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March 2024
Thinking Outside The Dispenser Since 2001


Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor

"Scores!" Says He: February 2024
Pez Poetry

Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor | top

Hello and Happy March from Pezhead Monthly! Spring will be here before we know it, and I for one am here for it. Flowers bloom, robins chirp, and new Pez is released. It's just science. March is also the month for St. Patrick's Day, so be sure to check out the Pezhead Monthly St. Patrick's Day page, which has been updated to include a poem from this current issue.

February was quite the month in the Pez world at large, as well as in my little corner of it, so this month's editor's letter is a little longer than usual. Without further ado, let's get right to it.

First off, the Pez community had the 2024 Pezzy Awards in February. These are not to be confused with Pezhead Monthly's own Pezzy Awards, which were held back in 2010, 2011, and 2012. The Pezhead Monthly versions of these awards were more of a personal account of my favorite dispensers, conventions, and other Pez stuff from the past year. On the other hand, the 2024 Pezzy Awards are a community-driven set of awards on Facebook given out to Pezheads in 20 different categories. These awards, which were previously held in 2020, were organized by Branden Gozell Lopez, who not only got the word out to everyone and coordinated nominations, but also made the special trophies for each of the categories (and I suspect did a lot more behind the scenes). My hat goes off to Brandon for all of the time and effort he put into these awards! He did a really great job. And thanks as well to whoever kindly nominated me in the category of Pez Jokester! Although I did not win, it was certainly an honor to be nominated, and to be in the same category as the winner, Chris Wiley, and a bunch of other funny Pez folks.

After all votes were cast, the previous award winners made videos to announce the new winners. It was a nice touch and a really cool way to celebrate many of the different ways Pezheads make this community so great. Here is a list of all the winners. Astute readers of Pezhead Monthly will definitely recognize some of these names and events. Congratulations to all!

  • Longtime collector: John Devlin
  • Best tattoo: Lacy Ash
  • Fantasy: Christopher Yarrison
  • Display: Bill Faith
  • Young collector: Thomas Powell
  • Collector of the year: Adam Germroth
  • Tour guide: Jessica Goodsell Orozco
  • Gathering: Maryland
  • Convention: Pezamania
  • Breakout Pezhead: Erin Panda

Meanwhile, over at Pez dot com, there were 3 separate surprise drops in 3 consecutive weeks in late January and early February. While I was lucky enough to score all of the new stuff (as detailed elsewhere in this month's issue), this also meant three separate shipping charges of $6.95 each. I was not too pleased about this, and it would have been a lot better if they released more new Pez at once so that we could save on shipping. But based on past experience, my approach to new, exclusive Pez drops is almost always to act fast or else they might be sold out- and when I do this, I don't want to spend a lot of time picking up more stuff to meet the $49 threshold for free shipping, or else I could risk losing the one exclusive I wanted in the first place. In reality these days, it's kind of a mixed bag: some Pez dot com exclusives do sell out pretty quickly, but some are available for hours if not days. It's a bit hard to predict how long they'll be available for. So I'm glad some of these are becoming more widely available for collectors to pickup, although those multiple $6.95 shipping costs don't sit well. As it turns out, this is the theme of one of the Pez poems featured elsewhere in this issue.

There were a couple of bittersweet financial moments in February in the Pez world. First off, the Bitcoin Pez dispensers started showing up at Big Lots for $3.99 each. Why is this bittersweet? Well, new Pez is always awesome, and getting Pez into more hands is never a bad thing, but in this particular case, the Bitcoin Pez first showed up on the scene about a year ago, at the cost of $30 each, plus shipping, on Walmart dot com. Lots of Pezheads (myself included) jumped on that last year, especially because it came from out of the blue. I guess the wiser approach would have been to hold off for a bit, but prices coming down is never a sure thing, especially as low as these prices end up being. In a similar vein, the "Teeny Tinies" Pez display that was briefly available for $10 later showed up on Five Below's website for $5.00 (you can see a picture in this month's score recap below). It's not quite as drastic as the Bitcoin price drop, and in this case Pez dot com's shipping was actually cheaper than Five Below's. And again, the bottom line is that more people are getting these Pez items and that is not a bad thing. It's another reminder (in my opinion anyway) that Pez collecting is best enjoyed as a fun hobby and not as an investment.

