| July 2025 |
Thinking
Outside The Dispenser Since 2001
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Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor | top Hello and Happy July from Pezhead Monthly! There’s a lot to look back on and a lot to look forward to in the month ahead. Looking back on June, the big event in the Pez world was the Michigan Pez Convention. This was the 8th year for the convention and my second time attending one. It also turned out to be the last Michigan Pez Convention, at least for a couple of years, as hosts Jim and Jody Blaine take time off for some much-deserved rest and relaxation. I wish them the best! The door is open for a possible return to Michigan in 2028, so we’ll have to wait and see. As for this year’s convention, I had a great time seeing my Pez pals and adding some new Pez to my collection. I go into more detail about my time at the convention later in this issue. June also had some big new Pez releases. At the start of the month, people began to receive emails that let them know they were eligible to purchase the 2025 Sweets and Snacks Presenter Girl from Pez.com. I was among these lucky people and was so happy to receive mine in the mail and to add it to my collection. Another big release towards the end of June, and also a Pez.com exclusive, was the 75th anniversary Cinderella dispenser. I got mine at the very end of the month, after literally chasing down the post office truck like a dog. Definitely not my proudest moment, but I've had worse! Coming up in July? Oh, not much. Just the biggest, baddest Pez convention in the world! This would of course be Pezamania and it promises to be as epic and fun as always. The theme this year is “The Magical World of PEZ.” Pezamania is less than three weeks away as of the time of this writing and I have quite a lot of preparation to do, including assembling swag, pulling together stuff to sell out of my room, working on my wish list, and asking ChatGPT how to sell one of my kidneys to obtain some of the pricier items on said wish list. I am looking forward to seeing my Pez pals again and picking up lots of new Pez for my collection at Pezamania. I hope to see you there, if not for the full convention then maybe for the free floor show on Saturday. Oh, and I’ll also be attending a “Weird Al” Yankovic concert in July with my lovely wife. We are both very excited to see the man, the myth, the legend once again. And no, this isn’t technically related to Pez, although A) Al does mention Pez dispensers in his song “eBay” and 2) Al has been (and continues to be) a major influence on the Pez song parodies featured in Pezhead Monthly. This month’s issue of Pezhead Monthly kicks off with a cover image that ties the upcoming Marvel movie “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” in with the wonder of Pez. Also in this issue is a recap of my adventures at the Michigan Pez Convention, some Pez Poetry, a new Pez Almost-Quote, and a rundown and photo of my June scores. Thanks as always for reading Pezhead Monthly. Take care and see you soon! Joe Durrant 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.
For starters, from the talented Pez artist Mike Herz, I picked up the latest in his third series of Classic Monsters. This one was Audrey II from “Little Shop of Horrors” and it was another very well done piece. Thanks Mike! From elsewhere on the web, I picked up a Less Than Jake Coloring Book that has several pages of artwork featuring Pez candies, dispensers, and other designs. This is very cool, but it begs the question: to color or not to color? Good thing I ordered 2 of these so I can decide later. From the Virtual Pez Convention that took place in May, which was covered in last month’s issue of Pezhead Monthly, I received the VPC Football dispenser along with a sticker and some other goodies. From eBay, I picked
up a neat circular display rack. I don’t have this set up in my
Pez room yet, but for now it’s set up in a separate room and filled
with most of the various Batman Pez from over the years. I also made
a Bat logo for the middle of the rack.
Here's a picture!
