Coco Joes?

Aloha everyone,
I too am fairly new to Tiki Central and have only been collecting tikis for about 7 months. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about Coco Joe's of Hawaii. I know they don't exist anymore, but I have 3 of their tiki's and just want to know approximately how old they might be. They are (from l to r in pic)Laukapalili, Kanaloa, and un-named. They all say Coco Joe's but there are no dates. ANY info anyone has about Coco Joe's would be much appreciated.

I'm not much of a Coco Joe expert, so I can't comment on those specific tikis, but here's a recent thread from another TC'er on the subject. Hope it helps:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=4329&forum=1

:tiki: SB

I've never seen the one to the far left.

I also like to collect the Coco Joe's tiki's. I never pass them up when I see them in antique shops (price depending) and I now have a small collection.

Lady Velour found me a Coco Joe item I never thought existed: Da Kine Drink Book. 46 drinks in it and each drink has a "cocojoe sez" rhyme. All drinks also have an illustration, a few with tikis which look a lot like their own.

cocojoe sez:
take your choice-
Vodka or rum,
And then set 'em up
To this chi chi chum.

Cocojoe sez:
Some pour in this, some that,
Some use a lot, some a bit.
But of all the Bloody Mary's,
You are bound to like Pele's Pit!

Cocojoe sez: (about the Polynesian Mai Tai)
You can really tie one on
With this exotic drink,
After a few, you too will believe
All elephants are pink!

And my favorite, the Welakahao
Cocojoe sez:
A scorpion like this
And a wahine's smile,
Will get you making whoopee
Hawaiian Style!

[ Edited by: johnnievelour on 2003-08-05 02:33 ]

[ Edited by: johnnievelour on 2003-08-05 13:25 ]

Cool book! Is there a publishing or copywrite date in it anywhere? I also noticed on my 3 tiki's that 2 of them have the same Coco Joe's logo that's on the front of the book, while the 3rd one appears to be hand inscribed. I'm wondering if that may be the older of the three. Thanks for the info!!

Welcome Juno!

I love my Joes too, just scored my Kanaloa thru eBay at a decent price. I am excited - he'll look great under my monkeypod coconut palm.

I am pretty sure that the logo seen in this thread was the one they started using when dealing with more forgiving materials, i.e. resin, Hapawood etc. The hand inscribed logo you mention is, I think, an indicator that the object is older and made of genuine lava. Or maybe I'm wrong - maybe none of them are really lava? I don't know if TC has a CoCo Joe's expert, if so I'd like to hear from them. That big fella to the left is nice. I've never seen one except in pictures, but I think TC member Sweet Daddy Tiki has one like it.

aloha,
emspace.

Here is a good past postabout Cococ joes, too. Collector nerd, AquaRJ, tells a brief history about them and others that are popular.

The book was published by Hawaiian Isles Publishing Co. in Honolulu, 1973.

[ Edited by: johnnievelour on 2003-08-05 13:29 ]

On 2003-08-05 10:09, emspace wrote:

I think, an indicator that the object is older and made of genuine lava. Or maybe I'm wrong - maybe none of them are really lava? I don't know if TC has a CoCo Joe's expert, if so I'd like to hear from them.
aloha,
emspace.

Welcome Juno:

Hey Emspace: The OG coco joe tikies were made from a mixture of lava ash, resin, and wild boar manuer for color. :)
*If you believe that, then you're a coco joe
Resin Rules. I collect the hula girls that have an ocean wave for hair.

JohnnyV: Let me know when you and MissV can hang out in the LBC

[ Edited by: MTKahuna on 2003-08-05 14:24 ]

Thanks everyone for the great info. Anyone know when Coco Joe's closed for good?

On 2003-08-05 14:21, MTKahuna wrote:

Hey Emspace: The OG coco joe tikies were made from a mixture of lava ash, resin, and wild boar manuer for color. :)

Hee hee! Ah, I'll believe anything, I'm Canadian, eh? Now, I believe I'll go give my Joes a good close sniff...

:), em.

I too am an avid collector of cocojoes tiki artifacts regardless of what they (were) are made of.I actually prefer the little sculpture tikis over the mugs and will be willing to trade mugs for those small tourist trinket types with anyone here, as long as its ones I dont have.I recently got a kool marquesan wood carving that appears to be a tourist type youd find at an airport.probably not worth much but would not ever happily part with.at the hukilau I met up with a central florida artist who was remaking a lot of the old coco joes stuff and hell, they look amazing. I will try to get the dudes info in case someones interested.so anyone interested in trading letme know..jaksin

I too like Coco Joes stuff. As a matter of fact, our band mascot - Smokin' Menehunes - is a little CocoJoe menehune playing a ukulele and singing like a drunk sailor (Spike).

I love those CocoJoe's menehunes! I recently found one sitting on a pineapple, which has holes in it meant to serve cheese or whatnot on toothpicks I guess. I have that one playing the uke and two others too.