Pezamania 17 (continued) top of page | cover page

Saturday

After packing up and checking out of the room, I made my way once again to the big hotel ballroom for the final event of the convention: the Pez show that is open to the public.

This year, I got to play both Pezhead and Pezhost, as I was able to convince Scudder, a friend of mine from Pittsburgh, to make the drive to Cleveland and attend his first Pez convention.

Scudder was to arrive at noon, but he actually showed up an hour earlier than he was planning to the Pez convention. I can totally understand, because that meant more time spent beholding Pez. Who can blame him really. I warned him ahead of time that he may walk into that convention hall as one of the unwashed masses, but he will walk out of it baptized in the redeeming glow of Pez. He took a last puff of his cigarette, gave me a sideways look, and paid his 5 dollar cover charge along with a some tickets from Cheryl for the Thor raffle (spoiler alert- Scudder didn't win either).

Once inside, I knew that Scudder could not escape the allure of the Pez. I saw the look of bedazzlement in his eyes as he took in what must have seemed liked miles and miles of Pez dispensers. I casually invited him to drink some Kool Aid, but to his credit he was on to my Jim Jones-style mind fu and wisely declined. But I did introduce him to all of the coolest Pez dealers on the planet, letting them know that this was his first Pez convention. They also offered him Kool Aid but noticed me shaking my head somberly, and quickly realized he was a lost cause.

But within ten minutes of entering the convention doors, Scudder purchased his first Pez dispenser. The dude chose wisely. It was a silver regular re-release, mint on European card. Now that's what I'm talking about. Welcome to the machine, dude.

As we proceeded down the aisles of the many dealers, Scudder had to put up with me explaining color variations and unique dispensers, etcetera and so forth. He also put up with me trying to decide on which vintage piece to purchase. About 20 minutes into the deal I think he was about ready to stab me in the head repeatedly with whatever sharp and/or blunt instrument he could find. But just as I suspected he was getting overloaded with Pez, I turn around and he is buying his second Pez dispenser, a Gold-plated Chewbacca in a Pezamania 17 bag. I was so proud, I shed tears right then and there.

After the gold-plated Pez purchase (I got a gold-plated Boba Fett as well), I introduced Scudder to Red, one of the nicest dealers out there. Unfortunately, this year Red got rid of his clown-topped Pez rack. His reasoning for getting rid of it was the consolidation of card styles between the Euro and Canadian dispensers. Alas, it will be missed.

After Scudder came back from a smoke break we resumed browsing the Pez aisles. We had spent about an hour perusing the outer dealers, now it was on to the inner dealers. I told him that I was after a Euro Spidey on card but I am not sure if I was speaking English, as by this point I was on quite the Pez high. We moved along and eventually stopped at a lady selling Pez shirts. The same lady who by the way, not 24 hours before, had sold me one of my best scores of the year, a Captain America. Well wouldn't you know it, Scudder made his third Pez purchase, a t-shirt that said "Got Pez?" For anyone who thinks that Scudder has not been converted to the way of the Pez, I have laid out the evidence to the contrary herein. I report, you decide.

I then finally found my Spidey Pez on Euro card. Problem was, it was being sold as part of a set. Fortunately the dealer who was selling knew me from years past, and after giving it some thought, broke the set for me and even asked me to name my price. Quite above and beyond if I do say so. I asked $7 which in retrospect was kind of low, since the set was $30, but that's what she sold it to me for. At least Scudder got to see how a Pezhead bargains for his booty.

Other highlights from the show included showing Scudder the MOC Make-A-Face on sale for $4000, scoring a vintage Yappy Dog purchase from John, and some photo ops with a 5 foot giant custom made Pez dispenser. Also, having Scudder there allowed me to spend my money a little less, because I was busy talking to him about Pez (and somehow not getting stabbed in the head whilst doing so). Oh don't get me wrong, I still blew my money, but it took a longer time today. Usually I leave there in tears before noon, but I dropped my last 20 close to 1pm.

As we left the convention hall to head off to a restaurant to meet up with another friend, I waved goodbye to the place that had brought me so much joy over the past few days. A pang of sorrow hit me, but I realized that I also helped create a new Pezhead. The circle of Pez, it is a beautiful thing.

However, the story does not quite end there. You see, Scudder and I had been perusing the Pez aisles inside the convention hall for a good 2 hours. After we were done, Scudder returned to his vehicle to drop off his Pez wares. Well lo and behold, in that 2-hour timeframe some jerk smashed in his passenger side window and stole his GPS system. Unbelievable! Scudder tells me he's had this car quite a while and this has never happened. I felt really bad for him. It was just a strange thing, because this is a quiet little suburb of Cleveland and it usually strikes me as a very safe place. There was a cop on duty at the convention and so a police report was filed. There was actually another guy in the same parking lot who got his car broken into and his GPS system stolen. Hopefully this guy has been caught and will be brought to justice..

I felt bad that Scudder's experience at his first Pez convention was sullied by this incident. However, he assured me that he had a good time regardless and he might come back next year.

Given the fact that his window was smashed in, I offered to carpool. We hopped into my Pezmobile and headed on down the road. See you next year, Pezamania!

Epilogue: What was gained, what was left behind, what is to come

I've had some time to reflect on my experience at Pezamania 17, and I am more than a little amazed at all that was bought, all that was sold, and all the work that remains to be done.

To remind you, I went to the convention with 5 boxes full of extra Pez that was taking up a lot of space in my apartment. Thanks in large part to the first massive sell-off, I only came home with 1 box. Not bad at all! Sure, I will miss those Pez that were sold off. But I rest easier knowing that someone else might soon enjoy them and be able to give them the display space that they so richly deserve.

As for what I came home with? Wow. I would say, without a doubt, it was the biggest Pez score I have ever brought back from a single trip. True, I got a little extra money from selling off my extras. Plus, I save a chunk of money just for this occasion. Some people like to travel the world, some people like to buy gigantic TVs, and some people are total Pez fiends. It's all good, man.

In total, I came home with about 45 pieces, many of which I mentioned in the recap above. The crown jewel was softhead Wonder Woman, which rounded out my Superhero softhead set. I was also delighted to pick up other vintage pieces, including Captain America, Yappy Dog, and a neat neon Crocodile. More current releases I picked up included a new Mickey Mouse set, some new college footballs, the updated Snow White, and the set of retro regulars. And this is just skimming the surface of the stuff that I brought home!

The challenge now is to integrate these new pieces into my display. It will be a little easier without the extras (giving me a chance to rotate out some stuff) but it will still be a challenge and will require more time than I can give it for a while. This might have to be one of those fall activities.

Another challenge will be to update my electronic speadsheet of my Pez collection, as I had previously counted all of the extras in my tally. So I will basically need to start from the ground up. This is another task that will take a while. I know I will enjoy getting a fresh look at my collection from beginning to end, but again I just don't have the time for it at the moment.

So a lot of work lies ahead after this year's enormously successful Pezamania, but I look forward to it. It was well worth it to go to another fantastic Pez convention, and I look forward to returning next year for Pezamania 18.

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