From Pezamania 34, I received a very cool letter that confirmed my registration for the convention, and also informed me that I will be in the Order of the Orange Octopuses for this convention! I look forward to connecting with my fellow Orange Octopuses, as well as the Lemon Lions, Raspberry Ravens, and Chocolate Crocodiles, in just a few weeks at Pezamania! One new dispenser
that took many of us by surprise was the Abt Electronics promotional
hauler. I scooped this up along with a couple of extras that I plan
on bringing to Pezamania. Also from Pez.com, I picked up the exclusive Cinderella on a translucent stem, celebrating her 75th anniversary. This is similar to the Cinderella that was released earlier this year as part of the new Disney Parks assortment, although there is different lettering on the stem and the head part of the dispenser is solid and not translucent. The stem is also a bit darker than the Disney Parks release. I also picked up the newest addition to the Pokemon set, Gengar, the new US Flag ball dispenser, and a few more display rails. The US Flag ball dispenser is a basic stem variation, shifting from the first release last year (red) to this new one (white). An updated design for the ball head would have been nice too, but this will still be a welcome addition to my collection. And lastly, I picked up a bunch of great stuff from the Michigan Pez Convention in June, including my first 2 vintage dispensers of the year (Pilot and Stewardess from the 70s), 3 convention dispensers (the Michigan 2025 one, a separate “I Support the Michigan Pez Convention” one, and a very cool ATX 2025 Gathering dispenser from the Austin Pez Gathering that was held in April 2025), a truck from the 90s with a color combination that I did not already have, the European Blaze set (Blaze, Crusher, and Stripes), the new European Winking Eevee, and a hilarious combination of Bob Ross and Batman from my Pez pal and fellow Joe, Joe WHAT! In term of non-dispenser Michigan Pez Convention scores, I picked up a very cool pen holder in the shape of an oversized Pez dispenser, a coin purse, a Wacky Packages “Pezzimist” card, a tin sign from Temu that almost (but not quite) could pass for an official Pez tin sign, and last but certainly not least some Batman Pez artwork that I won on auction night. I also picked up a variety of neat swag pieces. Even though I did not make my own swag for the convention this year, several Pezheads kindly gave me the swag that they made, including a wind spinner, a keychain, and magnet, a paper costume, and more. You can read more about my adventures at the Michigan Pez Convention elsewhere in this issue. Here is a picture of most of my June Pez scores, except for the Batman Pez Art, the circle display, and a few others described above. You can click on it for a larger view.
Three years ago, I had the pleasure of attending my first Michigan Pez Convention. It was such a fun experience and I knew I’d be back again someday. It turns out that 2025 was my year to return, and I am very glad that I did! Once again hosted by the husband and wife team of Jim and Jody Blaine, but now located in Farmington Hills instead of Ann Arbor, the Michigan Pez Convention included more fun, games, opportunities to meet and hang out with fellow Pezheads, and of course a whole lot of Pez to take in and buy, sell, or trade. The theme of this year’s Michigan Pez Convention was Steampunk, and I’d estimate there were about 150-200 attendees for the convention. I arrived Thursday afternoon and very soon thereafter I already had my convention packet in my hands, along with a few other goodies such as a very cool pen holder in the shape of an oversized Pez dispenser stem. And then before I knew it, I started up with good ol’ room hopping. It was nice to see so many familiar faces again, both room sellers and room hoppers, most of whom I had not seen since Pezamania last year. (As was the case with my 2022 Michigan Pez Convention experience, I did not sell stuff out of my room and only went as a buyer.) The lobby featured a couple of very cool claw machines for people to try to win official or custom Pez dispensers, with a portion of the money going towards charity. Here are pictures of these claw machines! Alas, I did not win, or even play, on these machines.
