Mai tikis vs Stonetikis.com

[ Edited by: stonetiki 2012-02-08 20:07 ]

[ Edited by: stonetiki 2012-02-08 20:16 ]

Here is Mai tikis response to
asking his opinion about my artwork ....to be honest,. i resent you using the moai as your logo,. a similar one to the maitiki logo, used (registered), for over 37 yrs , to represent my company.    though most of your stuff
looks like your own designs, (i suggest you don't copy, or APPEAR to copy,. anyone.)      ( the moai drawing you use is by Shagg and i don't think he would approve of anyone using it without permission),.. the other "similar" to mai tiki design is the purple one, clearly modeled after a mai tiki.
i understand making artwork is fun and cool,. but you can't imagine how constantly "artists" rip off the mai tiki look. Shagg has the same problem.    so, there's my opinion,. how do you
like me now?                                                             strive to be DIFFERENT-  people will associate your style with YOU,- not mention another artists name that yours reminds them of....................     strive to be ORIGINAL!                                   -W
On Feb 7, 2012, at 9:51 PM, Chris wrote:

Hi I'm chris I love your pahu tikis check out some of my stuff at stonetikis.com I would love your opinion it would mean alot thank you chris teeks felts

Actually, it looks alot like the Mohave Oasis moai Buzzy created...

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=19078&forum=7&vpost=583284

Aside from that, your post is impossible to read. Do you expect us to follow some stream-of-consciousness rambling of a conversation between you and someone else?!

Kahiki Moai... though with some differences...

Honestly, most everything being done today has been inspired by something done yesterday.

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer 2012-02-08 20:12 ]

I think Wayne is saying that the trademark logo that he's had for 37 years, which was done by SHAG,and currently isn't on his website, was ripped off by Stonetikis for his logo for his own website.

I saw 4-5 different vendors at Tiki Oasis last year who used that same Moai on their cards/etc.

I always thought it was a hybrid of the Kahiki that Lake posted and this one:

On 2009-06-09 16:26, bigbrotiki wrote:

It's also widely available on some clip art cd. Jimiyaki made the Mojave Oasis logo from a clip art thingy he had. Maybe he bought the clip art CD from SHAG?

Speakin of stone tikis,Me and Bamboo Ben crafted this one from concrete:

On 2011-04-17 17:07, JOHN-O wrote:

I just happened to have made this one today:

The demand for Moais shall never cease!
Buzzy Out!

[ Edited by: Bay Park Buzzy 2012-02-08 20:48 ]

On 2012-02-08 18:25, stonetiki wrote:

[ Edited by: stonetiki 2012-02-08 20:07 ]

[ Edited by: stonetiki 2012-02-08 20:16 ]

what the hell is going on around here!!!??

I believe the Natives of Easter Island may have dibs on the copyright :lol: :lol: :lol:

Wait,

you guys didn't get the memo?

Wait Coombs invented tikis and we're ALL copying his stuff.

Well, at least that't the vibe I got from him when I went to his shop and tried to be respectful and nice, and tell him he was one of the guys that inspired me to start making tikis in the first place. What a fucking mistake that was....

Wouldn't it be a boring world if there were only Wayne Coombs Tikis! He has actually inspired me to make a tiki that looks like him .... But I probably couldn't post it on TC. Lol

On 2012-02-08 23:13, pjc5150 wrote:
Wait,

you guys didn't get the memo?

Wait Coombs invented tikis and we're ALL copying his stuff.

Well, at least that't the vibe I got from him when I went to his shop and tried to be respectful and nice, and tell him he was one of the guys that inspired me to start making tikis in the first place. What a fucking mistake that was....

:lol:

On 2012-02-08 20:05, Lake Surfer wrote:
Kahiki Moai... though with some differences...

Dammit, u just burst my buzzy bubble...

On 2012-02-08 18:31, stonetiki wrote:
...strive to be DIFFERENT-  people will associate your style with YOU,- not mention another artists name that yours reminds them of....................     strive to be ORIGINAL!                                   
-W

Sounds like very good advice to me.

