NE PezCon 14, Part 2: The Factory Tour, The Scores, and More top of page | cover page

(Editor's Note: In Part 1 of Pezhead Monthly’s NE PezCon 14 recap, I covered my arrival at the convention and most of my experiences at the Pez Visitor’s Center. Below, Part 2 picks up with the Factory Tour and further adventures at the convention and Pez Visitor’s Center.

As I mentioned in Part 1, you can click on most of these pictures for a larger view. Also, I have higher resolution versions of many of the pictures included below, and would be glad to send them upon request.)

Having just come down off the overwhelming high of my introduction to the Pez Visitor’s Center, not to mention meeting Joe Vittoria, the President of Pez Candy Inc., I really could have used a breather.

As I well knew, though, there was no rest for the Pezheads. Not at a time like this! It wasn’t too long until the guide got on the megaphone and called out “PURPLE GROUP 7!” That was my cue to line up by the entrance to the factory. Richie, the host of NE PezCon, had worked it out with Pez Inc. for convention registrants (who were able to sign up in time) to go on a VIP tour of the factory. I can appreciate how long and hard everyone had to work to make this happen, and by the time my number was called there had already been many other tours- in fact, there was just one more tour after ours. I am guessing that they did somewhere between 30-40 tours that day, given the amount of people from the convention who came. Incredible! I know that this took a lot of coordination, since we were basically poking around at people’s places of work, and the tour guides I am sure had a long day as well. But, I definitely appreciated everyone’s time and effort with all aspects of the experience.

Since the Pez factory is a FDA facility, we needed to wear hairnets and white coats for the tour. We also had to button up the coats and carry nothing on the outside. So, I gave up my backpack for a short time and slipped into something… well, I wouldn’t say more comfortable, but it did get me excited for what was ahead. 

Here I am, getting ready for the big tour:

There were five of us on the tour, and I was lucky enough to get the tour with Richie and Mary. Everyone was armed with their trusty cameras, ready to take plenty of pictures. Soon, our tour guide came and greeted us. His name was Chris, and he was a cool guy. (Look for a picture of Chris a bit later in this recap.)

(A bit of a warning: It was quite an overwhelming day, and although I learned a lot about the process of making Pez, I wasn’t able to absorb many of the finer details because my mind was all over the place. So, in the paragraphs that follow, I may be leaving out some of the more technical aspects of the factory and the process of making a Pez candy and assembling a package, and for that I apologize ahead of time. But, what I lacked in absorbing many of those kinds of details, I made up for in my sheer enthusiasm of just being there, and as you will see, lots of photos.)

We walked past some workers who were putting the final touches on the packaging for the dispensers. We’d return to get a closer look a bit later, but first we went back to where it all began: the SUGAR. Chris took us outside to show us a giant tower where the sugar comes in.

He described the consistency as that of Pixie Stix, only with a finer consistency. Hey, no argument here, nothing is finer than Pez!

He showed us a few other machines, but my attention briefly slipped away when I noticed this huge bin of Pez candy off to the side:

Chris then took us to a very neat machine; one that compressed all of that sugar and magic and wonder into a perfectly shaped brick of Pez candy. It was truly excellent. Then, he reached over to where the candy came out (no, he did not need to tilt a Pez dispenser head back to do so, although that would be a cool upgrade to that machine!), and scooped up a buck of just-made Pez candy. Then, to my disbelief, he offered it to us to eat, right there!

Let me tell you, as a Pezhead, to get a Pez candy right off the press was a dream come true. What a rare and wonderful opportunity this was! And how did it taste? In the words of a Mike Myers character, “Like buttah.” Well, not exactly like butter, of course. But, having just come off the press and into my hand, it was… warm! And soft, and incredibly easy to bite into. I had never tasted a Pez candy so fresh, so perfect. And I am not sure if I ever will again. I know this may sound a bit dramatic, but it’s true. This was a real treat, in more than one sense of the word, and looking back across particular moments of the convention, this was easily one of the highlights.

We moved on to the next phase of the tour: the loading dock. We got to take a look inside a Pez truck! I don’t mean one of the many promotional haulers, I mean an honest to goodness 18-wheeler carrying lots of Pez, and thereby spreading lots of joy. Here is a look inside one of the trucks!

