How Should We Celebrate Tiki Central's 20th Anniversary?

Well there's a three colour stick that's not a flat paddle style so no doubt it can be done, it's just going to increase the costs. And looking at the website, those Harco ones look pretty good to me. I'm sure the quality is just as good as ROYER, they just happen to be the more well known company for making swizzle sticks.

And 25,000 is now the minimum? That's stinks of nothing but greed to me. What was it prior to that? 10,000?

Sorry, Swiz, I should have clarified that I thought the shape of that logo (either square or diamond) and the stacked words would work well for the end of a swizzle, not an exact recreation of the picture. So it could still be a two-color injection swizzle--say, dark green with only "Tiki Central" raised on a diamond and embossed gold. It also might allow more space for printing on the stick. (Maybe MDM or another artist could mock up a visual based on that description?)

The more I think of it, though, that logo would also work pretty well for a coaster, too.

Did you see that :up:, he called me an artist :lol:

Hamo, a more compact logo like yours makes more sense. Especially for a swizzle stick so that it's not so wide and wanting to turn lopsided in your drink before you can take a pic and post it

Something like this? Green stick as the base color, brown molded raised diamond with grid textured in, Tiki Central letters raised above the brown diamond (probably molded in brown) and then foil printed (OK, my gold color is pretty cheesy :lol: ). I assume any lettering on the stick would be raised in green and then foil printed.

Mike, shouldn't the swizzle stick have a tiki on it?

Hamo, I like your version of the logo, and especially the idea for using it on a coaster (first thing I thought of when I saw it.) It would also stand alone quite well on a t-shirt. May need some minor tweaks for a swizzle, but MDM, Swizzle and others seem to have that process well under way. I'm liking this.

Looks great Mike.

"(OK, my gold color is pretty cheesy )"
The gold looks great too, remember back in the day when your mom sprayed everything with gold spray paint to bring it back to life and redo the décor, must have been a how to in Home and Garden mag.

Also one of the first Kahiki people told me that the ceiling of the bar and other areas had gold paint rolled over the top to put small flecks of gold into the ceiling.

The idea was to have the ceiling "sparkle like stars at night"

The ceiling was this woven string looking stuff that I would bet was asbestos, it looks just brown now, have some don't know where it is now.

I know it would be harder but I would go the other way, that is the diamond top Tiki Central with a diamond shape Coaster mostly cuz all coasters are mostly round or square.

"Did you see that , he called me an artist"

I think selling your art makes you a professional artist at that.
Would call you an artist myself.

I love the idea of coasters or swizzles.

MDM....I would agree....you are an artist.

Like tikilongbeach I thought that any swizzle we did should have a tiki on it. So I humbly threw together a really quick sloppy mock-up to give an idea of how that might look. (Sorry for the quality and the generic Ku as the tiki, ideally we would have a more unique and cooler tiki.)

What would y'all think of something along the lines of this?

[ Edited by: CosmoReverb 2019-09-24 13:04 ]

Now THAT'S what an artist's work looks like! :lol: I like it CosmoReverb!

Wow that is cool!

The tiki looks like it could also be made into animal crackers.

That looks awesome, I would chip in for some of those!

DC

I'd buy into that.

CosmoReverb, I like it!

I'd definitely be game for a few of those!

CosmoReverb, that is absolutely spot on. It has all the text that is required, 20yrs plus the dates and the 'Open 24 hours' (which i think is a must), and having the tapa pattern along the stick is brilliant and is something that can be done with injection molding. If this is something that is going to go ahead then it should be done properly. There's only two things that need to be changed.

1.) As i've already mentioned the stick is going to be green with yellow highlights. It's possible that it can be made with the diamond being brown but i'm sure that would increase the costs by quite a lot.

2.) The Tiki should probably be Shecky.

[ Edited by: swizzle 2019-09-24 21:02 ]

I would definitely chip in on the swizzle sticks. Do the early TC members get a discount :)

On 2019-09-24 20:46, swizzle wrote:

2.) The Tiki should probably be Shecky.

Photo credit: TravelingJones

Be sure to save one for Andy Landry.

I know I'm late to the game, I like the Swizzles, Stickers etc,
But in honor of Harry Yee's Birthday today, I suggest Cocktail Umbrellas.
Look at Cocktail Umbrellas.com for some of their examples of clients they have done already.

