Item 1

Item 2

Item 3

Item 4

Item 5

Item 6

Item 7

Item 8

Item 9

The last two items, Item 4 and Item 7, are revealed after the jump:

Sticker from Kahala in Barcelona

Item 7

Item 7 is a sticker from Kahala, in Barcelona, and was correctly identified by diablo. He actually said it was a Kahala menu, but the two look identical when cropped in like that, so it would have been impossible for him to know it was the sticker instead. I got this sticker as a gift from King Kukulele when I was at one of his Tiki Taix events last year. I have it stuck on my ukulele case, but it keeps falling off, I need to glue it down.

Maori Souvenir Tiki
by Ruihana

Item 4

Nobody guessed Item 4, which isn’t a surprise — I was kind of a stinker to include it, or at least to crop it so close. It’s a souvenir Maori tiki, carved by Ruihana, an artists’ collective in Rotorua, New Zealand. I picked it up at an antiques mall in Pasadena. The green item in his hand is a paddle, but I like to think it’s a lime, and he’s getting ready to mix up some Mai Tais. I think he’s absolutely gorgeous; despite his diminutive size (it’s only 9″ tall) and common provenance, it’s easily one of my very favorite tikis.

Thank you so much to everyone who took a guess at the items — I hope you had as much fun with it as I did.

• What In Polynesian Pop? [Humu Kon Tiki]

Kamaka Ukulele

Item 5

Cleen pegged Item 5 when she guessed it was my Kamaka ukulele. This is one of my more lovely, and beloved, possessions. I purchased it in winter 2004 from McCabe’s in Santa Monica. It’s a soprano uke, made of lustrous koa wood. Sometimes, when I’m supposed to be practicing, I find myself just looking at the fine craftsmanship and gorgeous grain. It seems a shame that my playing makes something so pretty sound so ugly. Every now and then I’m able to hand it over to someone who knows what they’re doing, and it sounds so rich, so beautiful. So, I keep practicing.

Shasta Tiki Punch

Item 6

Cleen also correctly identified Item 6, Shasta Tiki Punch. Waaaaay back in early 2002, when Tiki Central was still on Yahoo! Groups, it was noticed that Shasta soda had an online poll to vote for your favorite flavor — and Tiki Punch was among the options. Everyone started voting for Tiki Punch, not because it was tasty (most people hadn’t ever tried it), but because it was tiki, dammit. These days, tiki products can be seen in mainstream outlets all over the place, but back then it was more novel. Shortly after the discovery of the poll, Tiki Central moved over to its own setup where it still lives today, and the voting effort can bee seen in one of the earliest threads on TC’s current site. The campaign grew, and in a short time Tiki Punch had an astronomical lead over the other flavors.

It being just a goofy little online poll — and a poorly constructed one at that, given how easily folks were able to stuff the ballot box — TCers’ attentions turned to other things, and life marched along merrily. Then, one day, the Tiki Punch can came out with a new graphic on it — “World’s Greatest Flavor!” Oh, dear. Oh, my. Suddenly the little jape had a real-world consequence, the prank had turned from something that existed only on the internet into something solid that could be held in our hands. And a bit later still — TCers started to spot billboards for Tiki Punch, and Shasta started selling variations on Tiki Punch, including Tiki Mist, Tiki Orange Mango, and Tiki Blue. I would hope that they made their advertising and product development decisions based on actual sales data, rather than the results of a poll that had been monkeyed around with by a bunch of people who’d never even drunk their pop.

So now, Shasta Tiki Punch has a big place in Tiki Central history, and many of us have a few cans of the stuff laying around. I still don’t think I’ve ever tasted it — I imagine it’s probably like Hawaiian Punch, but I have no idea.

Okay, that leaves just two items to be guessed — take your best shot! The pictures have been zoomed out a bit, so they are a bit easier now.

• What in Polynesian Pop? Zoom Out Round [Humu Kon Tiki]

Item 4

Item 5

Item 6

Item 7

Five out of the nine items have been successfully guessed in the What in Polynesian Pop game, and these are the last four items. You’ll notice they’ve been zoomed out slightly. Take yer best shot!

• What In Polynesian Pop? [Humu Kon Tiki]
• WIPP: Three Items Revealed [Humu Kon Tiki]
• WIPP: Item 8 Revealed [Humu Kon Tiki]
• WIPP: Item 1 Revealed [Humu Kon Tiki]

USB Tiki Drive

Item 1

makemake correctly guessed that Item 1 is a USB Tiki Drive. These charming little buggers were sold in several different capacities by TikiMac, who no longer makes them. I got mine at the 2005 Northwest Tiki Crawl, it was a raffle prize. Tangaroa was close when he guessed it was the “USB tiki with the flashing eyes,” but that’s a whole ‘nother animal.

More than half the items have been guessed now, but there are still four more that need figuring out — keep the guesses coming!

