Ninja Turtle Army

While perusing eBay I noticed an auction for the complete set of series A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) released in the mid-1990's.  I had forgotten there were so many variations to the set, so it was cool to see all 56 of them standing together.

There are three variations in this set:  character (4), expression (2), and stem color (7).  4x2x7 = 56.  PEZ math, thank you. ;-)

There are four characters:  Raphael (red mask, top row), Leonardo (teal mask, 2nd row), Michelangelo (orange mask, 3rd row), and Rafael (purple mask, bottom row).

There are two expressions:  angry (a.k.a. "with teeth") (left side) and happy (right side).

The stem colors are:  orange, yellow, red, black, green, blue, and purple.

There actually are other slight variations on the stem, such as country (China, Slovenia, Austria, and Hungary) and spine thickness. 

Apparently, there are quite a few collectors (me included) who don't have this complete set because the auction ended today at $96.83 with 32 bids.  About $1.73 per dispenser.  More PEZ math, thank you. ;-)

Now, if 56 TMNTs weren't enough, in 2005 a series B set was released (shown below).  This set didn't have as many variations, only 4 (one of each character).  It's interesting that the series B heads are different shades of green, while series A didn't have that variation (thankfully).  Of course, to really be complete, series B comes in in both 4.9 and 5.9 patents (series A was all 4.9 patent).  

Series B has a more serious/menacing look to it, since the pupils are no longer present (kind of like police officers wearing mirrored glasses!).  However, series A could take down series B in a battle due to sheer numbers. ;-)

French collector Christian Pez has an excellent page devoted to both series A and series B TMNT Pez here.  It looks like he has all 60 TMNT Pez in his collection, nice!