COCO JOE TIKI'S

Hi I"m new to the whole collecting of tiki's thing so pardon me if this seems stupid, but.....

When i was about twelve years old, back in the late 70's we went to hawaii for the first time and I collected all these very inexpensive "resin" black and brown tiki's from all over the island. I've since discovered that they were tossed out by my parents shortly after i left for college.

I know they wern't traditionally made or "high quality" pieces but there were sort of sentimental to me and i have been trying to locate replacements for some time now. I have seen some similar items on E-bey and some tiki sights labeled as "co co joe tikis" or "hip" or "Hawaiian Islands Products tikis". However I can't find any info or website about these tinks.

Ive seen some pictures on websights which refer to them a cheap, knock offs, ect...

Does anyone know what's up with these companies, where i can find info on them and any available products or similar ones. Thanks.

TikiJunior,

Welcome to TikiCentral. I too like CocoJoes stuff and have a rather large collection of them.

Too bad about mom tossing 'em. You can still find them for sale on ebay. As a matter of fact, there's some up now. There probably from the same era as the ones you had.

Good luck Jr.

TJ -
I dig cocojoes too, probably for pretty much the same reasons. To heck with the price guides that say the resin tikis are too tacky compared to pricey aloha shirts or porcelain hula girls.

Both Cocojoe's and HIP no longer exist. HIP went out of business in a warehouse fire that consumed the owner as well, so the story goes. I think some overseas knockoffs of cocojoes are still being made, by making molds right from the original tikis. They've got flaws and cheap materials, but I saw them for sale in the international terminal at the Honolulu airport. Two other old brands that aren't around anymore were PolyArt and McGee's.

Now there's a chinese brand called Chiefly that picked up the slack in the Hawaii souvenir stores. A lot of theirs are pretty cool, and some seem to make use of cocojoe molds. They've also started somehow doing mass-produced tikis carved out of actual wood, with significant variation from one piece to the next. Maybe somewhere in China there are people who go to a big workroom every day to carve out 8", 5", and 3" tikis. Hilo Hattie's in Kauai sells those, so maybe the mainland HH stores have them too.

Another current brand is KC, but they look a little different from cocojoes. They're plastic made to look like wood, and they're pretty easy to find all over the place, including online. Lots of the 'buy it now' tikis on ebay are by KC Co.

Ugh, what a collector nerd I am.

-Randy

What kind of a bribe is a dollar nintey six tiki anyways!!!

Sorry I was having Hawaiian Eye flashbacks

Welcome Tikijunior, I'll be damned...my Mom did exactly the same thing with a small but fine collection of early-60s Coco Joes, right before I went Tiki-crazy!

And Bong, you too? Et tu, aquarj? They are great, I don't know what it is about them but I love 'em. Here's another place that has them too: http://www.tikitoys.com/cgi-bin/TKTstore.pl?user_action=list&category=Tiki;Art

aloha, emspace.

Aloha Tikijunior and Welcome to our dysfunctional little group. I too, am a collector of CocoJoe's resin tikis. As a matter of fact, its how I got into the hobby many years ago. Check out eBay as they come up regularly.

Aquarj has some good info too - I've seen his Chiefly tiki collection and they look very much like CocoJoe's however, with a difference - unlike the CocoJoe's tikis, Chiefly tikis are molded in the back as well! Yes, they are available in Hilo Hattie and I believe ABC Stores in Hawaii however, I've yet to see one in the same stores on the mainland. Then again, I've only been to the HH and ABC locations in Orange, CA and Las Vegas, NV.

Good luck on your search.

**Poly-Pop ***

[ Edited by: PolynesianPop on 2003-06-19 18:48 ]

I like Coco Joe stuff too. I still have my tiki necklace that I got in Honolulu when I was 11 (27 years ago!).

Another place to look for pieces is at antique shops. That's where I got my Coco Joe tiki bookends. Higher prices than eBay (if you're lucky enough to find anything), but you don't have to pay shipping.

I think CoCoJoe's stuff is one of the biggest sleepers out there. I have 7 or 8.

I like the Coco Joe's stuff for the variety. I don't have a lot of it, but when I was searching high & low for King Kamehameha things for the Humuhumu Room, the only thing I found that I really liked was my little cheapie Coco Joe's statuette.

There's ton of Coco Joe's stuff at the Fremont Antique Mall here in Seattle... Junior, if you tell us where you're from, someone here may be able to point you to a good local source.

Junior- Welcome aboard! And welcome to the wonderful world of tiki!

Besides the wonderful advice the others have given, you may not want to overlook the local flea markets. I've had some good finds recently and one was a nice, heavy HIP. I paid $1.00 and the guy probably would have sold it for less.

Good luck!

I have a coco joe astray that says simply HAWAII.

Madein Hawaiiwith lava by coco joe'65. Is it worth anything if so how much can I get from it? It is in mint condition.

When I was a kid growing up in Anaheim, CA, we went to Disneyland a lot. Next to the Jungle Cruise was a kiosk we called the "Rubber Snake Hut" because they sold rubber snakes. But they also sold lots of Coco Joes. I remember staring at the rows of tikis - brown or black, some with rhinestones, some without. I had a big Lono that had a bright purple plastic orchid glued on the base. Of course, I went through my rebel teenage years and got rid of it. I have about 5 or 6 Coco Joes tikis now - mostly acquired from antique stores or thrift shops. I love them. It's best if you can find the tiki's with the labels on the back or under the base that describe who they are. My personal faves are any with rhinestones. Love them rhinestones on tikis.