Near the truck, there was a big box of Pez candy that did not look quite right. Chris exhttp://www.pezheadmonthly.com/images/Jun12/NEPezCon2_15.jpgplained that whenever a batch of candy came out where the color or flavor was off, or when the wrapping wasn’t quite right, it would get tossed into this box. And where would it go? Believe it or not, this candy would eventually be sent to a hog farm, where it would be served as food (wrappers and all) to all the little piggies. While some may scratch their head at this, I think it is pretty neat that even the so-called rejected Pez is destined to make someone happy, and that, my friends, is nothing to oink at. 

We next made our way into the wrapping area of the factory. It was quite a site to see all of the wrappers in one room. Chris showed us a big roll of one. Very cool!

Chris explained that each wrapper has its own lot number, so they could always trace each candy to the day, time, machine, and even operator if something went wrong (although nothing ever has). And wow, what a sight it was to see all of the Pez getting wrapped up. Here are some pictures (click on each picture for a larger version):

Next, we went to the first room that we had passed through, to see how it all comes together: dispenser, candy, and card. The first step was to sort the candy into bins. Then, they would be separated into groups of three and moved on down the line. Next is the fun part: a worker combines the dispenser, candy, and card! That day, the dispensers being packaged were the Disney Princesses.

(Note that I say “fun” without knowing how this would be over the course of a full day, week, month, or longer. But I do think it would be rewarding to give it a try someday!)

The last leg of our factory tour was in the shipping area. Chris first walked us by a big, fenced in area with lots of Pez goodies in it. He explained that Pez Candy fulfills all orders from Pez.com. He said that an outside company used to help with this, but they have since found it to be much more efficient to take care of it in-house. That reminds me, I need to order something from Pez.com. And you should, too!

Finally, we came to the warehouse portion, where all of the orders were organized to be shipped to stores across the country. Here is a picture to give you an idea of how much they had. And this is only 1 of many rows!

It sort of reminded me of that last scene from “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, where they put the Ark on a shelf, never to be seen again. Only in this case, the Pez would be distributed all across the land, delivering fruity goodness to kids of all ages.

After a little more chatting, our fantastic VIP tour came to a close. We all thanks Chris for being a great tour guide, and I would like to again thank him and Pez Candy for allowing us Pezheads to get an inside look at everything. It was an opportunity that I honestly thought would never happen, and I will treasure it forever.

After the tour, I picked up my backpack and the shopping basket that I had set aside behind the counter. I picked up a few more things, including some items which Chris had talked about on the tour: exclusive European tins, available only at the Visitor’s Center. Apparently they discovered them in the warehouse one day, after they had been there for a while. And this was definitely a case of “once they’re gone, they’re gone”, as Chris mentioned they would not be making any more. So, it sounds like these tins might become quite the collectible- in particular the blue one, which was in more limited quantity. I did snatch up a couple of each, and may bring them for sale or trade at Pezamania. They are very cool- look for a picture towards the end of this recap.

In addition to getting some more stuff, I also was lucky enough to find Joe Vittoria again, and I got his signature on the top of a box for one of the exclusive Visitor’s Center dispensers. Thanks again, Joe!!

Then, I got in line. And wow, what a line. It started in the back of the Visitor’s Center and wrapped all the way around the place. Between the Pezheads and the school kids, not to mention the poor employees at the 3 checkout registers who were helping customers as fast as they can, it was quite crazy.

And, there was also an added wrinkle: time. It was 1:15 when I finally made it to the line, and it was moving very, very slowly. The thing was, we were told that our tour bus was going to leave the Visitor’s Center at 2PM to go back to the convention hotel, and if we weren’t on it, well, we were out of luck. So I was beginning to worry that I would miss the bus and started to wonder how much a cab would cost. But then, I noticed that a few spots up in line was our bus captains, and oh yes, the hosts of the convention, Richie and Mary! They assure me and a few other nearby Pezheads that the bus would not be leaving without them. I breathed a sigh of relief.

When I finally got to the register and they rung up all of my purchases (a few of which, I admit, I picked up while waiting in line), I pulled out my handy Pez wallet, which got a warm reaction from the employees, who had not seen it before. They fit all of my purchases into a big bag that actually doubles as quite the nifty souvenir in and of itself:

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