By Doug Graves
PEZ dispensers are often seen at the checkout counters of just about any store. But, they can also be found in the aisles of your favorite antique mall. Not only are their PEZ collectors, but the genre lends itself to crossover collectors. Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh and Hello Kitty have graced PEZ dispenser heads and recently Anna and Elsa from the movie “Frozen” have also joined the line-up. Elvis, Han Solo, Cinderella, Batman, Superman, Betsy Ross, Yosemite Sam, Chewbacca and The Beatles have graced the top of these plastic dispensers over the years. PEZ was invented in 1927 in Vienna, Austria, as a peppermint flavored breath mint. Today the company’s headquarters are located in Orange, Conn. It is owned by the Haas family who are descendants from the inventor of the candy, Eduard Has III. The mints were marketed as a smoking cessation aid. In fact, when Haas joined forces with Oscar Uxa, who developed the first PEZ dispenser, the dispenser was shaped like a cigarette lighter. It was introduced at the Vienna Trade Fair in 1949 and held the same number of candies (12) that the dispensers hold today. These peppermint candies were stored in a small metal tin. The product was so successful in Austria, that by 1935, just eight years after the product was brought into the market, a new factory was built in Czechoslovakia to keep up with demand. Although the newly-introduced mints worked quite well as a smoking deterrent in Austria, they didn’t have the same desired effect in the United States. Smoking didn’t change much during the 1950s when the candies were brought to the American shores, so the manufacturers decided to shift gears, changed the flavor to include a variety of fruity options, and started marketing the candies to children instead. At first, the candy was sold in rolls as “drops”, similar to Life Savers and other hard candy. During the 1930s, brick-shaped PEZ was also sold in small tins that protected the candies when kept in the pocket. Customers could purchase refills that looked similar to the ones sold today, but the multi-colored plastic dispensers we associate with PEZ would not be introduced until after World War II. And then came the characters: Popeye, a bunny, and a witch were among the first to be introduced at the end of the 1950s, followed by Casper the Friendly Ghost, Bozo the Clown and several Disney characters in the early 1960s, like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Many of these dispensers had character heads as well as additional character images die-cut into their sides. For example, Huey, Dewie and Louie appeared on the sides of Donald Duck dispensers. Vintage PEZ dispensers that your parents probably bought you for a dollar or two when you were growing up can sell for an obscene amount of money under the right circumstances. The PEZ collecting community is alive and well and there are PEZ conventions throughout the country. The 32nd Pez-a-Mania will be held in Cleveland next July. Rare PEZ dispensers can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on eBay. “The secret of finding valuable Pez dispensers is simple,” says collectibles expert Tony Hyman. “In the mid-1980s, feet were added to make the characters stand up better. Pez with feet seldom have much value. But nearly all Pez without feet bring at least $10 or more. And, one in three from the 1960s are worth $100.” If you have a “Make-a-Face” PEZ on its original card you can put a whopping $2,500 in your pocket. This rarest of PEZ dispensers had detachable parts so that children could make their own PEZ faces, in the style of Mr. Potato Head. Also valuable, and up to $5,000, are dispensers with a shooting star on the side instead of the PEZ name. “To be valuable to a collector, PEZ dispensers must work and be in perfect condition,” Hyman said. “The polystyrene used to mold the dispensers often melted when two dispensers were stored in contact with each other. Melt marks are a kiss of death.” Though PEZ is available in 20 countries everything is made in Connecticut. To make all that PEZ, the factory goes through 50,000 pounds of sugar every four days which is compressed with 3,000 pounds of pressure to form the tiny candies. Nearly 12 million pieces of PEZ candy is produced daily. A visitor’s center opened at the factory in 2011, offering tours to the 4,000 square-foot facility and within the confines is the most comprehensive of PEZ memorabilia on public display in the world. And the tours, officials at the company say, spawn collectors of the dispensers themselves. Mike Binkley of Montgomery, Ohio, is a perfect example of one who took the tour through the PEZ company and became enthralled with dispensers overnight. Binkley has an entire den dedicated to his hobby of collecting PEZ dispensers. His collection totals 3,800. Characters that line the many shelves of this den include Marilyn Monroe, Harry Potter, Luigi of Mario Brothers, Darth Vader, Sponge Bob, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck. These examples didn’t cost an arm or a leg. On the other hand, Binkley has taken the occasional plunge to purchase a few high-dollar PEZ dispensers to add to his collection, such as a footless Rooster dispenser he paid $125 for, a Hello Kitty test piece $135, a Long Faced Clown ($200), Candy Shooter (shaped like a gun, he paid $200, now valued at $350), Psychedelic Eye in Hand ($200) and Brutus from Popeye ($110) just to name a few. Binkley has dispensers from the 1950s, like Popeye and Pinocchio, a Bicentennial set featuring Uncle Sam, Betsy Ross and a bloodied Minuteman. He is also on the lookout for error PEZ dispensers, for they hold high value to any collection. His “error” pieces include a Santa Claus with no face, a Mario Brothers with no nose and a Groot (the tree monster in ’Guardians of the Galaxy’) facing backwards in its package. “My wife and I attend a few PEZ shows and conventions each year,” Binkley said. “At a show in Chicago, one collector paid $20,000 for one with a lemon head sporting a blue hat and blue classes. It was part of the “Crazy Fruit” series in the mid-1970s that was discontinued. At the same show one guy sold a PEZ from the 1970s that featured an 18th-century admiral wearing a powdered wig and cocked hat for $30,000. There are people out there with deep pockets and whose collections are just as deep.” Modern day PEZ dispensers have garnered much attention, like the 2007 Limited Edition of three dispensers honoring the 80th birthday of Mickey Mouse. There were 400,000 made worldwide and the tin containing the three dispensers are numbered. First is Steamboat Willie from 1928, then a Mickey Mouse from 1940 and the current one of Mickey in 2000. These were sold for $49 for the set and today they’re valued at $150. PEZ captured the modern day limelight when a PEZ dispenser made an appearance on the History Channel’s hit series Pawn Stars. The PEZ dispenser in question in the 2019 episode is a 1956 PEZ space ray gun, made the year before the toy character heads were introduced to the United States market. Pawn Stars store owners offered $300 for the dispenser.
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