Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor top of page | cover page

Welcome to Pezhead Monthly!

This month's issue is another big one. The feature story is a recap of my adventures at Pezamania 21, complete with lots of pictures and even a quick video. It was another action-packed year for sure. I thank John and Linda Gliha as always for putting on another great convention, and look forward to returning next year.

Also in this issue is a brief, and yet somehow epic, video celebrating the newest addition to my Batman collection, found a couple of weeks before Pezamania (although I did find a couple of new Batman cards since this video at Pezamania). In addition, there are a couple of questions for the University of Hawaii Pez dispenser, some Pez Poetry, and the Pez Almost-Quote of the Month. Lastly, there are a couple of odds and ends which I am including in a new (and perhaps somewhat recurring?) feature, Assorted Flavors.

Next month's issue is sure to include mention of my upcoming trip to the Chicago Comic Con, where I plan on meeting some celebrities and, hopefully, getting some more Pez dispenser autographs!

Thanks as always for reading, and see you next month.

Joe Durrant
Editor, Pezhead Monthly
joe@pezheadmonthly.com

Pezamania 21: Splendor, Avengers, and an Eerie Spectre Dispenser top of page | cover page

This past month I had the extreme pleasure to return once again to the sleepy little Cleveland suburb of Independence for the biggest, baddest Pez convention of them all, Pezamania. This year marked the 21st outing for the convention, as well as the 11th straight year that I was able to attend. There were a few hiccups this year- okay, one major hiccup- but despite this, the bottom line is that Pezamania once again proved to be the ultimate convention for Pezheads around the world.

Before leaving this year, I took advantage of the new Songify iPhone app to record an abbreviated version of the 2002 song “Leavin' For The Pez Show”. Look for that song to be hitting the charts any day now.

(Editor's note: If you want to skip the recap and just check out what I scored this year, click here to go right to that.)

I arrived on Thursday, a bit later than I was planning due to a drive filled with lots of construction and general traffic woes. But that didn't prevent me from getting right in on the action. After checking into my room, I headed over to the registration room to make it official. It was a pleasure to again see Linda, one of the fantastic hosts of Pezamania. In the registration packets, we once again got a t-shirt and also a pretty neat beverage cooler. One thing I noticed this year was that tote bags were not included, although they were available separately for a modest price. Note that this is NOT a complaint! To the contrary, I thought it was a good idea. Over the years, I've gotten a lot of tote bags from Pez conventions. While they are nice, they add up after a while. It's much more preferable to bring your own bag, and I hope this trend continues in coming years.

After registration, I headed back to my room to begin setting it up, although most of my stuff was still in the car for the Pez swap party happening later that day. One of the small joys that I've encountered since starting to sell my extras out of my room at Pezamania is setting stuff up. I know it's a lot of work for the dealers, who have an unbelievable amount of stuff for sale, but for someone like me who has relatively fewer things, it's not bad. Plus, it gives me a chance to spotlight some of the features of this newsletter. This year, outside the door I added a Pez haiku, a Pez song parody, and a Pez Almost-Quote, all of which are readily available from the archives.

The irony of setting all of this up was that I wasn't actually in my room that often for the convention, as there was plenty of room hopping and other Pez activities to be done. So for those of you who were looking for me, I am sorry that I was not around that much. Hopefully we were able to meet up at other times during the convention.

One of the first really cool things I saw this year was thanks to one very crafty Pezhead, who turned a CD rack into a Pez Ferris Wheel. This very short video demonstrates how awesome an effect this turned out to be.

The room hopping began in earnest shortly after seeing this wonderful item. One of the first things I picked up was the awesome new DC Heroes set- Superman, Green Lantern, and Batman. To clarify, I had already found Batman earlier in the month (as another feature in this month's issue shows), but I got him on the new card at Pezamania. I really like this card!

After a few more scores and some dinner at Quaker Steak and Lube, I headed down to the swap party. This is always a good time, as it's the first real chance of the convention to meet a bunch of fellow Pezheads, and maybe buy and sell a few things too. This year I met a lot of old Pez friends, sold a bunch of my extra Pez, and also gave away a few paper copies of the 2011 Pez Poetry Slam.