First off I really apologize for the sloppy rush job. I had to try and recreate the whole piece during my lunch break so I'm very sorry for the harsh contrast settings and really poor likeness of Shecky.

Hopefully this gives a rough representation of the suggested changes. Please let me know if I missed anything.

[ Edited by: CosmoReverb 2019-09-26 19:15 ]

You call that a sloppy rush job? I think it looks fantastic. Not sure how much better it will look if you spend some more time on it.

And Jeff's idea of umbrellas is a good one.

Yeah those are great!

Looks great Cosmo. I went to get a quote from Harco Plastics just to see what we are talking about in price terms. Their minimum order for custom swizzles/stir sticks is 10,000. 5,000 is the minimum for standard swizzles. Cosmo, I'll send you a PM with my e-mail to see if you can send me a higher resolution image. TC has reduced this one to 137x640

EDIT - Is that Shecky Tiki some sort of copyrited image that we need to get permission for? I have sent a couple of emails to Hanford asking permission to use the TC Logo but so far have not heard back.

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2019-09-27 07:51 ]

Yep. Those swizzels are teh Roxor!

Jeff mentioned umbrellas, here is their pricing for reference

That is for 2 color printing. For 3 color add $30 for 50-500 pieces and $60 for 1000+ pieces. It's a little confusing but it looks like full color is an additional $30-60 on top of 3 color?

Sorry to just keep spamming the thread by posting different versions of the same pics, but I couldn't stand not giving Shecky a little better justice than that rush job...

On 2019-09-27 07:47, MadDogMike wrote:
...
EDIT - Is that Shecky Tiki some sort of copyrited image that we need to get permission for? I have sent a couple of emails to Hanford asking permission to use the TC Logo but so far have not heard back.

That's a good question MDM. Does Tikifish still post on here these days? I would assume that she would know if it is copyrighted.

Best ever swizzle. What a great job and very desirable. Wendy

Aloha everyone,
I think the swizzle is awesome !! You absolutely nailed it CosmoReverb!!

I love all the ideas being presented. As I had mentioned to Hamo and MDM previously, I started emails with Todd from PinTiki and TikiTony, if they had interest in helping with TC 20yr merch. I also had a chance to chat with them at the Tikiland Trading Co. Marketplace on Sunday. They are both interested in helping out, but, did bring up a great question, of which I briefly talked to MadDogMike about as well. I think it is important that we get Hanford's approval of any merch, as it may be copyrighted.

With that said:
PinTiki mentioned that it's about one month lead time from start to finish product for a good enamel pin. He and I discussed a standard Tiki Central pin, but, that also maybe a 20yr anniv pin as well. I though this might be a good option, as TC doesn't have a separate tab for a store. He already has an account with the pin manufacturer, has an online storefront, etc.
PinTiki also said that if T-shirts were desired, he mentioned that the ones he is currently making are print on demand, which are done fairly quickly and then don't have to be stocked / stored somewhere.

TikiTony was also interested, and said he would be interested in getting involved. He has done glassware, pins, patches, sticker, swizzles, all kinds of merch, so, he does have some experience with the manufacturing side.

Just some things to think about:

1.) As Hamo mentioned the anniversary is January 12, 2020. That is coming up quick !! If we are going to get merch ready by then, we all need to get an answer from Hanford, and start contacting manufacturers, and getting orders in......OR.....are we all ok, if the merch comes out in a timely manner, but, doesn't happen by Jan 12th?

2.) If we can get design ideas posted here soon, ....then I think next is to schedule a time for an "official voting deadline", so that everyone has a chance to review any potential designs, and make decisions. so that we can move forward.

3.) Of course, as we all know, the difficult part is the money side of this. How do we want to get these items funded, and started, and then how do we handle the purchase of these items from anyone and everyone that would want these? What's the most effective way to get the word out about the pins, patches, stickers, t-shirts.....all the stuff that has been discussed. As Hamo stated previously
"In addition to a PayPal donation link, another way for general support of TC could be an Amazon link (like Swanky's just added
to the Grogilzer), where when someone clicks on the link here, a percentage of any purchase comes back to TC. "
I think this is really important, as many comments have been made about how a little bit of upgrades to make posting easier would be nice, takes time and money, and if we can raise some money from merch to help give the TC admin some resources, I'm sure would help !!

