Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor
"Scores!" Says He: February 2025
Pez Poetry
Happy St. Patrick's Day From Pezhead Monthly

Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor | top

Hello and Happy March from Pezhead Monthly! I was doing some calculating recently, and this is in fact the 196th issue of this publication! This means that at some point soon, I will be celebrating 200 issues of Pezhead Monthly! Will it be a grand event, or will I completely forget to mark the occasion now that I am 50 years old? Or maybe somewhere in between? We’ll have to wait and see!

The 2025 Pez convention and gathering season is just around the corner. Kicking things off will be the Austin Pez Gathering in April, followed by the Kansas City and Maryland gatherings in May, Michigan Pez Convention in June, Pezamania (Cleveland) in July, a German Pez gathering in August, and Pez on the River (Minnesota) and an Australian Pez gathering in September. There may very well be more to be announced, including the Virtual Pez Convention that is typically held in April and October, and the IN Crowd and Pezzylvania gatherings typically held in October. There will definitely be no shortage of opportunities to meet fellow Pezheads and pick up some great new and vintage Pez! I hope to make it to at least 1 or 2 of these conventions or gatherings this year, maybe more, but it’s a bit too soon to say for sure.

On the personal Pez front, I’ve been busy organizing my Pez room but I still have a little way to go before it is ready for an in-person or virtual tour. I’m still trying to decide what to do with a few shelves and how to make use of some empty wall spaces for Pez art or other displays. I’ve also made a bit of progress in Pez crafting/customizing by using acetone to remove plastic from Pez cards, and in continuing working on Batman Pez customs. I have a lot of ideas on this and look forward to making some of them into reality in the coming months.

This issue of Pezhead Monthly is a lean, mean, Pez celebratin’ machine. You’ve probably already noticed the cover image, which Pezzifies the Irish flag to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Also in this issue is some Pez Poetry, including a limerick inspired by a post form a fellow Pezhead in one of the Pez Facebook groups, as well as a new poem format I learned about called the Minute (which contains some questionable grammar that I am going to say is covered by poetic license). There is also a rundown and picture of my February scores, as well as notice of the updated Pezhead Monthly St. Patrick’s Day page.

Thanks as always for reading Pezhead Monthly. 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: February 2025 | top

I picked up a nice variety of Pez scores in February.

From Pez.com, I picked up some exclusives. First off were the latest holiday-adjacent dispensers (otherwise neon as “celebration” dispensers, similar to the Happy Birthday Cupcakes that came out a little while back), which were a blue bear with “It’s a Boy” on the stem and a pink bear with “It’s a Girl” on the stem. Pez also sold these as 6-packs at a discount, which make them perfect for baby showers and gender reveal parties. Next up were exclusive versions of the recently released Stitch and Angel dispensers with hearts on them, just in time for Valentine’s Day. This seemed like a bit of a cash grab (although they definitely succeeded in grabbing my cash) because the original dispensers came out only a month or so ago and the only difference was the hearts on the stem. I will say that the cards, when put side by side, form a neat continuous design. I’m not sure if that has been done before with other sets, but maybe it has?

From the talented Mike Herz, I picked up four custom pieces last month. This included the final 2 pieces of his Classic Monsters Series 2, which were Cyclops from The Seven Voyages of Sinbad and the bonus piece of legendary director Alfred Hitchcock (which will look great in my display next to the Series 1 bonus piece, Vincent Price). Also from Mike, I picked up the next 2 dispensers in his Flintstones “Missing Links” series: Bam Bam and Baby Puss, who join his previously released Wilma.

From the Pez Outlaw himself, Steve Glew, I picked up four custom pieces that marked the end of an era. These are the last in the expansive series that Steve collaborated on with Larry Mason: The Great Pez Caper, 100% Rotten Tomatoes, The Curse of Pez Outlaw Gold, and PO Bitcoin (aka I'm Tired Of Working So Hard To Be Poor). We may never see another Pez Outlaw custom piece again barring life changing events like a Pez Outlaw TV show or book. But what a run it was! This brings my total Pez Outlaw custom dispensers and other pieces up to 60, and I know that I am still missing a few of them!

From my Pez pal Jim, who hosts the Michigan Pez convention with his wife Jody, I picked up a couple of crystal dispenses that, honestly, I never knew existed. These were the clear crystal Kooky Zoo lion and a clear crystal Santa from. I think each were originally released about 15-20 years ago?

Out in the wild, I got a bunch of Pez stuff. From Walgreens, I picked up the 3 new Peeps bunnies (to go along with the Peeps chicks from a few years back), as well as the new Egg in tube, featuring a bunny with a basket. Together with the 2 new Easter Pez I got in January (and not counting any Easter exclusives we may be getting from Pez.com in March or April), this completes my hunt for the 2025 US Easter releases. (There is also a Brown Sitting Bunny that’s exclusive to Europe, which I plan on picking up at a Pez convention or from Facebook down the road.)

From Five Below, I picked up not one but two factory errors, and both of the same variety: a Moana dispenser and a Yoshi dispenser, both facing sideways! (I may or may not be cooking up something with one of these scores for a future issue.) I also got a few licensed items, namely a large Pez strawberry scented bath bomb as well as some Pez candy scented sidewalk chalk. Also spotted recently at Five Below or elsewhere, but not by me, are other licensed products such as Pez body spray, airpod holders, USB cables, phone grips, and more. Some of this stuff does sound cool (especially the USB cable), but if I’m being honest it also feels like overload. As always, we’re free to buy or not buy whatever Pez stuff we want. But I must confess I usually buy them anyway. Maybe when my Pez room blows up I will change my tune!

And finally, last month I made just a tiny bit of progress on the homemade custom front. Specifically, I made some custom Batman Hawaiian dispensers, swapping Batman heads with the Aloha Stitch dispenser and the Summer Santa dispenser from last year. For the Summer Santa custom, I continued my recent foray into custom dispensers inside cards. To do this, the plastic bubble needs to come off the card (at least partially), and in a way that causes very little or no damage. I followed the guidance of some Pez folks on the Facebook groups and used acetone and a Q-tip, and it worked pretty well. I will try this again for other cards since I have a few other custom creations in mind!

Here is a picture of all of my February scores. You can click on it for a larger view.

Pez Poetry | top

Whoa Black Betty, Lamb in Jam

There once was a Pez Easter lamb
Who found itself in quite a jam.
No paint did appear
On its paws, face, or ears,
But it still said "I am what I am."

Pez Haiku #187

The award for Best
Dispenser of Both Candy
And Joy goes to… Pez!

A Minute For Pez

When it comes to Pez collecting,
I’m suspecting
It’s gonna be
Always for me.

Ev’ry time there’s new releases,
There’s increases
To my display,
This is the way.

But you won’t hear me complaining,
It’s sustaining.
It’s in my soul,
It’s how I roll.

Happy St. Patrick's Day From Pezhead Monthly | top

And finally, one of the big holidays in March is of course St. Patrick's Day. Pezhead Monthly has had a few St. Patrick's Day-related features over the years, including the cover image for this very issue. There's also this limerick that I wrote a couple of years ago, which I have a soft spot for.

Grover

There once was a Pezhead named Grover
Who carried his own four-leaf clover
He'd often get lucky
When down in Kentucky,
And find Pez that others passed over.

All of the Pezhead Monthly St. Patrick's Day features are compiled on a single page for your reading and viewing pleasure. Check it out!