Spring Loaded: A Message From the Editor
It's Raining, It's Pouring, It's Two Months of Pez Scoring
Pez Poetry

Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor | top

Hello and welcome to Pezhead Monthly! Happy October to one and all. Fall is here and I am excited for cooler weather, apple cider, trick-or-treating, and perhaps a little Pez here and there.

It's been just over 2 months since the epic Pezamania 30 in July, and I still do not think I am fully recovered! I had an incredible time, as I described in detail in the previous issue. It was wall-to-wall Pez for a while there and I was loving every minute of it. But between the prep work and the convention itself, I came back home pretty wiped out for sure. Since then, I've mainly been adding lots of stuff to my Pez collection- as you will see in this month's issue. And several more pieces are already heading my way, destined to become part of my October scores. I'll be sure to share details in next month's issue. Unfortunately, I was once again unable to attend the Pez on The River convention in September. Everything I heard about it was great. I hope that next year will finally be the year that I make it out there!

Looking ahead to October, there will be at least 3 Pez events happening, not counting all of the Pez events that take place whenever people find new Pez in stores or their mailboxes, of course. The first one will be the Virtual Pez Convention (VPC), taking place on Saturday October 9. I've attended multiple VPCs in the past, and was even a featured speaker on a panel at the last one. I'm looking forward to attending this next one for sure. There is also the 3rd annual IN Crowd Gathering, taking place in Indianapolis on Saturday October 16. I am sure that it will be a good time, like it's been the past 2 years. I am looking forward to attending this one too. Lastly, on the same day as the IN Crowd gathering will be the 11th Pezylvania Pez Gathering in Kutztown, PA. Pretty cool!

Moving on to this month's issue, I run down my many August and September scores. There is also some Pez Poetry. And lastly, this month's cover image is another horror movie poster parody featuring the uber creepy Egg Baby Pez. Be sure to check out the Egg Baby archive, as well as the Pezhead Monthly Halloween page!

(I was also planning on sharing an updated picture of my Batcave in this issue, but that will have to wait until next month since I am already expecting some new additions to it in October!)

Did you miss last month's issue, where I shared all of the details of my awesome experience at Pezamania 30? You can still read it here. To search the full Pezhead Monthly archives, hop on over to the archive page, where you can browse by feature, Pez Poetry Slam, or issue. There's also a Google search bar to help you search the content across the site. And hey, maybe you would like to submit some words, photos, artwork, or videos to Pezhead Monthly to be featured in an upcoming issue? That would be great! Check out the submission details here.

Thanks as always for reading Pezhead Monthly. Take care and see you next month!

Joe
Editor, Pezhead Monthly
joe@pezheadmonthly.com

It's Raining, It's Pouring, It's Two Months of Pez Scoring | top

These past 2 months have been a flurry of activity in my Pez world. All told, I added about 50 new official and custom Pez to my collection, along with a variety of other things such as box sets, Christmas ornaments, and even a Pez lamp! Here is a picture of most of my August and September scores, followed by some stories of what I added and where I got them from.

Part I:
Such excitement! Such elation!
Check out Topher's mad creations!

It's hard to pick a highlight of these last 2 months of Pez scores, but if I had to, I'd say it would be pretty much everything I got from the talented Pez artist Topher Yarrison. Topher has a wonderful gift for hand painting Pez dispensers in fun and unique colors. I first noticed his work on the Facebook Pez Auction page. I was thrilled to win his Halloween set, which included some painted pumpkins, witches, and a bat. Soon I found myself bidding on these more and more. I have not won all of the auctions, but as the above picture shows, I've been pretty lucky so far. Check out the Star Wars dispensers painted in bright, neon colors (I love the Yoda with the Pez hat). And the goth set of the Simpsons? Now that's what I'm talking about. And then there's the set of Captain Americas that arrived at my house on the very last day of September.

And then… there are the Batmans. Astute readers of Pezhead Monthly may have picked up on the fact that I am somewhat of a Batman Pez aficionado. I won a couple of painted ones in Topher's auctions, and then on top of that I requested some other colors and he kindly made them for me. Check these out! They are simply awesome.

Here is a short video that shows all of the dispensers I've gotten from Topher so far. There are already some more on the way (including, perhaps, some more Batmans) and I'll show them in next month's issue.

 
Direct link here

All told, I scored over 35 of Topher's mad creations and they will be great additions to my Pez collection. I was already planning on adding a new shelf for my custom dispensers, and now it is quite clear that this next shelf will mainly be the one that Topher's Pez built.

Oh, and I scored one last Pez item from Topher in these last couple of months. It's not captured in the overall picture above, but you might be able to see it in the background if you look hard enough: it is a Parrot bank that has been turned into a lamp! What's more, it came with a color changing light bulb and even a remote control. It fits in perfectly in the corner of my Pez room. Here is a short video of the color changing effects in action.

 
Direct link here

Part II:
Hittin' the road! Rackin' the miles!
Findin' new Pez that's bringin' the smiles!

In mid-September, my wife and I hit the road for the first time in a long while for an epic, 10-hour road trip. It was her first time out of state in over a year and our first time visiting my hometown of Rochester, NY since 2019. The occasion was my dad's 75th birthday. We had a wonderful time with him and his wife, including a canal walk in the town of Fairport, some nice meals, and even saw some live music. We also got to see some family, although I was sad to miss my cousin and her family this time around. And let's not forget, my wife and I got some Abbott's Frozen Custard! Twice! Oh yeah!