After the swap party was Pezamania Wars, the Pez-flavored variation of the classic card game War that has been a tradition at Pezamania for the past 6 years, ever since the Glihas came on as hosts. I've had pretty good luck in the past couple of years, advancing rounds and winning one type of prize or another, perhaps at the expense of a young child's hopes and dreams. This year, however, was not my year. I was eliminated right in the first round, although one of my losses was very close. Jack of Spades, you continue to haunt me.

To be honest, getting eliminated so quickly was a blessing in disguise. I was rather tired from the drive in, and I appreciated having a little extra time to room hop. So I added a few more items, including some more NCAA and MLB dispensers, and called it a night.

It's Friday, Friday, Gotta Get Down On Friday

My grand plan on Fridays at Pezamania is usually to get some lunch before room hopping, as many dealers are just setting their stuff up, plus the hotel cleaning staff is hard at work during the late morning/early afternoon hours. So I headed out to my car, and was blown away at the sight before my eyes: cars lined up like crazy. Hordes of people in business suits heading to the hotel. Police directing traffic. What the heck was going on?? I wasn't sure, but my instincts told me to stay right where I was, as giving up my parking spot might very well mean that I would not be able to find another one when I returned.

I headed back into the hotel and began to room hop among the few dealer rooms that were open at that time. I was hunting for Pez, sure, but I was also hunting for answers. I got them in bits and pieces (the answers, not the Pez, thank goodness). It turns out that the craziness outside the hotel was due to a casting call for extras for the movie “The Avengers”, which will partially be filming in Cleveland. This was what was causing all of the madness. It was quite a site to peer out of hotel windows and see a line of people stretched out as far as the eye could see. People, it should be noted, who were dressed up in business attire as per the specifics of the casting call, waiting outside in the sweltering July heat. I can be a big comic book movie geek, but there was no way I'd put myself through that.

This casting call caused me to miss lunch, true, but there were also some pretty severe effects on the convention overall. No one associated with Pezamania had known about this ahead of time, and I sensed a lot of frustration in the hotel halls. I also noticed significantly fewer people room hopping this year than in years past. This was very likely due to the traffic mess outside, which may have prevented some convention attendees, and maybe even some dealers, from getting to the hotel on Friday (I know from years past that some people will arrive at the convention on Friday). I felt really bad for the dealers, who I am sure must have experienced lower sales than in previous years, and I also felt bad for the Glihas, who as hosts I am sure were hearing a lot about this too. It hurts everyone when the crowds are diminished at a Pez convention- not only in terms of sales, but also in terms of the camaraderie. Part of the appeal of a convention is meeting old friends and making new ones, and I am sure that the “Avengers” casting call negatively impacted this.

Despite the casting call drama, I did manage to pick up a few things on Friday afternoon. My big score that day, and in fact of the entire convention, came from a realization: it had been a long while since I worked towards completing a vintage set. I'm talking about the kind of set that you could only grow gradually, maybe by just adding one new dispenser a year. A few years back I did this for the Superhero Softheads, and it was great fun not only to add the pieces, but to see all five of them once I completed the set

This year, it occurred to me that it was time to start this again, for a set that I've always thought was pretty cool: The Eerie Spectres. Like the Superheroes, these dispensers have soft heads. I also really dig the detail on them. And so it was that I got my first Eerie Spectre this year. Meet Diabolic!

After stopping by the local candy warehouse store called BA Sweetie to admire their great Pez display (all of which I already had), I had an early dinner, what with the absence of lunch, and headed back to the hotel for the big Diceamania game.

As for Diceamania, although Rick absolutely killed it as the MC once again, it was for me another year filled with complete and total defeat. I came close one time, but alas, it was not to be. But, the night was not without its thrills. For one, there was a giant, custom-made pig dispenser up by the main table. I've seen some giant custom dispensers in the past, but never one this big. In fact it may have rivaled if not surpassed the one I saw at the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia a couple of years back.

