How many mugs?

There was an item on the previous evening's news about a restaurant in London that has had 20,000 of it's ashtrays stolen since it was opened a few years back. They were attempting to get some of them back by offering an amnesty as well as a free glass of champagne for anyone returning their stolen ashtray.

This begs the question, "In what kind of quantities were Tiki mugs produced for the various Tiki establishments?" I realise that numbers will differ wildly for different restaurants and bars, but does anyone have any concrete numbers? Is 500 a bare minimum run for any Tiki bar? Ten times that?

What intrigues me is that while 20,000 of these ashtrays (made of metal and forged
into a distinctive Q shape) have been stolen, I've not seen any offered for sale elsewhere. (I can't say I've looked too hard, though)
Even relatively rare mugs like, say, the green Mark Thomas moai, come up for sale
fairly regularly. Were they made in even greater quantities than 20,000?

Or to put it another way, to what extent are the Tiki mugs being traded these days
just the tip of an enormous Tiki iceberg?

Trader Woody

Trader Woody:

Those mug numbers are going down at an alarming rate! After some extensive research into why this is happening, I came across some startling evidence!

Tiki mugs were not designed to last at all... as a matter of fact, they were designed to self destruct! Restaurant and bar owners, fed up with the pilfering of their prized novelty drink vessels, invested a lot of time and capital to develop mugs that will literally self destruct if removed from their establishment!

Here is some rare documented evidence of this:

This mug was made from a space-age state-of-the-art polymer, that when exposed to excess UV rays outside the controlled mood lighting of the Tiki bar or restaurant, would begin to disintegrate!

Here is a rare Tiki Bob with its self destruct device still intact. A trigger string was attached to a pin on the device, and tethered to the bar or table. If the souvenir-seeking patron carried the mug too far from the bar, the string would pull out the safety pin, causing the hammer to smash the mug to bits!
Here is Tiki Bob's proprietor himself, in a publicity photo. Notice how his hand position cleverly conceals the destruct device:

This is the most common descruction device. This one was a dud, or the mug would have been lost forever. Ever wonder why some mugs have those concave bottoms? TO BETTER HIDE THE EXPLOSIVES!

Look out Doctor Z and Z Girl! That clam bowl could go off any second!

There are measures the collector can take to prevent further damage to their collection:

• For the polymer mugs, protect them inside hydrogen gas filled UV filtered glass cases.
• If you should find any of the hammer devices on your mugs, you can make little pillows to wedge between the mug and hammer, in case the device may trigger.
• For any rare mugs with bombs still attached, mail them directly to me to be defused. Be sure to clearly mark your package "WARNING: Bomb inside!

I hope this info will help all of you preserve your mugs for future generations.

:tiki:

[ Edited by: Traderpup on 2003-01-30 12:51 ]

[ Edited by: Traderpup on 2003-01-30 12:52 ]

ROTFLMAO!

It all makes sense now...
It IS a conspiracy!
I'm NOT crazy.

Pup, you have way too much time on your hands.
Thanks for the laugh!

-C.

Pup that was about the funniest thing I've seen here in a while.

Very cool Pup!