Today was the final day of the 13th annual PEZcific Coast Convention. In the previous years I attended only the Saturday convention, but this year I registered to enjoy Friday and Saturday. It was worth it!
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!
I finally got a couple PEZ that have been on my want list for quite awhile, the black bear and brown bear. While I was looking at them, the light brought out a feature I wasn't aware of -- they each have a golden tongue! I wonder if this was done since bears love honey? Very nice touch. Anyway, I just wanted to share this tidbit with you.
The black and brown bear were the idea of Steven J. Glew. You can read about them in his "Holiday Colors" section of his website here. He called the brown bear, Bear C, and the black bear, Bear D:
"Bear C stands for Cody Bear.
Bear D stands for Donna Bear. Donna was the best employee I had
& the last to be fired when everything went to hell. These were
part of the original color design by me for the Pez Holiday Colors.
This was a special order & I was promised exclusivity."
"3,456
pieces Bear C Pez dispensers & 3,456 pieces Bear D Pez
dispensers. Black & Brown Ice Bear Pez dispensers. Great
pieces. I loved them. I think I called them Bear C & Bear D.
The Bear D Pez dispenser was the brown one named after Donna a really
terrific person who worked for me back then. The Bear C Pez dispenser
was named after my grandson Corey. Total cost $27,648.00"
Things have been busy for me the last couple months, so no posts here for awhile. Happily, I'm off to the PEZcific convention next week! Maybe I'll see you there?
Just an FYI, that I've created another blog here, which is devoted to Klik candy dispensers. I know there are quite a few PEZ collectors that also collect Kliks, so please have a look if you like. As I come across new Klik dispenser variations and photos I add them. The blog now includes 141 Klik dispenser variations.
Each December I like to move my Christmas PEZ to a more prominent spot in the house, which is the top of our piano. I really enjoy adding new dispensers to the Christmas collection. My wife and daughter enjoy this tradition too. This year I added the Penguin, 2013 Snowman, Red-face Snowman, Black-face Santa, and Tex-Mex Santa. I still don't have the vintage Santas (full-body Santa, Santa A, and Santa B) and other older Christmas dispensers, but one of these days I hope to include them in the festivities!
Mark your calendar for the 13th Annual PEZcific Coast Convention in Southern California. It's set to take place Feb. 20-22 (Thu-Sat), 2014 at its usual spot, the Manhattan Beach Marriott hotel. Maheba Mehri is once again the PEZcific Hostess. She does a great job with the convention each year and I'm sure 2014 will be fantastic.
As you can see from the logo below, the 2014 theme is Mardi Gras. A quote at the PEZcific website reads "Laissez les bons temps rouler" which is a Cajun French phrase that translates to "Let the good times roll".
I'm already looking forward to going. This will make my 6th PEZcific convention. In years past, I've only attended the PEZ showroom open to the public on Saturday. However, this time I'm thinking about registering and also taking part in Friday's activities: room hopping to visit dealers, seminars, contests, and bingo. Sounds fun. What do you think? Do you PEZheads recommend registering and enjoying the full PEZ convention experience? Post a comment a let me know your thoughts.
