Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor
"Scores!" Says He: June 2023
Just Shoot Me, Again: Retaking Photos of My Pez Collection
Pez Poetry

Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor | top

Hello and welcome to Pezhead Monthly and the fantastic month of July! This is the month I went on my first date with my wife, the month I attended my first ever Pez convention, and also the month that "Oppenheimer" premieres, a movie which I hear is the bomb.

I've been incredibly busy this past month, and will continue to be over the next few weeks, preparing for the biggest Pez convention of them all, Pezamania, taking place in Independence, Ohio from 7/19-7/22. To get an idea of what I've been doing, check out this feature from a couple of years ago.

Pezamania 32, with its theme of "Wild Wild West," and its new hosts of Landon Proctor, Morgan Rhinehart, and their spouses, is sure to be a fun time and I can't wait. As of this writing, registration has closed, but the Saturday floor show will be open to the public (Sat 7/22, 9-2), so if I don't see you earlier at the convention, I hope to see you there!

Sadly, I had to miss the most recent Pez convention that took place just a couple of weeks ago. This was the Michigan Pez Convention and was by all accounts a spectacular time filled with fun, games, friends, laughs, and also some Pez. This marked the sixth year for the convention and it seems to get bigger and better every year, no doubt thanks in large part to convention hosts Jim and Jody Blaine and their hard-working staff. I had a great time at this convention last year and I hope to make it again next year, but unfortunately it could not work out this year.

This month's issue of Pezhead Monthly features a cover image that Pezzifies the popular Uncle Sam poster to celebrate the US Independence Day holiday. Speaking of which, check out this feature about America and Pez from the archives. Also related to this holiday is one of the very first Pezhead Monthly limericks, "Declaring Independence." I honestly can't recall if I came up with the title as an added shout-out to Pezamania's location, but if I didn't do it consciously then I have to believe I did it subconsciously.

Declaring Independence

This month gives us cause to rejoice
The day when we won our own voice.
Freedom is great,
And to celebrate
I'll tilt back a Pez of my choice.

Also this month, I go into some detail of the massive Pez photo project I've been working on, which has multiple benefits in addition to just having updated pictures of my collection handy on my phone. I also run down my June scores in words and photos. And lastly, there is a Pez poem about "Wheel of Fortune," in honor of Pat Sajak, who recently announced he was stepping down from the long-running host of the popular game show.

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: June 2023 | top

I picked up quite a few dispensers from Pez.com in June. Early in the month a big box showed up at my front door containing the new Sylvester and Daffy Duck dispensers, the Ghost Spider dispenser (the latest in the ever-growing Spider-Man series), 4 more of those ever-present 2-packs (2 Spider-Man boxes and 2 My Little Pony boxes), and to top it off, a new Hamburger Treat Dispenser with "Grill Then Chill" printed on the stem. While the new Hamburger dispenser was a surprise, some collectors were a bit disappointed. It had the same colors as the original Hamburger dispenser, including stem color, and another dispenser with a printed stem reading "Always Snackish" came out last year (which also had the same colors as the original one). It was also noticed that the Pez.com web page for this dispenser has the title "Grill 'n Chill", the card graphic has "Grill & Chill", and the dispenser itself has "Grill Then Chill." I think the key takeaway here is that there will be both grilling and chilling, which will happen either at the same time or sequentially. And hey, that's good enough for me.

Later in the month, as one of my last June scores, I picked up from Pez.com what I am assuming is the final Sourz Mascot, the Pineapple Sourz, which joins the Watermelon, Blue Raspberry, and Green Apple Sourz Mascots, and matches up to both the candy flavors and the Sourz dispensers from a while back. It is a little weird that the Pineapple Sourz Mascot is orange instead of yellow. My working theory is that, like the Hamburger, the Pineapple Sourz Mascot was grilled and chilled, although I am not sure if these happened at the same time.

Stepping into the wonderful world of custom Pez, I picked up not one, not two, but FOUR more swirly Batmans from a talented Pez artist named Robert Samolewski. This is just one month after I scored 2 other ones. This brings my total swirly Batmans to 7. As amazing as they look in this picture, they look even better in person and will also be a welcome addition to my ever-growing Batcave.

From the Pez Outlaw himself, Steve Glew, I picked up 2 new Outlaw dispensers: Hollywood and Delta Pilot. Along with these 2 pieces was a glow-in-the dark Pez Outlaw head that fits on a standard Pez dispenser stem. This is awesome and I already have a idea of which dispenser it's going on in my collection (*cough* Batman with logo on stem *cough*). Speaking of Steve, he's let everyone know that this year's Pezamania 32 will be the last Pez convention that he'll be attending. He's a really nice and friendly guy and loves to take pictures and sign your Pez, and he'll also be there for the Saturday floor show that's open to the public. Hopefully you'll be able to attend and meet him there!

