Hawaiian Island Products: HIP

Kimoaz is back.

I have been gone for awhile but now I am back.

My family started HIP in September of 1964 and we are resposible for some of the ugly Tikis you see out there. We also gathered a bit of info about CoCo Joe's. I don't know if anyone is interested in the early history-we did cover it back in 2005, but maybe someone new is interested.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Kimo

Aloha Kimo! Welcome back and Happy New Year! Can't wait for an update :) Freddie

Here are a couple of answers to old questions:

1. Ugly Tiki was made out of Olivine sand crystals. after molding the tiki was soaked in a acetone bath which ate away some of the resin binder.
   Then it was brushed to give it the authentic hand carved "look". Remember this was the early 60's. That was as good as it got.

2. The mixture was usually 20% binder and 80% raw material. That was enough to let the mixture flow into the molds. The finer the raw material the
   better detail we could get.

3. There is a new Coco joe's on Oahu. I even picked up one of our old Tiki models in Waikiki this past year. It has a Coco Joe' label and yet is molded
   with the HIP logo on the base. The new ones are all plastics with 0% raw material.

It's fun to see the "old stuff" still floating around. Thanks for keeping up the interest.

Kimo

Aloha Kimo - thanks for the info. Some more questions:

Was the mixture injected into the mold hot or at room temperature? Was it even injected, or just poured in?

Did the olivine crystals come from South Point on the Big Island? How about the "lava" for the black figures "made with lava" - where did the lava powder come from?

HIP really distinguished themselves from Coco Joe's with the Rascal series - who was the artist or designer for those figures?

I read once the founder of Coco Joe's moved to the Big Island after the company closed in the late 1990's - do you know if he's still alive, and what's his name?

Have you considered bringing back HIP, like the new Coco Joe's, or are all the molds long gone?

Thanks again for posting.

hey there. i have a few hawaiian pieces that are not HIP, not Coco Joes ~ they are Holo-Ka-Hana, Ltd.. each comes in a tapa patterned box . do you know anything about them?

pictures & text here

Good Evening,

An attempt at a few more answers:

The mixture was poured into molds on a vibrating table which settled the mixtures. It was at room temperature but the mixture became hot as the
bonding material cured. It was the consistency of wet sand so it moved fairly well.

The olivine came from different places. Don't tell anyone, but the first batch came from the ledges around Hanauma bay. We used to go there for
evening cookouts and we would go out and collect it from the rocks. Of course we could drive to the beach in those days and have it all to ourselves.

The lava came from a landscape company on Beretania street. We got black and red cinders, shoveled it into barrels, took it to the shop and my job
was to grind it up with an industrial meat grinder. Then we had sifters of different sizes to make the different textures. Powder to make fine features
up to a heavier agregate for a rougher finish. When we got bigger we were able to have material delivered from a wholesaler at Barber's point. We
also used coral, both yellow and white, ground it up and used it as well.

Our artist was and still is a gentleman named Jim Wallace. If I remember correctly , he was responsible for the rascal series. He was able to take
authentic drawings from the Bishop museum, make a plaster replica and make a mold for casting. He now lives on the big island and may be the
person someone thought might be a part of Coco Joe's

I have thought about bringing back HIP. I'm afraid we couldn't do it the way we used to. I would never use the raw lava for the Tiki, it is not a good
idea to make Pele angry. It was also very labor intensive and we all know how expensive labor is in Hawaii. Maybe I could start something here using
Arizona Lava and some of the new Americans that are making their way through AZ.

I am not familiar with the pieces from Holo-Ka-Hana. From the label it sound like it pre-dates both HIP and Coco Joe's. Not very many companies
used the phrase "Territory of Hawaii" after statehood. Everyone was happy to be the 50th state and always made that notation.

Until next time,

Kimo

Kimo, thank you so much for your extensive replies, I know the HIP/CoCo Joe's collectors here, especially, and Tiki collectors in general on TC really appreciate this kind of insider info.
I have a question: Do you know or remember where the name "HIP" originated from?

One more for tonight:

Hawaiian Island Products, Inc.== H.I.P.

I guess my father thought it was hip in the 60's to be hip with the name H.I.P..

kimo

Fantastic interview. Short, sweet, informative.

HIP was a product of Bonnie Baker (killed in a fire in 1977)She started with a toy shop in International Market Place about 1960. Soon branched out to Tee shirts and real estate. By the time of her death she had made her first or maybe second million. Became known as the "Witch of Waikiki." [email protected]

Interesting information. Please give more details about how she started the company.
Kimo