4.) The idea of having a party....or gathering is an awesome idea as well....seeing as how there are many Tiki Centralites that might not have met in real life? I think it might be an interesting idea to attempt a multi-location party!! Seeing as how TC is online based, maybe everyone can find a suitable location for a gathering (local tiki bar/restaurant?), and then we can try to setup for streaming from location to location. The party would be connected to several locations domestically, and/or internationally, online, much like Tiki Central itself, which has gathered people from all over. I think this could be really fun to see some of the locations from all over, as well as, some of the people on this amazing website. Of course, it would be awesome if Hanford himself could attend so that everyone can thank him from all over the globe for his creation.

5.) In regards to a larger question which was first brought up in the previous thread. I also think it would be great to make some glossy card "bar flyers" that could have some general info about TC, and about it's upcoming 20yr Anniv. that can be sent to volunteers, to take some to your local tiki bars/restaurants, and placed there for people to pick up and get interested in TC.

6.) There was a lot of different merch being proposed in previous threads,
Here is a quick list of what I have seen the following suggested:
T-shirts
Aloha Shirt
Glassware
Mug
Swizzle
Stickers
Patches
Pins
Umbrellas
Nut Cups
Bar Flyers
Drink Coasters
Buttons

This is a pretty good list of items. It might be good to nominate one person to oversee all the different items?...OR...have one place where they can be purchased?.....OR....should we get Hanford's approval for anything and everything TC related, and then everyone can purchase items from wherever they come from? seems like that might get chaotic.....but, maybe that's what is desired?

Any other thoughts?

[ Edited by: PineappleWhip 2019-10-02 10:59 ]

Great job PineappleWhip!

With the start up costs they would need to be put up by a group and guaranteed so as nobody gets caught holding the bag.

Maybe a GoFundMe thing?
As far as what to make that might be a hey TC vote type thing.

I like the card to put in bars idea, paper is timeless and we all look for it.
BUT paper get messed up over time and this is what can make paper items so pricy for collectors years down the road.

PLUS paper is cheap to make, all you need is a great design, that is where I got the odd Nut Cups idea.

Would love to see a TC book like this...
These sell high ALL the time...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-1930-s-Beistle-Children-s-Hallowe-en-Party-Book-Vintage-Complete/274027834537?hash=item3fcd54eca9:g:S-8AAOSwVvtdjktQ

There's 78 replies to this thread from about 30 people. If there are no copyright issues and Hanford approves of something being made, it doesn't matter what it is, a vote or poll needs to be put together to gauge how many people are actually interested. The minimum number of enamel pins that can be made is 100 so although i'm sure that they would all most likely sell, going by the figures at the moment there's barely a 1/3 amount of that number showing any interest to start with.

[ Edited by: swizzle 2019-09-30 18:33 ]

I just wanted to let you guys know that I’m happy to help with the pins or shirts or whatever. Minimum order on pins is 100 pieces so it’s not going to cost an arm and a leg if you decide you want to do pins. I do love that swizzle too. I do my shirts through Printify who dropships them for me, but I’ve seen some pretty cheap deals on single color screen printed shirts - if somebody want to store and ship them.

That Swizzle stick is really a great idea. A T-shirt would help identify members to other TC members at gatherings.

PinTiki,
Thanks for the info. I think an enamel pin would look great if we can make it look just like the TC logo as a neon sign!!

Is there a way to get the enamel to be a bright green line on the edge, with the gradient dark to green on the inside of the lettering?

I think it would be great to have the tapa print behind the lettering.

Do you think you can do a quick sketch of what the pin could look like for everyone to review?

I think it would also be great to have a separate pin that had
......Tiki Central
.........20 yr
......2000 - 2020

...or....something to that effect.

I know that different options would change the cost, but, what is the general cost for the minimum order of pins?

Lots of great ideas floating around! Cosmo sent me a high resolution pic of his swizzle design, I submitted it to Royer and Harco for an estimate just to see what we are talking about. Both have a minimum order of 10,000 pieces which seems like a lot.
I also sent a request for Hamo's coaster design, again to see what we are looking at in terms of costs and minimum order

I have reached out to Hanford again for his blessing and permission to use the logo.

I would be interested in a pin and swizzle.

Rob

A pin would be great. Also a T-Shirt with the tag line "Celebrating classic and modern Polynesian Pop" or tie that in with the 20 year anniversary, somehow.

