Candy Dish Blog

We recently wrote about a Halifax, NS man who has collected more than 3000 PEZ dispensers. Little did I know that in our own Candy Dish community we had our own set of PEZ collectors.

I got a direct tweet from loyal follower Amanda, who has a large collection as well. Hers is just over one-sixth the size, coming in at 551 dispensers. You think that’s impressive? She is not only a collector, but an organized one, with a spreadsheet to keep track of all she has amassed thus far. I asked her what she does professionally and it turns out that she is a production manager for a diamond jewelry manufacturer. Just think – surrounded by all that bling and she loves to come home to PEZ. That’s a real testament to how much she loves the little plastic guys.

I interviewed Amanda through email:

First, how long ago did you start collecting these?
I started collecting about 13 years ago when I saw a PEZ display full of Muppets.

Which did you acquire first?
They were too cute to pass up so I started with Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo and Kermit.

Which is your favorite?
My favorite is one I don’t have yet, a giraffe! If I had to pick one that I did have in my collection, it would be my Popeye.

Is collecting these a hobby done out of love or are these an investment?
I collect completely out of love. They are definitely not an investment as a collection only holds as much value as it is worth to another collector. Another collector might think that my collection is worth less than what I’ve invested based on the wide availability of most of the characters in my collection. They might think it’s worth more. Make sense?

Can you find them, say, if you wanted to show off a particular one?
I can absolutely find them! I have to be oh-so-careful taking them out though because I don’t want to start a domino effect.

And what happens if you get another Speedy Gonzalez one and there just isn’t room for it with the other Looney Tunes characters? Does he go on another shelf or does a whole group of them have to find room somewhere?
I’m actually pretty much out of room in this case. I’ve had 2 additional shelves made for it and I still have run out of room. My plan now is just to store all of the new ones until I’ve accumulated enough to start a second case or maybe get a bigger one. My mom & dad purchased this case for me several Christmases ago with the intention of me using it for fancy dishware. I think it makes a much better display case for my PEZ. On a side note, I have 2 Rubbermaid storage bins that are full of duplicates and other PEZ paraphernalia stored in a closet…. I guess I’m going to have to add a third for all of the new purchases. This is where my spreadsheet comes in handy – even if it’s stored away and I can’t see it, I know I have it.

Do you have a family who has strong feelings about this collection?
No but everyone who sees it loves it and everyone can always pick out a favorite character or two. Friends and family are very sweet and pick up one when they’re out shopping and give it to me because they are “sure I don’t have one of these already”. 99% of the time I already do.

Thanks, Amanda, for being a good sport and answering my Mike Wallace-style probing questions. Anybody else have a large PEZ dispenser collection? Let’s really give that Canadian fellow a run for his money. It may not be much of a run, as the Canadian dollar is currently almost at par with the U.S. dollar, but we can give it a good try nonetheless.

I was looking at iPods recently and saw some of those really tiny iPod Shuffle things on eBay. It struck me that they would be about the right size to fit in a PEZ dispenser. I am all about homemade stuff, doing things cheaply and can make just about anything with PVC pipes and bamboo. MacGyver has nothing on me.

I was excited to get down to business with my idea until I searched online and saw that Harry McCracken of Technologizer had already done this. He said it was a tight squeeze and that he would not do this with a PEZ dispenser he cared about, but that it was definitely possible.

Even cooler is that one guy made some PEZ MP3 players commercially, but unfortunately it looks like he went out of business, since the link to his Web site no longer works. I think it’s a great idea.

PEZ Dispensers by josh.liba.

A man in Halifax, Nova Scotia is reported to own 3000 PEZ dispensers, according to the Lethbridge Herald. Scott Ferguson started collecting the dispensers about 20 years ago when he bought some for some young relatives. He thought they were kind of neat so he got some for himself as well. Since then, he has amassed quite a large collection.

Part of the fun of PEZ, I think, is that it’s a candy that’s also a toy. That is a winning combination, bringing lots of fun to kids of various ages. I have heard of people collecting the dispensers before, but have never heard of a collection that large. I’d love to see a photo of all of it!

And you thought Tori’s friend had a lot of these things. Alas, Joyce only has about 200 or so, a mere novice compared to her Canadian counterpart. We all have to have something to work toward, though, so I hope Joyce will step into overdrive in her endeavors.

PEZ Dispensers by ingridtaylar.

We’re starting a new feature this week, the Friday Five.  It’s a Top 5 list of just about anything related to candy.  If you have ideas for an upcoming Friday Five, please let us know.

You may have noticed we’ve been talking about television and candy this week.  That’s in preparation for this weekend’s Golden Globe awards.  Personally, I’m pulling for House to win best TV drama and Glee to win Best TV comedy or musical.  Come to think of it, I can’t remember candy being prominently featured on either or those shows, though (Glee does frequently feature Slurpees, however).