I also picked up a custom full-body Pez robot from the talented Pez artist Aviv Tayeb from Israel. This is an updated version of the vintage full-body Pez dispensers (https://us.pez.com/products/full-body-robots) and it's just exquisitely made. Here is an animated GIF of this very cool dispenser!

From another talented Pez artist, Michael Herz, I picked up the newest in his Universal Monster series, The Mummy. This is the non-bandaged version of the Mummy from the classic movie. Like the others I have from him in this series (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon), this is just an incredible work of art and Mike has outdone himself again. Tragically, Michael and his wife recently had a very big setback, when a fire burned down their entire home and took the lives of their beloved pets, including 2 dogs and 3 birds. It's a very sad situation and my heart goes out to Michael and his family for this unimaginable loss. There is currently a Go Fund Me page for Michael and his wife Vivian if you would like to donate to help them rebuild.

Finally, my most valuable June Pez score was John LaSpina's "The Original Price Guide to PEZ And Other Candy Dispensers", 34th edition (Spring 2023). John's price guide is considered the foremost authority on the value of Pez dispensers, both vintage and current. With Pez prices going up recently, it's important to have the most recent edition. And it's already been a big help in my Pezamania prep: it's given me a better idea of what's on my "wish list" (stuff I can reasonably pick up at a convention for a fair price) versus what's on my "dream list" (who needs 2 kidneys when you stop and think about it).

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

Just Shoot Me, Again: Retaking Photos of My Pez Collection | top

Towards the end of May, I embarked on quite an ambitious project: retaking pictures of pretty much my entire Pez collection, or at least the dispensers. As I mentioned in a previous issue, having photos of your Pez collection is quite handy when you are on the hunt for new Pez, or when someone asks to see your collection. It's not good when you come across some Pez and you are not sure if you have it or not, which is a problem you may run into especially as your time as a Pez collector progresses. I'll admit that I've recently had trouble even with current dispensers in the stores with dispensers such as Mickey and Minnie that have different variations. Do I have the Mickey with the red cap? Or the one with the blue cap? Or both?

Also, as I mentioned previously, a lot of my Pez collection photos were, shall we say, not the best. In some cases, I had too many sets in the same picture, and in some cases I took new pictures of dispensers as I got them, instead of combining them with others in the same set that were released earlier. On top of this, over the past several years as my collection grew quite substantially, I have not taken many pictures of my new additions at all, except for monthly score pictures like the ones I've been sharing here in Pezhead Monthly.

All of this meant that a Pez photo update was badly needed, and I figured doing this before Pezamania was an especially good time for this. After all, at a convention as big as Pezamania, if you hesitate to pick up a new Pez because you think you might already have it, it might be gone by the time you realize that you don't.

And so, armed with a decent phone camera, a dedicated photo-taking area, and my Excel spreadsheet, and facing the prospect of shooting over 2400 dispensers, I got to it. I started with POP+Pez and superheroes and then just worked my way from shelf to shelf- all 29 of them that contained official, standard sized dispensers. (Other pieces of my collection such as customs, giants, etc. may be photographed later, but were not a priority for this project.). As I took photos of each set, I marked them off in my spreadsheet. Each night after I finished taking pictures, I transferred them to my computer to have a backup. It took many long nights, but I have to tell you it was very nice to see set by set, category by category, being checked off.

And it is also nice to finally have current, decent photos available. Here are some before and after photos that show what a difference the new pictures make. Notice in the before pics, I combined 3 sets in one photo (Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Ice Age), and then added new pictures for 2 of the sets when more dispensers were added to them. In the after pics, each set starts out as its own photo (or split across photos as needed, but never more than one set in a single photo). This also allows for quicker access for other sets that were added later and fall in between these 3 sets alphabetically, such as Jurassic World, KISS, and LOL Surprise.

Before:

After:

There were also some added benefits that came with this photo re-take project. For one, I was finally able to group dispensers better in my Pez display as I pulled out each set to take photos. Because most shelves in my Pez display were already pretty full, when I got new dispensers I added them on a separate shelf that I dubbed "The Waiting Room." This meant that Luigi could not hang with Mario, that the Minions were hopelessly separated, that new holiday dispensers couldn't be added to the holiday shelves, and so on. As I took photos, I was able to group dispensers together. Now, will this problem repeat again? Definitely! It's inevitable that there will always be new holiday dispensers, new Hello Kitty, new Star Wars, etc. In some cases, thanks to the Pez Pal Blog, I left space for Pez that are scheduled to come later this year or next. But there will inevitably be others, and another version of "The Waiting Room," and I'll need to do some more adjusting for sure. But at least I've got the photos, which should hopefully just need minor updates from this point forward.

