Non-Sport Update magazine

PEZUCOPIA

If our Beyond Non-Sport column in the current April/May issue of Non-Sport Update hasn’t gotten you curious enough to delve deeper into the world of PEZ collecting, let me tilt my head back and pop you out some more sugary tidbits of PEZmania… Here’s Kevyn.

By Mar 19,2013  0

If our Beyond Non-Sport column in the current April/May issue of Non-Sport Update hasn’t gotten you curious enough to delve deeper into the world of PEZ collecting, let me tilt my head back and pop you out some more sugary tidbits of PEZmania…


Kevyn Knox and his PEZ collection

Here’s Kevyn and his amazing collection. You’ll notice a number of PEZ and PEZ-related products I didn’t even delve into, for lack of space: the wealth of sports-based dispensers, for instance, and the larger PEZ whole-pack dispensers, as well as the boxed collectors sets, the little cars—whew!

Fortunately, the Internet is a realm of infinite bandwidth, and a little Googling will convince you just how well others have done my work for me.

If you look just to the right of Kevyn’s shoulder, you’ll see a slightly-larger-than-usual dispenser with a head that looks like it could be ex-Governor Rod Blogojevich? That’s actually PEZ Boy, the company’s mascot (often found nowadays with his mate, PEZ Girl: a curly-headed blonde evolved from the theater usher cutie in their ad posters…see next photo!).  Can’t be sure, but if you swap that hair for a stocking cap, it just might be the same head used for Snow White’s dwarf pal Dopey…and, if you turn the hair yellow and add freckles to the face, it might just be Dennis the Menace. That’s how the PEZ folks turn a hundred-or-so pieces into a nation of recognizable likenesses. And remember, with slight differences in shapes of parts, and colors of plastic—from various worldwide manufacturing plants, it really is shaping up like a whole population of slightly similar models to collect.

Kevyn Knox and his PEZ collection

 

PEZ close-up

Since there are no simple sequenced numbers like on collector cards, PEZ collectors identify their treasures by the patent numbers on the base of the dispenser. This can show the vintage of the item, as well as the plant location (patent numbers vary by country and model). Internet and book resources abound to help decode this arcane information:

PEZ Guide

PEZ Patents

About PEZ

It would take reams of paper (and calories of energy from packs of PEZ candy!) to sort out the differences, the varieties of promo, character sets, and sports-oriented dispensers (see the baseballs, baseball helmets, soccer balls in next photo, as well as the football heads IN helmets in the top row…smaller dispensers with football-helmeted heads in the first photo up-top…see? SO confusing!)


PEZ collection

Where did Kevyn and Amy find all this cool PEZness? Well, there’s a whole PEZ store in a flea-market building in nearby Kutztown PA, and they’ve been to several conventions (Amy, NOT pictured, in the next photo)…


PEZ t-shirt

…and then there’s the Zimmerman’s Peanut Butter company, just down the street from me: a century-old local company with a real-life candy store (as in, “kid in a…”).

Zimmerman's Peanut Butter company

Look at the top shelf. Their collection spans the length of the front room. If you’re ever in Harrisburg, whether you’re interested in PEZ, or peanut butter, it’s worth a visit. Your dentist can thank me later.

Shelf at Zimmerman's Peanut Butter Company in Harrisburg, PA

Incidentally, PEZ candy is of course the other thing that resonates with card collectors, who have thrown out slabs of bubblegum over the years. Because like their sugar-infused cousins, PEZ’s plastic loader lasts a lot longer than the treat inside. I will say, PEZ has manufactured a collection-worthy number of different standard and exotic flavors in their history. But, even though Kevyn keeps a huge jar of it on the floor in his collection room…nowadays it’s just for show.

 

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