There were also some pretty great prizes this year, as well as lots of door prizes and auctions. There were all kinds of celebrity-signed Pez dispensers, and some of them went for big money. The ones that fetched the big bucks included a Captain Kirk dispenser signed by William Shatner, Luke and Leia dispensers signed by Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, and the biggest of them all, a Cincinnati Reds dispenser signed by Pete Rose. I could be wrong, but I believe that one went for about $500. It should be noted that all of the money went to a really great charity called Gliding Stars. There were even some members of the charity there to thank us, which was really nice.

I did not win any of those auctions, although I did place a bid for a Giant Lost In Space Robot dispenser signed by Bill Mumy. However, I did win one of the separate silent auctions: My prize was a set of Pez magnets and a factory error Batman on card, to add to my ever growing Batman collection.

After some final room hopping and selling a few more things out of my room, I called it a night.

Saturday/Wrap Up

Saturday brought not only the big floor show, but also Day 2 of the “Avengers” casting call. The traffic was once again crazy and the line of hopeful actors was once again very long. I again felt bad for the dealers, as this most certainly impacted the number of people who could make it to the floor show to browse and buy some great Pez stuff. After all, at $5 for the floor show is quite a deal for the locals who may not be as, shall we say, dedicated, as those of us who register for the whole experience. But with the traffic the way it was outside the hotel, I am sure that not everyone who wanted to be there was actually able to make it. And maybe it was because a few dealers and fellow Pezheads from years past were not there this year, maybe it was the economy or gas prices, or maybe it was the crazy heat, but the floor show did feel a little lighter than it had in years past. Don't get me wrong, there were still lots of great deals to be had, and still a fair amount of people, just not quite as much as in years past.

None of this stopped me from picking up my last few Pez scores of the convention, including the elusive Kuririn Hello Kitty dispenser, a crystal Elephant, and a pretty cool head/stem variation of Mr. Ugly. I also saw a pretty cool bejeweled Joker that was just a bit out of my price range, as well as a suitcase full of Pez, which was quite a site to see. I was going to draw out one more $20 bill, but the ATM was out of money, and this combined with the insane traffic situation brought on by the “Avengers” casting call, seemed like a sign that I had reached the end of my convention scores this year. I said my goodbyes to the Glihas and some other folks, and that was that.

Since Pezamania ended, I have received two letters related to the convention. The first was a letter of apology from the hotel, which I thought was a classy move. They clearly heard about the frustrations we were experiencing, and they know that we consistently provide them with good business year in and year out. Reaching out to explain that they did not anticipate how things turned out was a welcome gesture.

The second letter was a nice handwritten note from the Glihas, thanking me for attending and also for my winning bid in the silent auction. This was also very much appreciated and is one of those small things that go a long way.

Looking back, I had a really great time at Pezamania 21. It was my third- and definitely last- Pez convention of the year, and I think I might hold off on any other ones until Pezamania 22 rolls around next year. I added some fantastic pieces to my collection (as the picture below shows) and, although some people were missed, I did see a lot of dealers and Pezheads I have grown to appreciate over the years. It was an experience that I wouldn't trade for anything, and I look forward to returning again next year. And who knows, maybe next year there will be another live Pez Poetry Slam? Only time will tell!

My Pezamania 21 Haul

As the below photo shows, I added a lot of Pez to my collection at Pezamania 21. In addition to catching up on the many MLB baseballs, NCAA footballs, and promotional haulers, I found some neat steam variations and added a few more cards to my Batman collection. Plus, I scored some nice vintage pieces, including the Diabolic Eerie Spectre, Mr. Ugly, and Donald Duck.

(click picture for a larger view)

Two items of note: the yellow regular finally replaces the one I used when I made the custom Seth Green Pez dispenser a couple of years ago, and the Chewbacca dispenser will be coming with me to Chicago Comic-Con next week, where it will (hopefully) be autographed by the man who played Chewbacca, Peter Mayhew. Look for details on that and much more in the next issue!

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