Here is a birds-eye view of my main display after the re-orgaizing, including POP+Pez in the upper left, giants on top, and minis and trucks on the right. There's still a bit more to do, but I think it's at a good place..

Along these lines, I discovered some details about my dispensers that I never noticed before. For example, I got to see which dispensers were Glew dispensers (no country on stem) and which were Misfit dispensers (with country). And wow, there are a lot of fun variations of the various Batman generations. I may go into more detail about Batman in a future issue (which is one of the least surprising things you'll hear me say, right up there with "I got a Pez package in the mail today").

Another benefit of my Pez photo project was that I got to clean the dispensers as I retook the pictures. One of the questions Pezheads often get is "How do you clean your dispensers?" I'd like to say that I take them off the shelf every month and inspect and dust each one, but that would simply not be true. In most cases, there's just not enough time for it. But as I was taking photos, using my handy Swiffer duster and other tools, I did make a point to clean the dispenser, which was long overdue.

When pulling my Pez out for photos, I also realized that there were gaps in my collection. For example, take the ever-expanding Hello Kitty series. While I know I will never have every dispenser in this series, I like to try to get the more common ones. But it wasn't until I started taking photos of them, and cross-referencing with the photos on Pez.com or the Pez Collector Store, that I was able to more closely pinpoint what I was missing. I also found some sets that I only had in collector sets but never opened, such as the Snow White set or the original Harry Potter set. In some cases, I had doubles of the sets to open, but not for all of them. There were also some new gaps in my collection that were the result a few casualties as I pulled some dispensers out, including a Kermit, Gonzo, and a Santa. (I think some of these dispensers may have already been broken, or on their way, before the project started.)

So, as I took photos, my wish list kept on growing. I've cleaned up the wish list since then and am in the process of using John LaSpina's price guide to find prices for them, so that I know how much to expect to pay for them if I find them at Pezamania.

Another benefit of the photo project was it helped me clean up my Excel spreadsheet. In some cases, dispensers were poorly categorized (for example, I grouped some of my holiday dispensers by decade instead of by character) or in entirely wrong categories. And in some cases, there were Pez that I either had not added to the spreadsheet yet (despite trying my best to stay on top of this), or no longer owned (likely due to selling at Pez conventions over the years). The end result was that my total unique dispenser count went up to over 2500 dispensers. But, that is not a reliable number because it includes convention dispensers, which I've grouped together but are really a combination of custom dispensers (which I don't count as unique dispensers) and official dispensers. Splitting these out to get a more accurate count will have to wait for another day.

Overall, I think the biggest benefit of retaking my Pez photos was that it gave me a new appreciation for my collection and for Pez in general. The vast amount of dispensers, all of the history, all of the colors and revisions and variations... I got to see it all, again and again, set by set. It was really quite breathtaking. And this is only the Pez in my collection, which I consider a drop in the bucket of all of the Pez out there. The world of Pez is truly bigger than you may think!

Now that I finally have current, decent photos my Pez collection available in my pocket, I am even more excited to head out and get some more! I think this is why I am especially excited for Pezamania this year. I think there will be a greater sense of clarity and purpose in my Pez hunting than in previous years. Even if I don't find everything in my newly updated wish list at the convention, and frankly I don't even know if that's possible, it will be an even more rewarding experience thanks to the Pez photo project that took so much time and effort, and that I'm so glad to have done.

Pez Poetry | top

A Wheely Fortunate Time

I think I'll start my turn tonight
By asking for a "Z", alright?

Starting with a Z? I'm floored!
But there is one up on the board!

It's too early for a guess,
So I think I'll try an "S".

Now you're heading for a win,
So give that wheel another spin!

Okay, Pat, I'll take a "P"...
Hey, why is everyone laughing at me?

Vanna's showing where it is,
Now go again, you're quite the whiz!

I'm tempting fate to spin again…
One thousand bucks?! I'll take an "N"!

You're getting close, you're quite involved,
Now do you think it's time to solve?

Why thank you Pat, for quite the run,
And now I'll solve it: "PEZ IS FUN"!

Hooray to you! You've won at last!
Now flip some Pez and have a blast.