And in between all of that, there was also some Pez. I would go so far as to say a whole lotta of Pez.

First off, my dad's wife and some of her family went to Disney World earlier this year. I asked her if it would not be too much trouble to look for the exclusive Disney Parks Pez dispensers. She graciously did so, and in fact was able to find all 8 of them! She said that they were even BOGO, so that made it even better. I was quite excited to pick these up when we got to their house. This was one set that I did not expect to ever collect, much less have the entire set. What's more, I picked up the earlier versions of Mickey and Minnie at Pezamania 30 in July. The 10 total dispensers are still on card but I am leaning towards taking them off the card and display them with my other Disney Pez.

I also had the distinct honor of visiting a different Wegmans grocery store on each of the 4 days that we were in town. This resulted in a lot of Zweigle's hot dogs and other groceries to bring home, but it also resulted in a couple of Pez scores: The Space Jam box set featuring Bugs Bunny and LeBron James, and the brand new Thor!

Then one day, as my wife and I were browsing the incredibly huge collection of socks in the wonderful Parkleigh gift shop (which, it should be noted, has a lot more than just socks), wouldn't you know it, right there alongside the Tootsie Roll and Ramen Noodle socks were, you guessed it, Pez socks! Woo hoo!

The big Pez surprise in Rochester, though, was finding a whole bunch of Pez at a collectible store. At first, we only found a random Pez here and there but then, I noticed it. A BOX OF PEZ. Every Pezhead understands that feeling of pure excitement, of what could possibly be in that box. Whenever it happens it's an amazing feeling, because you never know when that time will arrive. This time around, there were body parts, lots and lots of body parts! (Taken out of context that last sentence could qualify as Exhibit A in a criminal trial.) I found the Robin Hood body part, which I did not have, but other than that I had the rest of them already. But I only had them on European cards, not the US cards these body parts came on. So I scooped them up. I may keep them on cards, or free them from cards and throw a Batman Pez costume party. I also found some Stormtroopers if I ever get around to starting a Pez army of those guys, plus some other neat Pez that I may sell/trade at future conventions or gatherings. Here is a picture of most of my scores from that collectible store.

You would think that would be more than enough Pez for a single road trip. And you would be entirely correct! But to invoke the popular Pringles slogan, once you pop you just can't stop. In this case, there was one more place to score some Pez on our trip. After a visit to the Holiday Inn in Independence, OH, which also happens to be the home of Pezamania, we stopped by the nearby candy warehouse BA Sweeties. During the convention, as expected, the Pez selection was pretty picked over. But I guess we hit it at the right time that day in September, because not only did I score the 2 new crystal Paw Patch collector sets, but also the brand new set of 3 Pez trucks!

We had a great time on our road trip and I also just happened to add a lot of new Pez to my collection in the process.

Part III:
From here and there! From near and far!
The sky is filled with bright Pez stars!

I picked up a few other scores in August and September that did not involve Topher's creative painting or a road trip.

For my anniversary, my lovely wife gifted me with Tikki and Plagg, the 2 newest additions to the European Miraculous set (joining the first 2 in the set, Ladybug and Cat Noir). She also gave me some Pez shoes to fit on my non-footed dispensers, which was fitting (ha ha?) since I was starting to run low on them. She is very good to me!

Also here in town, I picked up the 2 new Christmas ornaments form Cracker Barrel, in the shape of lemon and cherry (or strawberry?) Pez candies. And thanks to a hot tip, I found the latest Zuru mini in a collector box at a nearby Target.

Also, when the mailman was not busy bringing me Topher's treasures, he managed to drop off a couple of other things. First off, there was a Pez ad sheet for body parts that just so happened to feature a Batman Pez dispenser on a robot costume. It truly does all tie together! On top of this, I picked up the newest custom Pez from talented artist Michael Herz, who I've mentioned a few times in this newsletter. This time it was a groovy dispenser commemorating the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, featuring the Olympic mascot. I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those medaling kids! I'll be here all week! Try the veal!

And last but certainly not least, I got another great item from Alma in August, from way across the world in Amsterdam. I first became aware of Alma at the PIG TOO convention in March 2020, as the big convention dispenser was actually a miniature pig that she made. And when I say miniature, I mean it! Following Alma on Facebook, I learned that she makes other miniature Pez. So I went ahead and ordered a miniature Pez Mascot. It's easy to miss in the picture above unless you click on it for a larger view. Here is a closer picture of the Pez Mascot, in between the Zuru mini and The Mighty Thor.

In closing, this has been a great couple of months filled with Pez scores of all kinds and from many different places. Along the way some great memories were made and fun times were had. It's been a wild ride for sure, but I'm ready to slow down a bit. I mean really, maybe dial it down a notch, Joe?

Actually, hold that thought. If you'll excuse me, I need to go check the mail. I believe a package is arriving soon from Orange, Connecticut. Whatever could it be?

Pez Poetry | top

Pez Haiku #156

Yeah it's a brick house;
It's mighty mighty, letting
All the candy out.

Bela

There once was a Pezhead named Bela
Who kept vintage Pez in its cello.
A quite large amount
Was his total Pez Count,
Eternally such a fine fella.