Thanks for all the work by so many of you out there!

Sorry I haven't been around for a while, but you all came up with some more great stuff without me.

On 2019-09-27 19:23, CosmoReverb wrote:

THIS. IS. MAGNIFICENT. I will be happy to not only purchase some for myself, but also put up some seed money to help get them produced. Maybe we could sell them in packs of five or 10, that way we could keep some for our collections as well as give a few away. Plus, I'd be willing to fund some to be given to notable tiki bars (Tiki-Ti, Tonga Hut, Mai-Kai, Smuggler's Cove, Zombie Village, Forbidden Island, Tiki Cat, Inferno Room, etc., etc.) for their use and to evangelize.

I also love the idea of coasters and a PinTiki pin. The cocktail umbrellas are another interesting thought. I think it was Swizzle who suggested a few of these things could be combined into a set, which is another great idea.

PineappleWhip, excellent work making connections with artists. To address a couple of your points: Unless there's a specific anniversary party where we want to have swag on hand, I don't think it's vital to have everything ready by January 12. And I'm with Skip in that I love ephemera, so flyers/postcards/the like would also be cool and make for interesting finds for future collectors.

I have some additional thoughts on non "merch" ways to mark the anniversary which I'll share a little later.

I got a quote back from Harco on swizzles. Looks like they could make them as low as about 25 cents each with some restrictions. 10,000 minimum (that's a lot of swizzles!) 1.25 inches wide x 6 inches tall maximum (MaiTai glass size?), one color plastic molded (green?) with one color imprint highlight (yellow?), and a ball tip at the bottom instead of a Tiki. This would probably require some modification to Cosmo's design, maybe less wording on the stick? I am checking back to see if they have capability to mold the Tiki at the bottom and what the extra cost would be.

I am communicating with Royer also. Looks like they have more flexibility (longer swizzles, 2 color plastic molding, etc). I expect that extra flexibility translates to extra expense. We'll see

EDIT - Harco can add the Tiki at the bottom at no additional cost

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2019-10-02 09:30 ]

On 2019-10-02 09:27, MadDogMike wrote:
I got a quote back from Harco on swizzles. Looks like they could make them as low as about 25 cents each with some restrictions. 10,000 minimum (that's a lot of swizzles!) 1.25 inches wide x 6 inches tall maximum (MaiTai glass size?), one color plastic molded (green?) with one color imprint highlight (yellow?), and a ball tip at the bottom instead of a Tiki. This would probably require some modification to Cosmo's design, maybe less wording on the stick? I am checking back to see if they have capability to mold the Tiki at the bottom and what the extra cost would be.

I am communicating with Royer also. Looks like they have more flexibility (longer swizzles, 2 color plastic molding, etc). I expect that extra flexibility translates to extra expense. We'll see

EDIT - Harco can add the Tiki at the bottom at no additional cost

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2019-10-02 09:30 ]

That's a great start! If we can get them anywhere down near $0.25/ea I'd probably order a hundred or maybe two hundred, and I'd be willing to help fund the initial buy-in if need be.

The likelihood of my home bar ever getting full custom swizzles with that kind of minimum is basically zero, so these will become my home bar swiz's.

You can put me down for swizzles as well!

MadDogMike,
That's AWESOME info !! I know 10,000 swizzles sounds like a lot. But, as was discussed before....if we want to make some items to last....having 10,000 swizzles will help to keep TC get some visibility :)

So, doing some quick number crunching:
10,000 swizzles @ 25cents each....is $2,500.
I counted (almost) 50 TC's commenting on the threads.

That would be $50 from 50 people to get the swizzle run manufactured. That's actually not that bad considering that there is probably more people that would be interested if they actually saw a first article.

If this is crowd funded.... then we would need to determine the cost per pack and then hope to get the minimum for the run.....with the remainder to be sold at events (Tiki Oasis, Hukilau, Luau At The Lake, etc.) ...OR... on a website to get the profits back to TC??

Does this sounds about right?

By the way....personally....I wouldn't even mind doing two different sizes. One shorter one for the Mai Tai size glass.....and then a taller one for the Zombie Glass (which could show off the tapa cloth pattern more :wink:

Thanks for getting started on the quotes MadDogMike!!!

