eBay: Giant Tiki from Trader Vic's, Dallas TX.?

Here is another very large Tiki statue I have stumbled upon surfing eBay. This seller(not my auction)states that this was from the original Trader Vic's in Dallas TX. Does this seem legit? Anyone have any info.? Original paint? It does look nice! By the way, it's "Humongous" not "Hugmongous". Although,"(Hug)mongous"(sic)sure makes this Tiki (just under 8 feet tall) seem embraceable! Take a look: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?viewItem&rd=1&item=7714379093

• Does this seem legit? *

Looks legit to me. We may have some TC members that frequented the Dallas Vic's. Anyone? The seller has an extensive and very good eBay record, I'd say it's up and up. Then, again, I'm still trying to work these X-Ray glasses I bought back in '73.

Anyone have any info.? Original paint? It does look nice!

Pat answer that it looks like an OA piece. OA numbered their Tiki models if I recall, someone must have old catalogues and such. Bigbro and some of the TC carvers will have info. Where's 8ftTiki? They can have a pair now! It's very close to their Tiki in look...and size.

Me, I don't care for the paint, at all. I don't like color for nothing. I'd like it w/o, though. Tough to get to TX and pick it up. A real obstacle, that. Not sure how the auction will do, that's a large opening bid (with a reserve)... it may be better suited for a private/direct sale. Plus, I am saving my tens and twenties for that Ren Clark severed head mug on eBay right now.

If someone likes(tolerate or strip it off eventually) the paint and can get it from and/or out of Texas... one would have a nice hunka hunka Tiki there.

midnite

..well, I'll bet the paint isn't original....somehow those bright colors don't jive with any vintage tikis from the trader I've ever seen....looks like someone tried to give it a more carribean/buffet paint job.....and what's with that creepy hand animation graphic on the auction page...yikes!!!

Tipsy, I thought the same as you. The paint job does not look original(somewhat cheesy). As midnite said, a good cleaning and strip down would bring this Tiki back to life! To rich for my blood!

I didn't live in TX back in the day so I'm not familiar with it. I have some pics of the inside of that TV from a couple of years ago that someone else took. Upon review I don't see that particular tiki in any of the pics. I sure can't afford it but if I could that paint job would be the first thing to go.

This tiki has the same general look of 8-Foot Tiki's 8-foot tiki. His was from the Kona Kai in Kansas City and was made by Oceanic Arts (I think).

I admit I was aching for this tiki, flourescent paint or no. But $1200 - yowza!
Anybody know who paulhupp, the winner, is?

And can any eBay pros explain to me how he won with only one bid? The opening price was $600.00, and the winner won with no other bidders to drive the price up to the $1200 reserve price. I thought stuff sat unbought if no one bid against you (and you didn't reach the reserve). 'Least, that's what I'd always seen before.

On 2005-09-28 14:52, Formikahini wrote:
And can any eBay pros explain to me how he won with only one bid? The opening price was $600.00, and the winner won with no other bidders to drive the price up to the $1200 reserve price. I thought stuff sat unbought if no one bid against you (and you didn't reach the reserve). 'Least, that's what I'd always seen before.

$1200 was the reserve and he bid at least that or more. The reserve is like a hidden bidder. If you don't match it then you stay at the low end of the bid, the starting price. If you match the reserve then the reserve value becomes your bid, even if you bid more. So the starting bid was $650, the reserve was set at $1200 and Paul's bid was somewhere between $1200 and a trillion dollars. No one bid against him so he got it for the reserve price.

Paul Hupp is quite a character -- he used to own a junk/antique shop just outside Seattle called Mambo, but it's gone now. He always had a crazy story about anything you bought from him; I bought a red Suzy Wong number from him that he said had been used in a Playboy photo shoot. He has a bunch of stuff that came out of the old Seattle Trader Vic's.

I was in the Dallas Trader Vic's several times over the last few years and I don't remember it. After the hotel was sold the new owners rented the space for private parties. I have heard that artifacts "disappeared" over time. Maybe this was one (although it may have been tough sneaking out an 8 ft. tiki under your coat.)

OK, this is a positively ancient thread at 3 years old and the original eBay auction that was linked to is long gone, but I had to throw my 2 cents in here as I ran across this thread doing a search for TV in Dallas. As luck would have it I officed right across the street from this TV location and I most definitely can verify that there was indeed a giant tiki (looked like an Easter Island head, Moai?) out front. I passed by it daily as I drove by it to get to the office. I wish I could see the pictures that were posted in the eBay auction as I could have verified whether or not it was the same tiki, but more than likely it was. Even though TV was closed by then, the tiki remained there for years. I remember quite well that it did not have any paint on it that was visible from the street, so the paint mentioned above was probably added later.

There, I've made my contribution to the historical record on the original TV tiki in Dallas :)

EDIT- well I just noticed the history of this moai was already discussed in another TV thread, and it sounds like it's not the same thing that was in the above eBay auction. I'll paste the info here since I bothered to bump this ancient thread to the top:

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The Moai

The moai that once guarded over the old Trader Vics remained out front for many, many years until one day it just disappeared. Where it went and what happened to it remained a mystery for a few years until this article appeared in the January 2005 issue of D Magazine:

Joe Hunt was the man who took the tiki. As a kid, his father used to take him to Trader Vic’s. So the local financial consultant offered to buy it from the hotel for $2,400. But then things got weird. The hotel—which was owned by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s organization and which was part of his plan to establish peace on earth through transcendental meditation—backed out of the deal. Hunt sued. The Maharishi’s people never showed up in court. And a judge awarded the tiki to Hunt, who carted it off to a friend’s warehouse in Ennis.

But then the hotel sued Hunt, and Hunt was forced to return the tiki to the hotel’s heavies in May 2003. But the statue never made it to its rightful post, and its whereabouts remained a mystery to all but a few of the Maharishi’s operatives.

After the purchase of the hotel in 2004, the original plan was to restore the moai and auction it off with the proceeds going to Special Olympics. Formikahini and I inquired about the status of the moai while talking to Rusty Fenton the night of the mock service. He told us what they would really like to do is return it to the front of Trader Vic’s once the restoration is complete. He then added, “Would you like to see it?”

We were then led out of Trader Vic’s and to the “secret location” where the moai is currently being worked on. Its condition for the most part is not great, and its future still uncertain, but THERE IT WAS...a giant 3000lb piece of tiki history laying anesthetized and awaiting surgery.

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[ Edited by: TikiTres 2008-06-12 13:56 ]