After a delicious barbeque dinner at the nearby Bad Brad’s BBQ, I returned to the convention hotel for game night. The theme of the game night, to go along with the convention theme of Steampunk, was Gears and Goggles. There were some great costumes for this event, some of which really got into the spirit of the steampunk theme, but my favorite was by my Canadian Pez pal Becky, who, for the goggles piece of the costume, wore swimming goggles (along with a snorkel, inner tube, and flippers) and, for the gears piece of the costume, had various pictures of the actor Richard Gere attached to her shirt. Very clever! I remember game night being a fun time at the 2022 Michigan Pez Convention, and it continued to be so in 2025. It’s a mixture of Pez trivia questions, ice breakers, and activities. Game night is well thought out and designed to be interactive and to get us to know each other better and there are always lots of laughs and cheering, along with great prizes. For each question, a person who fits the qualification (furthest traveler, longest hair, best dancer, good at puzzles, etc.) goes up to compete with players from other teams. It’s highly likely that everyone from the team gets a chance to play, and I think that’s pretty cool. Points are awarded throughout the event, and are planned out in such a way where the winning team changes multiple times, which adds to the fun. For this game night,
we were divided into 6 teams and the prize for each game was a random
amount of dealer cash for room hopping. The activities included passing a Life Saver candy from one person to another using toothpicks and no hands, taking a funny selfie by the hotel pool, and arranging Skittles by color and then also alphabetically. I was not involved in any of these, which was good news for my team due to my lack of coordination across a variety of situations. Also, I must tip my hat to Joe WHAT! for his wicked dance moves that earned his team a nice chunk of points.
I went up for my team three times, for good smile, funny person, and Winter birthday. While I struck out on the first 2 tries, I won on the third try by correctly identifying December 21 as one of the two days that start Winter. My prize was $20 in dealer cash, which I used afterwards on a bronze Snowman Pez that I’ll be taking out of package to display (and keeping my current bronze Snowman on card). While our team was briefly in the lead, we ultimately came up short. The final game was one where we had the option to wager some, all, or none of our acquired points, similar to Final Jeopardy. The question was: in what year was the first known instance of the word Steampunk used? The answer, for which we were off by 5 years, was 1987, by science fiction writer K.W. Jeter. And believe it or not, two teams actually guessed (or knew) the correct year! Although my team did not win, it was for sure another fantastic game night, and props are due to Jim, Jody, Brian Crisp, and the whole crew for putting together this event for us all. I’d also like to note here that, after the tragic recent house fire that affected Jim’s parents, Jim made special custom Pez dispensers to raise money for them and sold them at game night. Between the money collected from these dispensers, a collection hat that was passed around, and another donation, $3500 was raised for Jim’s parents! That is just amazing and a testament to the power of this Pez community. After game night on Thursday, there was a bit more room hopping for me, but not too much as I was pretty tired from the approximately 27 pounds of barbeque I ingested earlier at dinner. On Friday, I pulled
myself together and did some more room hopping to kick the day off.
While it’s hard to top the plethora of open rooms at Pezamania,
Michigan had quite a few of these, mostly spread out across select wings
of two floors and then a couple more on the third floor. I really liked
the room setup at this hotel, which included a room up front with a
couch and desk and then a separate room in the back for the bed. Most
sellers only set up in the front room, but a few, such as Chris Jordan
and Brian Crisp, also set up in the second room. And then there was
Tom Zelmer’s room, which was simply huge (the size of the registration
room right below his) and well filled out with a whole bunch of great
Pez stuff, as always. After a break for lunch at a nearby outstanding burger joint named The Rolling Stoves, followed by a sentimental drive for a chocolate milkshake at Carvel in nearby Canton, I was back at the hotel for, you guessed it, more room hopping. However, when I looked down the first floor hall, I could have sworn that my mind was playing tricks on me. There were multiple couches in the hall that I swore I did not see on Thursday, or even before I left for lunch. Was I in such a Pez blackout that I did not notice this earlier? As it turns out, the hotel staff had moved all of the furniture out of the lobby in preparation for the Saturday floor show. A quick jaunt down to the lobby confirmed this. It turns out I was not losing my mind, at least in this one particular instance. You have to take the small victories sometimes. Friday night came along and it was time for auction night. I will be honest here and admit that I was briefly considering skipping auction night this time around, because outside of a few silent auctions over the years, the bids always seem to quickly get out of control. But man, I am glad I decided to stick around for auction night, because there was not only lots of great stuff up for bid, but some pretty big news on top of that. The first big news item was that the Michigan Pez Convention has a new charity: Leader Dogs for the Blind. A representative from the charity, Stephen Moran, was there to talk about it (and there was also a guide dog, who was very cute!). Leader Dogs for the Blind’s mission is to empower people who are blind or visually impaired with lifelong skills for safe and independent daily travel. This is a great charity! Check out the giant dog that was briefly in the lobby on auction night before moving outside the hotel to welcome guests for the Saturday floor show. Move over, Clifford!