Here are a couple of quick mock-ups for pins using the square logo from the swizzle etc. Remember, enamel pins require that the colors be contained inside metal edges - in this case I have used black to represent black nickel. (We could also use silver, gold etc. colored metal). I remember there being talk of doing the “20 YEARS” as a separate piece. I think it could be cool to make it look like a separate sign on the bottom without actually doing it as a separate piece which can more that double the cost of the pin). At a size of around 1.5 inches, I should be able to get 100 of these done for around $200. That includes the mold fee, so if we reorder more in the future they would be a little cheaper.

I like the idea of the separate sign on the bottom although i think the font for '20 Years' should be in yellow to keep it in line with the sites colours.

In regards to the swizzle stick, as i've already said, if it is something that is going to go ahead i think it should be done properly which means if Harco can only do a 6" stick and that means less wording on it then that defeats the purpose. CosmoReverb nailed it and i personally think it is perfect as is.

And although i do love the idea of swizzle sticks and would like to see them made for the cost of $50 each (going by the quoted price and number of people interested so far) we could put together a 'pack' like i've already suggested for less than that which could contain a pin, umbrellas, coasters, and maybe several different style/size of stickers. Every one of those items can be made in much smaller numbers at a cost that is still very reasonably for each individual piece. I.E. if a pin is only going to cost $2-3 all the other things are going to be most likely even less than that so for maybe $10-15 you're getting a handful of different things.

The other thing about swizzle sticks is this: 10,000 really is a LOT. Let's say for arguments sake 200 people come on board and are willing to pay up front to have them made, that means each person gets 50 sticks (IF we are working on a cost of $2,500). How many people want 50 of the same swizzle stick? A dozen would be more than enough for me, maybe 20 so i could have a few extra to trade, and i'm all for donating some to be sold and the profits going back to Hanford to keep TC running, BUT, i'm not paying for 50 and giving 30 away and i'm sure no-one else is going to do that (although maybe some might, that's up to the individual). Also, who going to be the person that's going to take all the extras and then try to sell them?

Just my opinion and some food for thought.

P.S. And i know that this is something that is of no concern to the majority of you but i still have to factor in postage and also last night on the news they announced that the Australian dollar has hit a record 10yr low which means good for you guys if you wanted to buy one of my mugs (hint, hint :lol:) but not so good for me buying something from the U.S.

[ Edited by: swizzle 2019-10-02 23:10 ]

I got $30 to pitch in for the swizzles. We doing a go fund me kind of thing? I could go $40!

"P.S. And i know that this is something that is of no concern to the majority of you but i still have to factor in postage"

Well I would not say that but then postage should not keep something from being done JUST because of ship costs, would be my point of view.

If not for postage I would have yer mugs.

The 20 years pin on the right looks great!
I would buy one of those and some swizzles, stickies etc.

Still really feel that all this stuff will sell over time and even sell out at the first event they show up at.

You don't get it Skip. The postage costs from the U.S. to Australia have gone up so much it's beyond ridiculous. I sell my Bob'O'Nut pins, which INCLUDES postage to the U.S. for LESS than what i have to pay JUST for postage to buy a pin from a U.S. seller.

It would cost me just as much to have 100 swizzle sticks sent out as the swizzle sticks cost. The swizzle stick that ends up costing you guys 31 cents each (hypothetically) including postage will cost me 3 or 4 times that.

Now i'm one of those people who accepts that if you want something then you have to pay for it, especially if it is coming from overseas, but there's also the point where you have to justify what you are spending. I'd rather spend $40US on postage for a pin (or maybe a few), a handful of stickers, coasters and umbrellas than 100 swizzle sticks which i have no need for. And this from the guy who's username is 'swizzle'.

Don't get me wrong, after 15 years of collecting with maybe 80% of my collection coming from the U.S. which means the amount of money i have spent on shipping alone is probably in the thousands of dollars, i WILL invest in whatever is decided upon somehow, BUT, i'm not just going to throw money away.

For the record i have not seen anything about TC's 20th anniversary been mentioned on Facebook anywhere. I'm actually waiting for a little bit more 'concrete' information on what is going to happen (in regards to merchandise) so i can post about it and hopefully get more people involved and interested. Should i just do that now? If 400 people are interested in a swizzle stick then it makes much more sense to go ahead and have them made. If it's only the 50 or so people contributing to this thread then it really doesn't.

Too late. I've just posted about this on Facebook. Let's see what sort of response it gets.