I arrived Friday morning and was happy to finally meet Tina (Pez 5150) who was helping Maheba (PEZcific hostess and now PHOTY!) in the registration room. I wasn't expecting the yummy cupcakes, so that was a great surprise. No Peter Pez head in mine, oh well.
Below is the silver sticker convention dispenser that was in the registration tote bag. Very cool. I love the hockey pucks. FYI, there is also a gold version available that is even more limited edition.
After chatting with Maheba and Tina for a bit, I went up to the next floor where the dealers were set up for room hopping.
Of course I had to visit Joe's room (Got Dank?). Compared to the other dealers, he definitely had the largest and most impressive selection of vintage, rare, and unique PEZ items.
After visiting Joe's and a few other dealer's rooms it was time for the first seminar of the day, "PEZ 101 and Beyond" by Denise Fournier. It was really informative and I learned some new PEZ tidbits.
The next seminar was "Test Pieces, Fantasy Pez, and Fakes" by Bobby Acker (crazycandy.com) and guest speaker Chris Jordan (pezcollectors.com). Unexpected and interesting was the discussion on chemical analysis and testing of plastic to help identify fakes.
Next I slipped out for a quick lunch and made it back for "Minute to Win It - PEZ Edition". The first round was straightforward with the kids going through a big pile of PEZ dispensers and trying to assemble as many sets as possible in one minute. The second round was much tougher. Try to line up the first 25 U.S. Presidents in order based on when they served in office (in one minute and no looking at the boxes!).
I stopped in Sue and Steve Heraly's room to buy the Rambo's Relayers' Relay for Life Fund Raising 2015 Calendar. Below is the back of the calendar showing the image for each month, in case you are curious. I'd never bought the calendar before and was really impressed with the creative and professional images.
I visited Ivan's room who had some great test pieces and color variations. The white bug with pink nose is freaky looking. He sold me a Dumbo with thin feet on halo card. The writing on the back of card makes me think its from the Middle East, but I'm not sure where exactly.
Below are some test pieces and color variations from Bobby Acker's room. He sold me the most recent crystal snowman, which I had a hard time tracking down.
I got to finally meet fellow PEZhead Paul Telford. I think he may have been the only dealer accepting bitcoin. Nice. I bought some bizarre carded PEZ from him. Glowing ghosts, Naughty Neil and Slimy Sid, together on a card. Why is Slimy Sid holding a pizza?! Spiderman on a very minimal neon orange card. I've never seen another like it.
Today I brought my daughter to the "PEZ showroom", which opened to the public at 10am. I bought the red-hair bride, African-american bride, red crystal pumpkin, and a few other odds-and-ends. We were all PEZzed out after a couple hours, so we didn't stay for the auction. With that said, we both had an excellent time and are looking forward to next year's convention already! Thanks to Maheba for continuing to host such a great convention.
Gotta love that rubber ducky with sunglasses hanging out with the ducks in the fountain. California Sunshine, indeed!