In other Pez news, it was announced in February that the next Virtual Pez Convention (VPC) will be held on Saturday, April 6 starting at 5pm EST. This is a Pez convention hosted by Landon Proctor and Morgan Rhinehart (who also host Pezamania in July) and it supports the VPC scholarship. The VPC is held over Zoom and includes tours of Pez rooms, games, giveaways, and more. I've made a few appearances at previous VPCs and might possibly make another one this time around. This year the VPC celebrates 5 years and we're told there will be 5 big Bingo prizes. You can click here to register for the VPC. It's absolutely free to register, and I strongly encourage you to do so!

In-person gatherings and conventions are also just a short time away, and there's several of them to choose from. Leading things off are the Maryland Pez Gathering in May, the Michigan Pez Convention in June, the P.I.G. Hi 5 in June, and Pezamania in July. And there are a few more after that too, all the way thru October! So far I'm only signed up for Pezamania, and I also have a couple of personal vacations in June and August. But I hope to make at least one other in-person Pez convention and/or gathering this year.

In Pez room news, I built the final Rudsta for the "island" portion of my Pez room in February. I have a few things in it already and I am looking forward to filling it out. I also moved most of my (non-Batman) custom Pez to the IKEA Detolfs, with some more progress to come this month. And for my Batman display, I moved all of my official dispensers and collector sets out of the Batcave and onto the Billy I assembled in January (along with my framed Batman Pez photo collection and a few other things). Here is a picture. The top shelf features a variety of official Batman Pez dispensers, some with differences that are more subtle than others. I'll go into more details about these in a later issue.

This will also free up room in the Batcave for more custom creations, including the 3 new pieces I made in February and a special new display shelf that I hope to share more about in next month's issue.

Before I hop into this month's Pezhead Monthly features, I wanted to check in with Patty Thomas's YouTube page. Patty was featured in last month's first-ever Pezhead Monthly Spotlight. Patty makes some great stop-motion animation that burst with wit and creativity, along with some other informative videos, and shares them on her YouTube page. Here's one she made since last month's Spotlight feature that's a lot of fun, called "What to Wear."


Direct link

If you have a creative way to share your love of Pez (such as a Pez-focused YouTube page or an Instagram or Tik Tok feed), I'd love to feature you on the next Pezhead Monthly Spotlight. And if you don't have a dedicated web page for your creative Pez endeavors, you can always submit your original Pez poem, video, artwork, short story, or other art to Pezhead Monthly. Click here for submission details.

This month's issue of Pezhead Monthly features a cover image that celebrates March (sorta), penguins (kinda), and Pez (most definitely). There's also some Pez Poetry and a rundown of my February scores. I was also going to write a Pez song parody to the tune of Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55" called "I Paid 6.95", about the Pez shipping cost that I mention above. But I realized that I already wrote a Pez song parody to this song called "Exit 155", which is the Ohio I-77 exit for Pezamania. So instead, I wrote a poem called "On the 695." I hope you enjoy it as well as all of this issue of Pezhead Monthly.

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 2024 | top

Without a doubt, February was a great month for Pez scoring.

Out in the wild, I found new Pez from no less than 4 different stores. From Big Lots, I found the new Easter Egg dispenser, a green egg with a graphic of a bunny and a carrot, as well as the second of the four new Barbie dispensers, Blonde Barbie. From Michaels, I was quite pleased to come across the full body Easter bunny. This is the third full body dispenser in recent years, after a loooong stretch without, and the first non-Christmas one of the batch (following the full body Santa and Snowman from the past couple of years). This is a great dispenser and hopefully we'll get a full body Halloween dispenser sometime soon? Also, on a hot tip from one of my Facebook Pez groups, I found the new Ace hardware truck at my local Ace store. For those on the lookout, it is mixed in with some older stock. The new hauler has a license plate that reads "PEZ" on the front. And lastly, from a local comic store, I found some neat variations. First off were Hulk and Tweety, which both came on 3.9 thin foot China stems, and on top of that are both double downs (a somewhat rare stem variation where "PEZ" goes from top to bottom on both sides, as shown in this GIF. I also picked up a 4.9 snowman that at first glance is fairly common, but upon closer look has a sweet green inner sleeve. This guy is from Yugoslavia, which is quite a way away from my local comic store.

From Pez.com, boy oh boy did I get some good stuff this past month. Early in the month I picked up the new "Presenter Girl" dispenser, which was a new dispenser and new mold that caught us all by surprise. This was the Cherry presenter girl, and it looks like we may be getting lemon and orange, and maybe other flavor presenter girls down the road. I was also quite pleased to pick up the new Valentine's Mascot, which was the first new Mascot since the Pineapple Sourz Mascot way back in June 2023. I can't get enough of the Mascots and hope it won't be another 8 months until we see another one! Rounding out my Pez.com scores were the remaining 2 dispensers in the Barbie set (Purple Hair and Brown Hair), the great new Mickey with Sorcerer's Hat, and something called a "Teeny Tinies Mini Display" featuring mini Pez treat dispensers and candies and a display unit. The mini display can be seen in package the group picture below. I plan to assemble it soon and will post an updated picture when I do.

