Face it, there aren't many things cooler to collect than PEZ! A collectible toy that you can play with that when you pull back it's head...dispenses candy for you to munch!
PEZ where first marketed in 1927 but were not marketed in the United States until 1952, and it wasn't until 1955 that the PEZ company placed heads on the dispensers and marketed the product to children. There are now over 450 unique dispenser heads with possibly thousands of variations including a multitude of licensed products including cartoon characters (Garfield, Hello Kitty, The Incredibles) and movies (Star Wars) as well as many holiday themed dispensers for Christmas, Halloween and Easter.
PEZ have also become firmly entrenched in popular culture; appearing on television in an episode of Seinfeld and in NBC's The Pretender, where the main character Jerrod is often seen eating PEZ as well as being mentioned by the rock band Nickelback in their song "Rockstar". There are even two single-block streets in the United States, presumable both named "PEZ" at the suggestion of PEZ enthusiasts (PEZ Way in Boulder City, Nevada and PEZ Court in North Haven, Connecticut).
Early PEZ (prior to the mid 80's) where marketed without "feet" while current PEZ are "footed"; however most collectors are primarily interested in a particular PEZ head. And unlike many collectibles, most PEZ collectors open the packages and proudly display their PEZ along every shelf, nook and cranny of thier homes.
PEZ collecting, while still overshadowed by more popular collecting niches like dolls or baseball cards is slowly gaining more and more mainstream interest. Ebay now has a PEZ sub-category under the main category collectibles and Amazon has three pages of PEZ collector guides, t-shirts, dispensers and other PEZ related merchandise and collectibles for sale. Starting to collect PEZ dispensers is easy since current PEZ dispensers are available at most retail locations including stores like Wal-Mart while older and rarer PEZ dispensers can be obtained through auction sites like Ebay or collector trading sites like Gathered Treasure.
But perhaps one of the coolest things about PEZ collecting is the fact that for about a dollar, you can start you own collection...of course after you eat the candy!
Copyright © 2006 Stanley Holtsclaw
Gathered Treasure
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