Presidential Series: Volumes 6 and 7, Stem Colors, and Vol. 9 Release Date

Just released this November are Vol. 6 and Vol. 7 of the Presidents of the United States PEZ series.  Below are photos showing the sets from PEZ.com.  I really like the detailed packaging with the continuing trend of alternating blue and red boxes.  The odd numbers in the series are blue and even numbers are red.

U.S. Presidents volume VI: 1909-1933 (L-R) William Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Warren G. Harding.

U.S. Presidents volume VII: 1933-1969 (L-R) Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Something I was curious about was whether the PEZ stem color matched the party of the President or whether the color choice was random.  As we know, the expected color scheme is Red for Republican and Blue for Democrat.  So with the help of Wikipedia's List of Presidents of the United States I created the table below showing the party of each President and the PEZ stem color.

The bottom line is that the stem color does not appear to be random.  Out of the 35 Presidents released so far as PEZ, there are only 5 that conflict with Red for Republican and Blue for Democratic.  Specifically, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, and William Taft were all Republican Presidents, but their stem colors are Blue.  The 5th conflict is James Madison (Vol. 1) who was a Democratic-Republican, but the stem color is Blue.  

Democratic-Republican can be thought of as Republican, per the Wikipedia page: "Most contemporaries called it the Republican Party. Today, political scientists typically use the hyphenated version while historians usually call it the Jeffersonian Republicans, to distinguish it from the modern Republican Party, which was founded in 1854 and named after Jefferson's party."

The Whig party seems fair to be colored Red for Republican.  Each of the 4 Whig Presidents has a Red stem color.  Per the Wikipedia page: "The northern [Whig] voter base mostly joined the new Republican Party.  Most of the founders of the Whig party had supported Jeffersonian democracy and the Democratic-Republican Party.  Most remaining Northern Whigs, like Lincoln, joined the new Republican Party.  Succeeded by Republican Party."

The Federalist party seems fair to be colored Blue for Democratic, since at the time the Democratic-Republican party opposed the Federalists, similar to the situation of the modern Democratic party.  Per the Wikipedia page:  "The Federalist Party was the first American political party.  The United States' only Federalist president was John Adams.  Their political opponents, the Democratic-Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, denounced most of the Federalist policies."

Our first President, George Washington, was an Independent, so the stem color could have gone either way in my opinion.  Red was the chosen color.

We'll see how the stem colors will turn out in volumes 8 and 9, but I'm guessing the Red for Republican and Blue for Democratic trend will (mostly) be followed.  :-)
 

	President	Stem Color	Party
1	George Wahington	Red	Independent
2	John Adams	Blue	Federalist
3	Thomas Jefferson	Red	Democratic-Republican
4	James Madison	Blue	Democratic-Republican
5	James Monroe	Red	Democratic-Republican
6	John Quincy Adams	Red	Democratic-Republican
7	Andrew Jackson	Blue	Democratic
8	Martin Van Buren	Blue	Democratic
9	William Henry Harrison	Red	Whig
10	John Tyler	Red	Whig / Independent
11	James Polk	Blue	Democratic
12	Zachary Taylor	Red	Whig
13	Millard Fillmore	Red	Whig
14	Franklin Pierce	Blue	Democratic
15	James Buchanan	Blue	Democratic
16	Abraham Lincoln	Red	Republican
17	Andrew Johnson	Blue	Democratic
18	Ulysses S. Grant	Red	Republican
19	Rutherford B. Hayes	Blue	Republican
20	James A. Garfield	Blue	Republican
21	Chester Arthur	Red	Republican
22	Grover Clevland	Blue	Democratic
23	Benjamin Harrison	Blue	Republican
24	William McKinley	Red	Republican
25	Theodore Roosevelt	Red	Republican
26	William Taft	Blue	Republican
27	Woodrow Wilson	Blue	Democratic
28	Warren G. Harding	Red	Republican
29	Calvin Coolidge	Red	Republican
30	Herbert Hoover	Red	Republican
31	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Blue	Democratic
32	Harry S. Truman	Blue	Democratic
33	Dwight D. Eisenhower	Red	Republican
34	John F. Kennedy	Blue	Democratic
35	Lyndon B. Johnson	Blue	Democratic

There are 9 total volumes planned with vols. 8 and 9 in Nov. 2015, per the release schedule at PEZ.com
 

Since the next U.S. Presidential election doesn't happen until Nov. 2016 and there are only 8 U.S. Presidents left to be made into PEZ dispensers, will vols. 8 and 9 each have only 4 Presidents?