PEZcific Convention 2013

Yesterday was the 12th annual PEZcific convention in Mahattan Beach, CA at the Marriott hotel.  I took my wife and daughter and we all had a fun time looking at the amazing Pez dispensers for sale and talking to the friendly vendors.  This is the 5th PEZcific I've been to and it was a blast as usual.  The turnout was strong with more people than I remember at the previous conventions.

Below are photos showing the entrance sign in the lobby and this year's PEZcific logo design.

Each year I look forward to visiting Ivan Jurjevic from Slovenia, who typically sets up his table in a prime spot near the entrance.  He's such a friendly guy and sells unique Pez items from Eastern Europe.  Below are some photos of Ivan at his table with his Slovenian Pez convention dispensers and sign.  The green dispensers are the 2012 version, the blue dispensers are the 2011 version, and the yellow dispensers are the 2010 version.  I really liked the lime green 2012 version, so I purchased one of the three, which you can see in the photo below, along with the PEZcific 2013 dispenser I purchased.   

Being the nice and generous guy that Ivan is, he gave me a free box of Pez vitamins (Fructy mix) from Slovenia, which you can see in the photo below.  In the same photo you can see a couple other Pez vitamin boxes (Lemon Fructy and Izo) I bought from a different vendor.  For some reason, I'm digging the Pez vitamins lately if you couldn't tell!

Ivan also had for sale a rare and expensive recent dispenser, Polizist Ferdinand.  To quote pezcollectors.com: "Polizist Ferdinand is a child's drawing of a policeman used as the spokesman promoting traffic and outdoor safety in Carinthia, a southern state in Austria. These are being given away to kindergarten children and are not available for retail sales."  On eBay, this dispenser has been fetching around $250 and Ivan's price was well below that.  Still too rich for my blood, but very cool to see in person, nonetheless. 

 

 

 

Another vendor I always enjoy seeing is Joe Paravati.  He has an incredible collection of dispensers in test colors and always displays them bleacher style for us to drool over.  Below are some photos of Joe and his spectacular dispensers and peace pipes (last photo).

 

 

While I was standing near Joe's area, a guy walked up and pulled out a dispenser from his jacket and asked someone what the going price would be for his dispenser.  I looked over and did a double-take because I'd only seen one of these on the internet awhile ago.  I felt compelled to take the photo below.  The infamous Hitler Pez.  The story I've read on the web is that only 80 of these fake custom Pez were produced before the Pez company discovered it and put a stop to the production.  The guy at the convention said he bought the dispenser in Hollywood sometime in the 90's.  It gives an unsettling feeling to look at this dispenser because of the obvious repulsion from Hitler mixed with the joy one usually gets from looking at a Pez dispenser.  Just another reminder that we should never forget this monster of a dictator.

Continuing on there was a vendor, Robert Zarick, who had some unique items I hadn't seen before, Pez flip-flops and a factory Pez candy stamper.  He also had an impressive pile of some Pez shooters.

This next group of photos are of some items that were up for bid at the end of the convention.  My favorite of the bunch is the large Sleestak Pez.  Although, the Spiderman mask is very cool too.  For those who don't remember, the Sleestak appeared in the Land of the Lost TV show from the 1970's.  I fondly remember as a boy watching that show along with other Sid & Marty Kroft programs such as H.R. Pufnstuf, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, Far Out Space Nuts, and The Bugaloos.  Ah, good memories!

Another dispenser I purchased at the convention is the recently released "silver glow" regular shown below.  I'm going to keep this unopened on the card because the packaging is so cool.  I bought this from a very friendly lady, Carole Bell, I see each year wearing her great tie dye shirt!

I was very happy to purchase the Red Nose Day set of three below from Gary Doss of Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia.  I've never been to the museum, but I'm very much looking forward to visiting it the next time I'm in the San Francisco area.

I also took the opportunity to pick up some of the advertising trucks I was missing from Wegman's (veggie and sushi versions) and Shop Rite (2011 and 2012 versions), which are shown below.  I must say that Pez is really milking advertising trucks and major league baseball.  There are four different Wegman's trucks alone and now Pez is releasing baseball hats after already releasing a huge set of baseballs.  It's hard to keep up!

To add to my Christmas collection, I bought the "tex mex" version of Santa shown below.  With the tan face, white hat, and white stem, this version is a must have for me.  It will proudly join the group of other Santa dispensers I've collected over the years.

Here's a group of some "action" photos that my wife took.  The second photo is of me and my daughter.  I get so caught up taking pictures of the Pez collectibles that I forget to capture the "slice of life" pictures, but she never does.  I should mention she is a professional photographer, so if you're ever in need of some of wedding or portrait photos I highly recommended her!

Last, but not least, I can't forget to mention the ponies!  One of the vendors, Valerie Miller, has created the Pez Pony Project and is on a mission (for many years now) to have Pez release some new pony dispensers.  In honor of that, near the entrance of the convention is a display of the Pony-Go-Round ponies that Pez released in the 1970's.

All in all, this year's PEZcific convention was my favorite so far and I'm already looking forward to attending the 2014 convention next February!  Thank you to Maheba, the PEZcific Hostess, for putting on another great event this year.