Each October I like to proudly display my Halloween PEZ on top of our family piano in the living room. Below are photos showing my Halloween collection. This year I added a red Linz pumpkin. I couldn't resist including the Wicked Witch of the West from Wizard of Oz even though technically it wasn't released for Halloween. I don't collect stem variations, so I decided to pass on this year's purple stem witch and green stem pumpkin.
One day I'd love to add some Linz gathering pumpkins and some vintage PEZ to the Halloween collection (Eerie Spectres, Mr. Ugly variations, Universal Studios Monsters, Witch A and B, and Witch Regular). Hey, if you're gonna dream, then dream big, right?! :-)
In the 1950's PEZ advertising was much different than today. During that time, PEZ was selling "regular" dispensers without the character heads for kids that we're familiar with now. Regulars were being sold to an adult market, so the ever popular "sex sells" marketing approach was used, essentially featuring PEZ pin-up girls. For an excellent article on this era, don't miss "The Sexy Side of PEZ!".
Gerhard Brause was the graphic designer PEZ employed to create many of the iconic "PEZ girl" images we know. His signature is shown on the Menthol Eucalyptus image below ("Schutzt vor Erkältungen" is German for "Protects against colds"). The four images above it are not signed and while they look very similar, they are probably modern reproductions of his style.
The PEZ Visitor Center has displays featuring many of the different PEZ girls, which can be viewed here.
The photo at the bottom shows the newly (2010) redesigned PEZ dresses by Lena Hoschek (middle in photo) and is from the PEZ International blog post "New styling for our PEZ ladies". So even today, PEZ is still staying sexy!
Being a fan of both PEZ and Edward Gorey I was immediately drawn to this sign. I've never seen a gloomy and rainy PEZ advertisement before, so this is unique. Apparently, the sign originates from the former Czechoslovakia and is circa 1930. Translated, "chran se vezmi" in Czech is "protect yourself and take" in English (I wasn't able to translate "Mlholi se", anyone know?). So the message was that Menthol Eucalyptus PEZ would protect you on those cold, rainy days. It measures 20 x 18 cm and is up for auction on eBay here until Sep 25, 2014 09:01:08 PDT.
Interestingly, today PEZ sells Fisherman's Friend "a menthol cough suppressant lozenge and one of the strongest and most effective cough and cold lozenge available." Fisherman's Friend is "manufactured by Lofthouse of Fleetwood, LLC, located in Lancashire, England, and sold exclusively in the United States by PEZ Candy Inc."
For those of you interested in adding the elusive MTV Moonman Giant PEZ to your collection, now is the time. An eBay seller has reduced the price on these quite a bit. Below is a photo showing the six different colors available: Pink, Gold, Green, Silver, Blue, and Black.
Months ago this same seller had each Moonman listed at $100 including shipping. Recently the seller dropped the listing price to $40 plus $16 shipping. Apparently the seller has a stockpile of these and is motivated to sell.
The Silver version was given away in celebrity gift baskets at the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2005.
Info from the eBay auction listing:
"In 2005 Brand New Products was commissioned to replicate a limited
edition of the iconic MTV Astronaut award onto a giant PEZ dispenser.
These Limited Edition High Gloss Silver Electroplated Dispensers were
produced for an exclusive group of MTV V.I.P's during the awards
ceremony in Miami Beach in 2005.
During the production
process an even smaller 96 piece production run of test dispensers were
made matching the (5) primary colors used on the MTV box design; Blue,
Black, Yellow, Pink and Green."
This has been a good year for those who like their PEZ pucks. They have been very popular as convention dispensers this year. Let's see... there were the PEZcific silver and gold pucks, the six FEB pucks from the ANPC, the six pucks from the Slovenia PEZ Convention, and most recently, six pucks from Pezamania 24. Wow, 20 pucks!
Now technically, of the convention pucks mentioned above, only those from the Slovenia PEZ Convention are completely made by the PEZ company. The other pucks have either a sticker (PEZcific) or metal pin (Pezamania) attached to a PEZ Visitor Center blank puck after manufacture. Either way, these PEZ pucks are great and I wish I could have them all. :-)
Below is a photo showing this year's six different Pezamania pucks. There are five different bubbleman variations and a single Peter PEZ puck. The Peter PEZ puck was given to kids attending the Pezamania convention.
The following info was given to me by John Gliha, one of the Pezamania hosts...
Each of the bubbleman pucks are designed like
coins and have mint marks - A for attendance, C for Charity, D for
dealer and P for prize. Very nice touch.
Green Charity Puck - 80 made
Magenta Charity Puck - 120 made
Yellow Attendance Puck - 80 made
Orange Prize Puck - 80 made
Blue Dealer Puck - 120 made
Kid's Puck - 80 made
There were (60) Puck sets made with all six pucks and most of the
other pucks were given away at Pezamania, except for the Charity
variations. These were sold to collect Charity money. Many of the Puck
Sets of Six were donated to other Pez Conventions and Gatherings so that
their hosts could raise money for Charity too.
Right now there is an eBay auction where you can bid on the complete set of six Pezamania pucks. Current bid is only $9.99. Auction ends Aug 22, 2014 19:01:25 PDT.
Today I decided to browse Craigslist and came across this custom PEZ creation -- Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs! Quite frightening I must say. Great detail including the gurney. I've never seen this on eBay before, so I thought I'd share this creepy PEZ with you :-) I wouldn't mind adding this to my collection, but the seller doesn't ship and lives about 100 miles away, so I'll have to pass. For those interested, here is the link.
Be sure to check out these awesome photos of the 22nd ANPC (Annual National PEZ Convention) in St. Louis. The photos were taken over 4 days (June 18-21) by Michael at PEZmonster.com.
I've never been to this PEZ convention before and I must say these photos really make me want to go. I'm really digging the set of convention pucks too (photo below).
Thanks Michael for taking the time to photograph and share these so we all can enjoy!