From the Pez Outlaw himself, Steve Glew, I picked up 3 new Outlaw pieces: Shop Rat Outlaw, Glow In The Dark Rainbow Outlaw, and Blue Moon Pez Outlaw. Excellent work as always by Steve's partner, Larry Mason!

From Mike Herz, I scored the first of his new Classic Monsters line: The Hunchback of Notre Dame! His first series of Classic Monsters was one hit after another and this one keeps the party going. I can't wait to see what the next in the series will be! The more I get of these, the more inclined I am to set them free of their packages (which, as a nice touch, are resealable) and display them loose!

From Alex over at Random Skull Productions, I picked up one of his new custom Coffin Pez dispensers. I was dying to get this one! (ha ha?) Here it is featured with the RSP red skull I got from Alex last year. Alex is one talented dude!

From my Pez pal Ivan over in Slovenia, I received a custom puck dispenser commemorating 40 years of the Olympic mascot wolf named Vucko. Vucko also appeared on some highly sought after Pez dispensers in the 80s. I don't have any in my collection yet, but I hope to change that one day. For now I am grateful to have this special puck from Ivan, which is 1 of only 40 made!

From the Bay of E, I picked up a couple of new Batman pieces for my collection: a factory error Batman on Star Wars card, and a no-foot 3.9 from Austria. This is different from the 3.9 NF Austria Batman I already had, not only in the slight color variations in color in the stem, mask, and face, but also because it has different copyright text on the back of its head.

On the homemade front, I continued to expand my custom Batman collection. First, I attached the head of a Batman bobblehead to the stem of a Bubbleman Yummy Bubble to make a custom piece that's about 25% bigger than a standard dispenser and displays quite nicely. Next, I made a custom piece in the style of "Batman The Animated Series." I noticed the head on eBay on a suction cup item. I took a gamble on it fitting on a dispenser stem. As it turns out, it fits perfectly on a regular head, which I swapped onto a Batman C stem w/logo, and it is even able to dispense Pez candy!

For the last custom Batman Pez I made in February, I picked up an extra full body Easter bunny and swapped a Batman head on it. Several other folks in the community have done this with their favorite dispensers, because unlike the previous 2 full body dispensers, Santa and Snowman, the Easter bunny opens at the neck, not the head, making a new head swap much easier and better looking.

And finally, from my lovely wife for Valentine's Day, I picked up the new bearded Groom dispenser from Europe. This is a great dispenser, although I do admit that at some glances it looks like the beard was applied with a marker in a hasty effort to make a custom Pez. But it's real, and it's spectacular! AND on top of that, it also happens to be the first Pez dispenser in my collection with the brand new 11.4 patent number! There may or may not be a poem elsewhere in this issue commemorating the new patent number.

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


Pez Poetry | top

Pez Haiku #177

Full Body Bunny,
Easter West or North or South,
Pops out Pez candy.


A Patently Pez Cheer

2-6, 3-4, 3-8!
Who do we appreciate?

3-9, 4-9!
Plastic heads and stems so fine!

5-9, 7-5!
Flip a Pez and feel alive!

Brand new 11-4!
Soon we'll find it in the store!!


On the 695

The whistle blows, the train is here,
It's brand new Pez! "Hooray!" we cheer.
We've waited weeks, now it's arrived,
Full steam ahead on the 695.

One week later, at the gate,
Exclusive Pez, now don't be late!
It's not in stores, don't be deprived!
Again we board the 695.

Another week, another ship,
Another offer we can't skip.
It might sell out, the limit's five!
Bon voyage, 695.

Don't get me wrong, I love the ride,
The journey to the other side,
The promise of a new release,
That box from Orange brings such peace.

But on that truck, there's lots of room
For mascots, Mickeys, brides, and grooms.
So when the wheels next hit the gravel,
Perhaps together they can travel?

Until that day, the tank is filled,
The Pez is shipped, the card is billed.
The road keeps going, so we drive,
Rollin' down the 695.


Patrick

A saint of a fellow named Patrick,
Collecting Pez makes him ecstatic.
This year, his intention's
To attend three conventions;
I believe that is called a Pez hat trick.

 

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