• What In Polynesian Pop? [Humu Kon Tiki]

Trader Vic’s Christmas Menehune

Item 8

Item 8 was correctly guessed by sneAKYTIKI to be a Trader Vic’s Christmas Menehune. Cleen nearly got it right off the bat with a guess of Trader Vic’s menehune. These little rubber dolls are mounted on long wooden sticks, and come as a souvenir when you order the Menehune Juice drink at Trader Vic’s. The standard male Menehune doll (there is also a chesty female version) has shiny black hair, a white loincloth, and wears a pink lei. During Christmastime, they switch over to the version above, with white hair, a green loincloth, and a red lei. I have also seen Christmas menehunes with red and green hair. How very merry! I picked mine up at Trader Vic’s San Francisco last New Year’s Eve.

There are still five more items to be guessed — keep the guesses coming!

• What In Polynesian Pop? [Humu Kon Tiki]

Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log

Item 3

Item 3 was correctly guessed by Tangaroa to be the cover of the Grog Log, by Beachbum Berry. I’ve mentioned the Grog Log a few times here on Humu Kon Tiki, but it’s always worth another mention — if you don’t have this book, go get it! I bought mine a few years back, and this past summer, the Bum signed mine:

To Humuhumu, Grand Mistress of the Mai Tai, mahalo for the pleasure of your company… and your mixing! Jeff Berry

Trader Vic’s Port Light Ceramic Mug

Item 2

Item 2 was correctly guessed by Helz to be a Trader Vic’s Port Light mug. He actually used the word “glass,” and while this is actually the ceramic mug and not the original glass version of the Port Light, some people use “glass” as a generic term for both glasses and mugs, so I’m counting it as a correct guess. I purchased this from the Trader Vic’s in San Francisco a few months ago; they had a whole cache of them, never used and still stored in their original packaging, complete with the Imperial sticker on the bottom. They must have been sitting in the Trader Vic’s warehouse for some time. The Port Light and its sister drink, the Starboard Light (served in a green mug, naturally) are both creamy, egg-based drinks — the Port Light uses scotch, while the Starboard Light (my preference) is made with bourbon. These drinks are still served at Trader Vic’s today, but it’s more common to see a version of this mug with black paint instead of gold.

Bamboo Handbag

Item 9

Helz had another correct guess with Item 9, one of the feet on my beloved Bamboo Handbag. Bamboo Handbag (along with the small chimp playing a ukulele she wears on her handle) has been my constant companion for nearly three years now, and she’s got the scuff marks to prove it. Bamboo Handbag arouses commentary everywhere we go — the first thing people say (after saying “cool purse!”) is “where did you get it?” I spotted Bamboo Handbag in the window of a picture framing shop in Seattle, as part of a seasonal display. I’m not totally clear on her provenance beyond that, but my friend Kevin Kidney thinks he knows:

Oh poor bag. Your hard outer shell just hides the emptiness inside. I imagine that once upon a time ago you were a thirty foot tall pillar of bamboo, swaying within a green forest of your kin next to an ancient pagoda. Once a little girl named Gong Lee carved her name at your base. Then you were chewed down by a panda and fell into the Yangtze, only to be carried off to sea. Long after that you were picked up by a bearded man named Bo Tsai and you became a fishing pole on a sampan. Bo Tsai didn’t catch a single fish, and so he sold you to a sweatshop where you were fashioned into 15 identical little hand bags, each one slightly smaller than the one before. You are #7 hand bag (#1 being so tiny that it was given to a mouse to carry one piece of rice in.) You only have one friend, your third owner: a skinny girl who spills drinks on you and claims that you actually like it. I guess you don’t count the little carved monkey as a friend. He’d cut loose from you, if he could. Wooden monkeys aren’t loyal, as you’ve no doubt discovered. And besides, he was once a tree in Palmdale; but that’s another story.

Men seem just as interested in her as women are, I think it’s because she has an “if that was my next wood shop project, I wouldn’t catch flak from the wife for being in the garage all day” sort of look to her. She’s been in more tiki bars than most people I know (and that’s saying something, in the crowd I run in), and she once had her own page on MySpace (maybe it’s time to give her another one). Bamboo Handbag, I love you so!

Some of the guesses for the other items are very close… keep the guesses coming!

• What In Polynesian Pop? [Humu Kon Tiki]

Item 1

Item 2

Item 3

Item 4

Item 5

Item 6

Item 7

Item 8

Item 9

When I was kneehigh to a menehune, I loved the “What In the World” feature at the back of the National Geographic World magazine for kids. It showed zoomed-in photos of things (a butterfly’s wing, the center of a dandelion), and you had to guess the item. I thought I’d try the same with some of my tiki stuff I have here at home — and so I bring you What in Polynesian Pop. If you recognize an item pictured above, post your guess as a comment! Be warned — some of these items are probably pretty hard to guess — but I’ll offer clues if people are truly stumped. They’re all Polynesian Pop-related, and they are all objects in my own collection. When someone has a bang-on guess, I’ll announce the item and the name of the correct guesser.