Saturday, April 09, 2011

Round Robin Challenge: Museum of the Tikis

It's Tiki Time again! This week's Round Robin Photo Challenge topic, as suggested by Marina of MilePebbles, is "Collections." We have many different collections here at the Museum of the Weird: classic Star Trek toys and collectibles (mostly in boxes, alas), Quantum Leap scripts, vintage and mod era Barbie dolls, trolls and Wishniks (some of which had their hair pulled out by Cayenne on at least two different occasions), old toys and games, Doctor Who novels, Disneyland postcards, and on and on. But I think one of the most photogenic collections, certainly one of the most accessible, is the Tiki collection. I've shown you many of our Tiki artifacts before, but let's jump in again, shall we?

Most of our Tiki mugs are on sagging paperback bookcases that we bought used a decade ago. Here are some of them:





Easter Island Salt and Pepper



Other Tiki items are perched atop a wall of crates housing our record collection. You can also see our vintage swizzle stick collection here.



These are a plastic set, from K-Mart of all places.



It's not just about mugs. Among the Tikis are bowls, a lighter, salt and pepper, and of course this poster.

Now let's see what other Robins have collected!

Linking List
as of Saturday, April 9th at 4:07 PM MST

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Peggy
Who Can Discover It?
http://whocandiscoverit.blogspot.com

Linda - Posted!
Mommy's Treasures
http://mommystreasures.blogspot.com

Ruth
The ScrabbleQueen Knits, Too
http://scrabblequeen.wordpress.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Manang Kim - Posted!
My Life's Journey in Focus
http://www.kissess4u.com

Erin - Posted!
Worth A Thousand Words (new blog!)
http://erin-worthathousandwords.blogspot.com/

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com/

Kat - Posted!
In My Dreams I Can Fly
http://inmydreamssfk.blogspot.com/

Update:
Oops! I forgot about our outdoor Tikis!



For anyone who doesn't know, Tikis are representations of Polynesian gods and other mythic figures. Around the time Hawaii was becoming a state, the U.S. mainland developed a fascination with all things Hawaiian, including Tikis. (WWII veterans returning home from the Pacific had something to do with it as well.) Tiki bars and restaurants sprang up around the country, featuring tropical drinks and Polynesian decor, including Tikis. Sometimes these places played Hawaiian music and Hawaiian-inspired exotica, including the music of Les Baxter and Martin Denny. All this "Tiki culture" was a major strand of the "lounge" scene, circa 1960. And when people went home after drinking their Mai Tais, Scorpions and other lethal concoctions, they often brought home a Tiki mug! -- KFB

5 comments:

Linda said...

What a fun collection!! Isn't it fun to have something to look for on vacations and such?

Scrabblequeen said...

Love the Tiki collection, esp the poster! LOL...laughing that your list of other things sounds wonderful to me...Stark Trek, Quantum Leap, etc...

sunflowerkat said...

This made me smile. What an unusual collection. It sounds like at your house, everywhere you look there's something interesting to see!

Kat
http://inmydreamssfk.blogspot.com/2011/03/this-was-amazing.html

Erin said...

Well, I'm new enough to RRPC that I've never seen the tiki collection, and I think it's great. The colors remind me of Fiestawear dishes. You've got some great pieces - are any of them valuable?

Gattina said...

That's a very interesting collection, I have never met a person who collected such things, I didn't even know what a Tiki was ! Blogging is indeed interesting !