The second big news item was the announcement of the new Grand Marshall of the convention. The Grand Marshall is someone selected for their dedication to celebrating and growing the hobby and just being an overall great ambassador for Pez collectors old and new. The Grand Marshal is a tradition dating back to the first Michigan Pez Convention in 2016. This year’s Grand Marshall was none other than Mr. Brian Crisp. Brian is a very well deserved winner for sure! He is a great dude and it’s always a treat to see him at Pez conventions. The third, and biggest, news item was Jim and Jody’s announcement that they were stepping away from the Michigan Pez convention. After 8 years of putting their heart, soul, sweat, and tears into this convention, and growing it into one of the biggest Pez conventions in the world that turned casual collectors into friends and friends into family, they made the difficult decision to take some time off. They said that there won’t be a Michigan Pez Convention in 2026 or 2027, but they are still leaving the door open for a possible return in 2028. Instead of having to plan for the next Pez convention (which no doubt starts very soon after the previous one ends), Jim and Jody plan to travel, spend more time with family, enjoy new experiences, and just relax. While this was sad news, it was also completely understandable. We all need time to step back and dedicate time to renew, replenish, and refresh ourselves, and this is especially the case for people like Jim and Jody, who have put so much of themselves into this convention. I think it’s fair to say that these fine folks have the complete support of the Pez community and, whether or not the Michigan Pez Convention ultimately comes back or not, we are all so very grateful for all that they have done for us. With all of this news behind us, the auctions kicked off. There were so many good ones, and a few that I’d like to point out in particular. One is a set of custom “The Walking Dead” dispensers featuring six 3D-printed character heads from the show. A very limited number of these were made and they were given out to the show’s executives and to attendees of the 100th episode premiere of the show. The set is very hard to come by! It sold at the auction for $400. Another auction
item that is worthy of mention is a Giant Peter Pez that was customized
to fit the convention’s steampunk theme by the talented Kelly Jo
Mitchell. This is just an awesome piece. Kelly Jo made two of these,
one for herself and one for the auction. This item sold for the unbelievable
price of $700! Here’s a look at this very cool work of art.
There was another auction item I’d like to touch on here. Astute readers of Pezhead Monthly, and those in the Pez community who know me, are aware that I am perhaps somewhat of a fan of Batman Pez. So when, during the auction preview, I saw some Pez artwork of a boy dressed as Batman holding a Batman Pez dispenser, made by the talented Eddie Santiago, I had a feeling I would be bidding on it. When it came time for this piece to be auctioned, Jim had me carry it around the room to show everyone up close. As he was describing it, he mentioned it would look great in the Pez room of someone who had a dedicated Batman Pez display. Needless to say, I felt seen! But in a good way, of course. As I walked around that room, I would occasionally raise my hand to bid on what I was holding. Thankfully, before the auction got well beyond what I was comfortable bidding, I managed to win this artwork at what I consider a quite reasonable price! Here is a picture
of this awesome piece. It might take me a little time to find some space
for it in my Pez room (and I also have a separate Batman painting from
Eddie from a couple of years ago that I have not put up yet), I am sure
it will look great as part of my Batman Pez display!