If you have been in FL at all, you have likely seen many many Mai Tiki rip offs. They are so plentiful that you at first think Wayne must be huge down there. Then you go look for the mark of Mai Tiki and realize these are not his work. They are just some other copy cat who is ripping him off. Wayne does have his style, like it or not, and it is popular in FL. And many people started making rip offs and he can't even keep up with them any more. When Home Depot was selling them, he did stop them.

So, if you want to know why is is so POed, just drive around and stop at every "Mai Tiki" you see and see if it really is one. Then you will understand how much he has lost to the rip-offs. If he got the money for every copy out there, he would be doing great!

And how many people have come to his shop and then gone home and made Mai Tiki copies? A bunch. Some he used to employ. It is a touchy subject with him. And it would be with you too if you drove around seeing rip offs of your work in front of every Ron Jon and restaurant and car dealership within a 200 mile radius... Shag has a legal team to stop the copies. Wayne does not.

Be original!

I don't claim to have a well qualified opinion since I'm new to this game, but it seems to me that it would be quite difficult to lay claim to certain aspects of tiki carving. If someone puts a pineapple on their work is it stealing from the design of that guy who claims to have done it 37 years ago? If a fleur de lis style nose is used does it mean I copied from someone else? Seems like a bit of an ego trip for that guy to claim people are stealing his style just because of similarities.... for instance, there are only certain aspects of a traditional Hawaiian tiki or a Marq that can be altered to still have the same effect.

I write novels that have cave trolls and eagle-headed warriors as the main characters .... if I hear of another eagle-headed warrior out there in the book world I don't cry foul and piss a fit about it .... there are only so many eagle-headed creatures around these days! I think it as a compliment that someone would like the idea of an eagle-headed warrior enough to make their own ..

As for the dispute on the "drawing" of the moai that is on that web site... if that picture was taken without approval by the one who put pen to paper, then that is copyright infringement. Unless, of course, it is considered public domain. .... the stonetiki guy is an artist! Why not draw a moai of your own, shoot a high res picture of it and slap onto your site?

... so there it is ... a lengthy unqualified opinion ....

... oh, and if anyone knows of a novel that has eagle-headed warriors in it, I'd love to know so I can read it!

Have a Great Day!

As for my website logo I asked a friend to whip up one for me, he didn't know anything about tikis. I needed one quick and so he put one together. I'm actually kinda ashamed of how it turned out just I have never "ripped or stole anyone elses art. That's the story, I'm in the process of getting a new logo. I feel it was a generic logo that represented what I do Stonetikis. Wayne Coombs appologized to me and were cool now. I thought it was a great topic! Thanks everyone for your input. keep tiki art alive! Stonetiki

On 2012-02-09 11:05, Captain Jack wrote:
I don't claim to have a well qualified opinion since I'm new to this game, but it seems to me that it would be quite difficult to lay claim to certain aspects of tiki carving. If someone puts a pineapple on their work is it stealing from the design of that guy who claims to have done it 37 years ago? If a fleur de lis style nose is used does it mean I copied from someone else? Seems like a bit of an ego trip for that guy to claim people are stealing his style just because of similarities.... for instance, there are only certain aspects of a traditional Hawaiian tiki or a Marq that can be altered to still have the same effect.

I write novels that have cave trolls and eagle-headed warriors as the main characters .... if I hear of another eagle-headed warrior out there in the book world I don't cry foul and piss a fit about it .... there are only so many eagle-headed creatures around these days! I think it as a compliment that someone would like the idea of an eagle-headed warrior enough to make their own ..

As for the dispute on the "drawing" of the moai that is on that web site... if that picture was taken without approval by the one who put pen to paper, then that is copyright infringement. Unless, of course, it is considered public domain. .... the stonetiki guy is an artist! Why not draw a moai of your own, shoot a high res picture of it and slap onto your site?

... so there it is ... a lengthy unqualified opinion ....

... oh, and if anyone knows of a novel that has eagle-headed warriors in it, I'd love to know so I can read it!