I hope lack of candy coverage doesn’t hurt their chances.  After all, Seinfeld won three Golden Globes and that show featured candy all the time.

Elaine loves 'em!

Top Five Candy Moments on Seinfeld

1. Heir to Oh Henry! candy bar fortune
Elaine meets up with Sue Ellen, an old high-school friend who is now an heiress to the Oh Henry! candy bar fortune.  She’s notable for her lack of an important, uh, foundation garment.

2. Tweetie Pez dispenser
Jerry’s Pez dispenser makes Elaine laugh very loudly at George’s new girlfriend’s piano recital.  Later, the girlfriend hears Elaine laugh and realizes who ruined her concert.

3. Junior Mint in the operating room
In season four, Kramer invites Jerry to join him in a surgical viewing suite where they accidentally knock a Junior Mint into the patient’s open chest. Explaining later how it happened, Kramer says he didn’t expect anyone to turn down a Junior Mint. He makes a good point.

4. The Hanging Twix
George is outraged when he puts money into a vending machine and his Twix candy bar fails to drop.  He returns later to find the hanging Twix missing from the machine. He confronts the mechanic who he believes “stole” his candy bar and claims that the cookie crumbs on his face are clear evidence that the mechanic took it away from him.

5. The Jujubes incident
Elaine gets busted  for stopping to buy candy when she should have been rushing to the hospital to visit her friend after an accident.  Her candy of choice: Jujubes.  Her explanation: ”Because they’re Jujubes.  And I love them.”  Sounds reasonable to me.

Have I missed an important candy moment on Seinfeld?  What’s your favorite?

A few months ago, I stumbled across this gem on You Tube and have been waiting for just the right day to share it with you.  Today is that day.  My end of the office is sparsely  populated today so I can crank up this catchy tune and pop rock out while enjoying the very cool stop motion animation featuring Pez candies and dispensers.

I love stop motion animation – it must be incredibly hard and time consuming to put something like this together.  A big round of applause for JPatrich for taking the time.

It’s super extraordinary, don’t you think?  Have a great weekend.

I just came across PEZCast.com, a podcast about PEZ dispensers. I knew people were crazy about these but had no idea there was a whole podcast dedicated to them! I know Tori’s boyfriend’s mom will get a kick out of this, as will fellow PEZ fan and loyal reader Sarah G. What’s cool about PEZ, at least in my book, is that it is a candy requiring a toy to dispense it. The toy can fit in your pocket but keeps the candy from getting covered in pocket lint. You get a little taste at a time and, best of all, candy out of someone’s neck. It’s like magic.

The curious thing about PEZ dispensers is that there have only been a few that have been modeled after real humans. I could only find four in my search and all of them great patriots important to the founding of our country: Daniel Boone, Betsy Ross, Paul Revere and Elvis Presley. Actually, three types of Elvis. Elvises. Elvii.

What I would like to see is some of my great literary heroes immortalized in a plastic candy dispenser: Kurt Vonnegut, Jack Kerouac, Langston Hughes, John Keats and Tim McLaurin. Tim would find humor in being remembered by way of a PEZ dispenser, I am sure, as long as it inspired someone. Then we could have a series of political leaders, including among others, The Founding Fathers, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Charles De Gaulle, Henry Kissinger and Dr. Zaius (an exception to the “human” category but a political leader nonetheless).

Who would you like to see as the next human-modeled PEZ dispenser?

Elvis PEZ Dispensers by hmmlargeart.

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I went to his parents’ lovely home in Maryland to have dinner. While watching TV and chatting, I realized it would be a perfect time to document his mother’s Pez collection now that we have this candy blog up and running. She has more than 200 Pez dispensers!

Her collection began when my boyfriend was a kid and used to receive Pez as gifts in goodie bags from birthday parties. On a trip to Disney World they met an artist who had such a large Pez collection that it inspired her to continue collecting from the few she already owned. And many, many years later, her collection is still going strong!

As you can see in these photos, she has everything from classic Disney and Looney Tunes characters to college football and major league baseball teams to Sunday cartoon stars and even Giant Pez dispensers. They’re all perfectly shelved and begging to have children admire their intricate details and bright, vivid colors.

If any of you are thinking about starting a Pez dispenser collection, I recommend checking out this site that is anything and everything Pez. You could also read Collectors Guide to Pez, which will tell you the value of each dispenser.

So what started as a small representation of moments in her son’s life turned out to be an ever-expanding collection, as her friends and family continue to give her new dispensers on occasion. Who knew a plastic toy created more than 50 years ago would remain such a phenomenon?

What do you have in your candy collection?