Before I knew it, the Saturday floor show was already here. The show was partially in the same event room where we had the games and auctions, but also extended out into the hotel lobby. Many of the same sellers who had their rooms open for room hopping the past couple of days were there, but there were also other folks selling stuff. There was so much Pez and so many people around that a minimum of 3 or 4 passes was needed to really take it all in. The floor show was free to the public, and I’d imagine for someone’s first time at a floor show it could be a bit overwhelming, but also hopefully a lot of fun. After spending my very last Pez-allocated dollars on a Temu Pez tin sign and a Wacky Packages Pezzimist card from the aforementioned Mr. Zellmer, I said my final goodbyes to a few folks and I thanked Jim and Jody for an amazing convention. I also wished them luck on their time off, although I know I’ll be seeing Jim in just a few weeks at Pezamania. Although I was on the road before noon on Saturday, the convention kept rolling later into the day and evening for others who had registered as VIP attendees (which seemed to be quite a few people). Facebook pictures of the VIP events included those of the VIP dinner, a caricature artist, jugglers, and even snakes! All of this sounds like it was a whole lot of bonus fun on top of the already large amount of fun at the rest of the convention. I was glad to hit the road to get to some needed weekend stuff at home, but I am also sorry to have missed the VIP events and the opportunity to hang out with my fellow Pezheads a bit more at the convention. Unlike my last time at the Michigan Pez Convention in 2022, I did not make swag to trade with others this time around. Despite this, several Pezheads handed out their swag to me without getting anything in return but my thanks. I am so grateful for the kindness of JoAnn and Steve, the Morans, Karla, Karen, Taylor and Justin, and Joe WHAT! (And hopefully I am not forgetting anyone!) Thank you all so much. As for my Michigan Pez Convention scores, I picked up quite a few new pieces. These are noted and pictured above along with my non-Michigan June scores. But I’d like to point out a few in particular here, in addition to the Batman Pez art I mentioned earlier in this recap. First off, I absolutely adore this love child of Batman and Bob Ross that I got from Joe WHAT! This will make a fine addition to my Batcave, although I pity whatever custom Batman will be displayed behind it.
Second, this convention dispenser from the 2025 ATX Pez gathering in Austin, Texas is just too cool for words. Each of the dispensers given out for this gathering was unique and I am so glad to have one in my collection, even if I was unable to make it to the gathering myself this past April. Hopefully I’ll make it out there for the next one, which is planned in 2028.
And finally, I came to the Michigan Pez Convention with the hopes of finally pulling the trigger on 1 of the 3 very limited editions of the Batman POP+Pez dispensers: Gold, Zebra, or Rainbow. Unfortunately, no one seemed to have any of these for sale in Michigan. (Looking back, maybe I should have asked about it on Facebook before the convention.) But, with the money I had set aside for one of the Batman POP+Pez, I was very pleased to add a couple of new vintage dispensers to my collection: the Pilot and Stewardess, both of which were released in the magical year of 1975.
And that wraps up my adventures at another Michigan Pez Convention. It may very well have been the last Michigan convention, although the door is still open for it to return in 2028. If it does, I’ll try my best to make it back up there again. To be honest, at one point I was considering only going to the Saturday floor show this year. But I am very glad I decided instead on the full convention experience (even if I missed the VIP events on Saturday). It’s always great to see my old Pez pals and meet new ones, and to have the opportunity to see so much Pez in one place and bring some of it back home. Thanks again to Jim, Jody, and the whole convention team for putting on a very fun, engaging, well-planned, and memorable event. I wish the Blaines all the best as they get their chance to step back, relax, and recharge. And I’m looking forward to seeing many of my Pez pals again soon, if not at Pezamania in just a few weeks, then at another convention or gathering down the road.
Independence Day I work long hours
at my job, I spend the weekends
on the yard, But ev'ry summer,
there’s a place Suburban Cleveland
calls my name So once again I’m
headed there,
There once was a
Pezhead named Clark
The Fantastic Four
"You'll have plenty of time to collect Pez when you're living in a van down by the river!"
For more Pez Almost-Quotes, click here!
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