Have a Great Day!

Have you ever seen an image and thought "that looks like a Shag" and then you pick it up and it is a Shag? Or it isn't a Shag? Well then you just realized that Shag has a style and it can be copied and imitated. People like it and want to have a Shag image, but instead of paying to have Shag do it, they get someone else to copy it. If they take a Shag work and literally duplicate it, that's an easy legal matter. If they use his style, then it is tougher. Yet, you look at it and think "that's like a Shag". It is a rip-off, even if it is not a legally challengable rip-off of Shag.

So, I am driving by Ron Jon in Florida and I see this big Mai Tiki out front and I think "way to go Wayne!" and then I get up to it and it says "Bert" on the side, right where Wayne has "Mai Tiki" and, well, they ripped off Wayne. This has happened to me dozens of times in Florida. It has happened because for nearly 40 years Wayne has been carving and putting his work all over Florida. When people there think of a Tiki, it look slike Wayne's Tiki.

He did create a new style. So did Shag. Other folks did too. And when you see their work you know it. And when you see their work and know it, and then you see they didn't actually make it, you are acknowledging the fact that someone ripped them off.

I can see a style too and think it was likely carved by Benzart. It may be a Ku, but I know the style. But in this case, Wayne made something his own. The "Flodia Tiki" is actually a Mai Tiki. He created it. It isn't a ku or a kane or a rarotanga that he tweaked. Well, it is, but, it also isn't going to get confused for original oceanic art in a book.

This is a Mai Tiki. If you see it in Florida and it does not have "Mai Tiki" carved on the side of it, it is someone ripping off Wayne Coombs. If you walk up and check to see if it is really a Mai Tiki, you are acknowldeging that it is either genuine or a rip off.

Good points, Swanky!

If someone took that photo and carved a tiki from it - slice for slice - ..... and even had the audacity to put his own name where that guy usually puts his .... well, that deserves a swift kick in the onions!

But there has to be levels of latitude for the commonalities of tiki carving ... that nose looks like some I've seen before ... did he copy it from someone else's work? Those teeth look like the same teeth I've seen on hundreds of tikis, why can't he be ORIGINAL? Why can't he strive to be DIFFERENT? ... there's only so much one can do to design a never before seen set of chompers! .... I will give him this, the eyes he puts on his logs are unique and after having seen this topic, I would now question a tiki that I saw with eyes like that.

Blatent duplication of someone's work is not right and I don't blame the guy if that is what he is finding ... but that doesn't mean "similarities" as a part of someone's carve should be ballooned into a blanket statement that one's work is being "ripped off!"

Have a Great Day!

Whatever. In my world there aren't any good excuses for treating nice people like shit, so no, I would never act like that regardless of how many people copied my stuff.

"I like big teeth I can't deny"....

The Coombs has many many stories revolving around being a total tool towards people.

Mahalo

McTiki

I know Wayne is a hard ass. So I suggest steering clear of this very touchy subject with him. And if it comes up, don't discus it either. Too many people were "inspired" by Wayne and started selling Wayne style rip offs over in Tampa or wherever.

But, before Wayne did it, there were no "Jimmy Carter" tikis out there. If you have seen a hundred of them out there, it is because 100 guys have copied his very populate style.

well, just know that some of us here in Tampa are doin' our own thing brother!

And I don't ever plan on engaging him on the subject of tikis (or anything else for that matter) ever again, so I doubt it will "come up".

But hey, on a separate note, I really don't like being a hater, and I still respect the guy despite my bad encounter with him. He is one of the main dudes in Florida, period. I used to live & surf in Cocoa Beach, and his work is one of the main things that inspired me to start doing my own, period.

And I also have to admit, my bad encounter with him may have been what inspired me most. I left his shop PISSED...and told myself "F this guy...I'm going to do better stuff than him someday". It still drives me. So I guess maybe I owe him more than I want to admit.

Mahalos to all, Wayne too. Now I'd better get my a$$ over to the Tahitian and get back to work.