Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor
"Scores!" Says He: November 2023
One More Piece of Melba Toast for the Road
Pez Poetry
Merry Christmas from Pezhead Monthly

Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor | top

Hello and Happy December from Pezhead Monthly! As 2023 winds down, the Pez party keeps on keepin' on.

In November, the big news from the Pez convention world was that registration and hotel reservations have opened for the 2024 Michigan Pez Convention. This convention will take place June 20-22, 2024, just outside of Detroit, MI. The theme of the Pez convention is Pez Boy vs Pez Girl. Be sure to check out the convention's website for more details. I attended this convention in 2022 and it was a lot of fun, interactive, and well planned out. Hosts Jim and Jody Blaine and their team put a lot of thought and care into the event and it really shows. I did not attend the convention in 2023 and I am not sure yet if I will be able to attend next year.

In less uplifting news, despite a glimmer of hope there for a few days, Pez was once again shut out of the National Toy Hall of Fame in November. This time Pez lost out to a quartet of other toys: baseball cards, Nerf toys, Cabbage Patch Kids, and [[checks notes…]] the Fisher-Price Corn Popper? I mean, come on. There are 2 basic things I think we can all agree on. First, "Weird Al" Yankovic belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and second, Pez belongs in the Toy Hall of Fame. I'd say maybe next year will be our year, but I also have this recurring image of Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown again and again.

On the Pez homefront, I kept myself busy attempting to make some custom Batman Pez dispensers. Early in November while in Walmart, I noticed a new Batman action figure modeled after the Michael Keaton Batman in this year's movie "The Flash." Michael Keaton is my favorite live action Batman, and the action figure's head looked to be about the size of a Pez dispenser head, so I decided to give it a shot. It turns out it was not as perfect a fit as I would have hoped, but I was still able to attach it using some sturdy foam so at least it displays well. Later in the month I found another Batman toy head mold on eBay and did the same thing. Again, it is non-functional but it displays well at least. Here is a picture of these 2 dispensers and they are also included in my November score recap later in the issue. These are not masterpieces like those I've received from many gifted Pez artists in the community, but at least they're different from head swaps, which is what I've done in the past (and will continue to do as I have a few more ideas here). Perhaps in 2024 I will up my Pez craft game in terms of making custom dispensers. We shall see.

Also in November, I started to build some more furniture for my Pez room. There was an incident that required a return visit or two to IKEA (I don't want to talk about it), but I think I am back on track now. I hope to finish the furniture assembly up in December. I'll post an update when the furniture is finished and added to my Pez room. It will be a noticeable update to both the middle island as well as the Batman wall, so I am excited about when and how it will turn out.

This issue of Pezhead Monthly can't match the breadth of the last issue (especially since that issue recapped 2 Pez events!), but it's a modest way to wrap up 2023. The cover image is a Pezzified version of the holiday movie "Jingle All The Way", featuring the new full-body snowman Pez dispenser that all the kids are asking for these days. I also serve up a Christmas Pez poem, and provide a link to the Pezhead Monthly Christmas page that has been updated with this month's Christmas features. I also run down the variety of scores I picked up in November. Lastly, I provide an update on my Virtual Pez Convention performance in October; namely, a video of said performance is now online!

Next month's issue will be the first of 2024, but it will also serve as a recap of this particular Pezhead's 2023. There will also be a recap of another convention I recently attended; while it was not a Pez convention, Pez did end up playing a part. Stay tuned to next month's issue to find out more!

Thanks as always for reading Pezhead Monthly. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving. Take care and see you soon!

Joe Durrant
Editor, Pezhead Monthly
joe@pezheadmonthly.com

P.S. Did you miss last month's issue? 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.

"Scores!" Says He: November 2023 | top

I picked up a nice assortment of Pez scores in November.

Early in the month and out in the wild, I picked up the new Christmas tree dispenser from Walgreens and the 2 new Grogu holiday dispensers from Walmart. The Grogu dispensers were a surprise to most Pezheads and are exclusive to Walmart this year, available only durting the Christmas shopping season. They first appeared last year with "Galaxy's Greetings" and "Merry Force Be With You" printed on the stem. This year, the stems read "Up to Snow Good" and "Joy to the Galaxy."

From my Pez pal Eric's Etsy store, I picked up a very nice custom truck that reads "PEZHead for Life" along with 4 groovy Pez candy brick-shaped magnets.

From Mike Herz, continuing his classic monster custom line of Pez-like figures, I picked up Godzilla! This is another well done piece by Mike.

From the Pez Outlaw himself, Steve Glew, I picked up 3 new dispensers: A purple Make-a-Pez and 2 dispensers that celebrated the recent Emmy win for the movie "The Pez Outlaw": a Pez Outlaw with gold head and shoes, and a dispenser with a silhouette of Steve holding a sign that says "WE WON!" on one side and the calendar date of the win on the other side. (This is a nice bookend piece to the Netflix Outlaw piece that I picked up in January.) Also from Facebook (but not directly from Steve), I picked up an earlier Pez Outlaw with gold hat that I missed out on previously.

From my Facebook Pez pal Jim, I picked up a Pez bucket hat from Japan (2 of them actually, in blue and black). This hat is a bit too small for my head but it fits nicely on the ISKÄRNA lighted head that I picked up recently from IKEA. Also from Facebook, I picked up a few neat custom painted Pez: 2 Batmen, a Spider-Man, and a Wonder Woman. And, from a couple of months ago, I picked up the 2022 Batman on European card (it had gotten lost in the shuffle and I forgot to note it here.)

From Sue and Steve Heraly, I picked up their new 2024 Pez calendar. It's another great offering from the Heralys and I am very appreciative of the time and effort they put into this every year. I am looking forward to putting this up in my Pez room and looking at it throughout the year.

On the homemade front, I tried my hand at a couple of custom Batman Pez. I picked up 2 Batman heads, one from an action figure from Walmart and one from an eBay purchase. I hoped that they would fit neatly on the top of Pez dispenser stems (sans heads), but this was not the case. But with a bit more work I was able to make them fit to the stems, attached by foam inserts. So although they are nonfunctional, they display really well. The Walmart one in particular is great because it is the Michael Keaton Batman, which happens to be my favorite live-action Batman. These pieces are featured in the overall November picture below, and here is a closer look.

And last but not least, I picked up a few goodies from my immensely talented Pez pal Cam Art. The first piece was some very cool artwork Cam made for the Virtual Pez Convention (VPC), which was in the style of a romance novel cover and came already framed. I was so glad to win this piece in an auction in the October VPC this year. Along with this fine work of art came 2 others: a silver and chrome Batman, complete with silver and chrome capes! These go along well with the other chrome Batmen that Cam made for me earlier this year and are also serious contenders for my scores of the year.

Here is a picture of most of my November scores, except for the black bucket hat from Japan (only the blue hat is pictured). You can click on it for a larger view.

One More Piece of Melba Toast for the Road | top

In last month's issue, I shared about my performance of my Pez poem "Proposing a Toast" for the October Virtual Pez Convention (VPC). I am pleased to announce that the video of this performance is now on YouTube. Check it out!

Direct link

To see all of my Pez poetry performances at the VPC, click here.

Pez Poetry | top

Rudy

There once was a Pezhead named Rudy
Whose candy was brick-shaped and fruity
His bold sleigh directing
And his Pez collecting
Were his two most critical duties.

Merry Christmas From Pezhead Monthly | top

And finally, after you hang your stockings with care, or perhaps before you hang your stockings with care, or perhaps to heck with the careful hanging of stockings, check out the Pezhead Monthly Christmas page, which has been updated with the Christmas features from this issue. And be sure to have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!