date and vomitted again! How can ramen noodles make you vomit??

You should contact Design Toscano and see if you can fish out of them how they came to sell those two "Gods" statues. Obviously they knew of your book but I wonder if they designed the statues themselves or commissioned the designs or if they simply purchased an existing product. This site also sold those items claiming them to be an exclusive but the fact that they also quote your book means that they either purchased them from Toscano (do they wholesale?) or purchased them from the same source that Toscano did and that source supplied the descriptive text that borrowed from the BoT. It would be interesting to know the journey of initial idea to design to manufacturer to retail that these items took. Probably run into Rattiki in the PI somewhere along that journey. :wink:

I'm telling you people, that small one is NICE. Well worth getting. All this typing...I need a Mai Tai...

I would prefer not to blow this out of proportion, 'cause the one that might get into trouble is my publisher, since they forgot to put the Disney-mandatory copyright on the image in the first batch of BOTs.

But I have no quarrels about that either, because since then Disney is and will be benefitting bigtime from the Enchanted Tiki Room revival, despite their ignorance initially. They needed Shag-mania to finally "get" that they had something good there, and only since then did they get into gear and luckily are not belittling their own talented artists that were touting Tiki's horn all along. Horrible faux-pas' like the Mary Osmond's Tiki Room doll aside, Disneyland's 50th will bring us a bunch of fine Tiki room collectables designed by the people who love them. And Disney will make money partially because of the BOT exposure and should be happy.

If we really would want to get to the bottom of this, we should find the descendants of the New Guinea tribesman who designed the carving(s) that inspired Marc Davis' Tiki column sketches after which the animatronics Tikis were sculpted, which THEN were used for the ad, which I used in the BOT, which...

How about it, a Tiki Central expedition into the Melanesian jungle, maybe we'll find Michael Rockefeller on the way!?

Thank you Kono for that bargain store survival story, I do know about Big Lots, ever since what I like to refer to "The Big Bastard Bean Bottle Bonanza" that was started after a TC post by a stock room clerk in some remote state and fanned across the U.S. in no time, prompting a TC member rush on Big Lots and Marshall's stores everywhere.

Anybody know that ol' thread's link?

On 2005-02-03 14:07, bigbrotiki wrote:

Anybody know that ol' thread's link?

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=7790&forum=5

Oh, 'twas TJ Maxx and Marshall's, that's right...8 pages, that wasn't a bonanza, that was a stampede! And so many funny posts by oldtimers, where are they now?

By the way Kono, thanks for the Witco Owl tip, but somebody saw it too and kept outbidding me, it was not THAT important to me, but Mahalo for trying to protect it.

Speaking of tiki items at Big Lots, I was at Big Lots today and saw a "Tiki Lounge" toy play set for children. So, for those of you who have small children and want to introduce them to the tiki lifestyle at an early age, here ya go...

On 2005-02-03 14:07, bigbrotiki wrote:
...the Marie Osmond's Tiki Room doll aside...

Ye gods, that actually exists? I thought I made it up while waiting in line for the Shag at Disneyland event just to have something to tell all the people who kept asking me "Why are you standing in line?"

How about it, a Tiki Central expedition into the Melanesian jungle, maybe we'll find Michael Rockefeller on the way!?

I'm up for it, Mike's actually a distant cousin of mine.

Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., D.F.S

[ Edited by: freddiefreelance on 2005-02-04 08:34 ]

On 2005-02-04 08:34, freddiefreelance wrote:

On 2005-02-03 14:07, bigbrotiki wrote:
...the Marie Osmond's Tiki Room doll aside...

Ye gods, that actually exists? I thought I made it up while waiting in line for the Shag at Disneyland event just to have something to tell all the people who kept asking me "Why are you standing in line?"

In the interest of not getting off-topic, I've posted details here:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=11977&forum=5&start=15

The short answer is yes.

mr smiley picked up 2 of the resin tiki totems at big lots this weekend in Oakland. they were only $7 each! whatta deal...

he had to use a box cutter and help himself to the un-shelved merchandise though.

I'm bumping this because the Big Lot's God of 3 Pleasures tikis are starting to come up on ebay and peeps are bidding a lot of money for them. They are still at Big Lot's and they are still $7.99. They really are nice and worth getting but not for $50.

I was just thinking the same thing......
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29460&item=3961291747&rd=1

On 2005-03-06 18:49, badmojo wrote:
I was just thinking the same thing......
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29460&item=3961291747&rd=1

Cultjam the winner! NOOOOOO! Sweatheart I could have picked one up for you at Big Lots! Why! Why are the good ones the first to go!!!