PEZamania in Cleveland

Every couple of years we make the trek to Cleveland, Ohio for PEZamania! We hang out with friends, eat good food, play games, and Peg picks up a few items to add to her ever growing PEZ collection. This year we stayed closer to our budget but she was still able to snag a 50's Blue Full Body Spaceman Robot PEZ dispenser for a decent price. There are always good deals to be made at PEZamania.

PEZamania 27 Photos

PEZamania in Cleveland, Ohio is always a blast. Claiming to be "The World's Largest Gathering of PEZ Collectors", we made it to this year's 27th gathering. Good people, great times, and lots and lots of PEZ for sale.  

A bonus for this year, I won 1st Place at the PEZamania War tournament!

The Return of Pezylvania

Pezylvania has returned to Renninger's Antique and Farmer's Market. Ralph Riovo, founder of PEZylvania, held the first PEZylvania gathering in October of 2007. After his passing in 2012, the gathering took a little break but it is back now as strong as ever. Visiting this small gathering of PEZHeads is a great way to spend a fall day in Berks County, PA. The event also raises funds for the Animal Rescue League of Berks County, Inc (ARL).

What's at the PEZ Vistor Center and Factory?

I LOVE PEZ, and a tour of the factory is the collector's dream come true. I was able to realize this dream a few years ago when PEZ opened their Visitor Center and the Northeast PEZ Convention hosted a bus trip there with an exclusive tour of the factory! This year they did it once again  and added a PIZZA party. A single bus full of collectors arrived on a lovely Thursday afternoon just in time for a pizza party in the upstairs loft of the factory.

A Trip to the Barker Character, Comic and Cartoon Museum

Wouldn't you like to visit a museum dedicated to cartoon characters from 1873 to the present? We did just that on a recent trip sponsored by the NorthEast PEZ Convention. The Barker Character, Comic and Cartoon Museum is located in Cheshire, Connecticut and houses the personal collection of Gloria and Herbert Barker.

PEZ Collecting - Feeding the Obsession

PEZ has been around since way before my time. It started in Vienna, Austria as a breath mint for adults in 1927. The name came from the first, middle and last letter of the German word for peppermint - PfeffErminZ. My obsession started in the last century, with a 'PEZ Collectors Starter Kit' my hubby brought home from a holiday gift exchange at work.

Attending the Steel City PEZ Gathering

What do you get when you gather a bunch of PEZheads, PEZ vendors, and fantastic event hosts? A real good time! The second annual Steel City PEZ Gathering, a mini PEZ convention, was held at the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The sizable empty store location that the gathering was held in gave both vendors and attendees plenty of room to spread out.

Steel City PEZ Gathering and a Giant Rubber Ducky

We were road tripping once again to attend the Steel City PEZ Gathering in Pittsburgh, PA. This year's event was held at the Sheraton Station Square in the Haselton banquet room. It was a decent size room that allowed vendors and guests to spread out and not feel crowded.

Road Trip: Mister Ed's Candy Emporium

Are you looking for a unique candy shop for some munchies? Search no further than Mister Ed's Candy Emporium. Located on the Lincoln Highway (Rt. 30) in Orrtanna, PA, this candy store / elephant museum has a fine selection of sweets for everyone.

Need a Cool Cake? How about a PEZ Dispenser Cake?

When you have a PEZHead in the family you can make a big impression by commissioning a birthday cake in the shape of a PEZ dispenser. I contacted Teri of Teri’s Cake Creations once again to create an original cake for Peg’s birthday. I told Teri that one of Peg’s favorite PEZ dispensers is a Pony-Go-Round and I gave her a couple of links to images of the PEZ dispenser.  I also asked her to change “PEZ” to “PEG” and that was it. What Teri came up with was way more than I could have hoped for. The cake was very detailed and a good likeness to the dispenser. It even included an embossed hinge pin. Peg was thrilled. I was happy. Life is good. Thanks Teri!

What did you miss at the 2012 NE PEZ Gathering?

The 14th Annual Northeast PEZ Gathering was held in Stamford, Connecticut and it had to be one of the best yet! Why was it so special? This year’s PEZ convention included a special bus trip to the PEZ factory in Orange, Connecticut. So you had great people, great PEZ, a trip to the PEZ Visitor Center, and a rare factory tour! Peg is the real PEZhead in the family but I definitely enjoyed myself on this trip.

The first thing you need to do at any gathering is pick up your event package. Your package will contain lots of goodies and usually a limited edition convention dispenser. Richie and Mary, our fabulous hosts, were setup early to greet all the arrivals. We made sure to collect all our credentials because we would be on the first bus in the morning.

On Thursday, we had some time to catch up with friends and do a little room hopping before the night’s social event. You should really go to the swap party at night even if you don’t have anything to trade. Be social! If I can do it you can too.

Peg scored a set of the French Snow White Dwarves PEZ dispensers to go with her French Mr. Men after trading some cash. Is that cheating? I don’t usually do the mixed drink thing but I had to try the special PEZ-tini that the bartender was making for everyone. It was very good. Always try new things.

The first bus left promptly at 8am. Richie was making sure everyone had their passes for the tour and the lanyards for the Visitor Center. The Visitor center is normally $5 to get in but it was included with our bus fee. Greeting us when we arrived was none other than Shawn Peterson. Shawn has written several PEZ collector guide books and he now works at the Visitor Center.

We would be on the fifth factory tour for the day so we had some time to look around the Visitor Center before it got too crowded. There is a great collection of PEZ items throughout the brightly colored Center. There are PEZ benches, a PEZ themed motorcycle built by OCC, the world’s largest PEZ dispenser, PEZ guns, and just about everything PEZ has ever made on display. In the “vault” display you can even find the Prince William and Catherine PEZ dispensers that sold for over $13,000! Don’t forget to visit the lounge on the second floor where you will find other items like a collection of vending machines.

The factory tour isn’t usually part of the Visitor Center package; it was special just for the PEZ Convention. Buninton Stevens, who normally works in quality control at PEZ, would be our tour guide for the factory tour. Since they manufacture food in the form of candy at the factory, we had to all wear these stylish smocks and hats. One size does not fit all and I have more hair on my face than my head so I had fun with mine! I thought Peg was going to explode with joy as they transferred the huge containers of raw materials for the making of the actual PEZ candy. She’s so cute.

While the factory in Orange, CT doesn’t make dispensers it sure does make a lot of candy. All the different flavors are made here and then packaged on several different machines.

The candy packages are aligned and then added to the dispensers. On this line they were packaging Halloween dispensers including the new pumpkin for this year. We also saw them packaging the new Spiderman, Lizardman, and Catwoman dispensers. Because of licensing issues we could only buy the pumpkin and Catwoman.

The tour ended with a trip to the warehouse where we saw all the supplies to make the PEZ packaging and floor to ceiling racks of PEZ dispensers! It just went on, and on, and …. 8.5 million dispensers! The tour, while short, was fantastic!

PEZ Candy being made.

We headed back to the hotel. Not caring much for driving in big cities, Peg and I decided to walk and find someplace for lunch. We ended up at the Stamford Town Center and ate at Mitchell’s Fish Market. The atmosphere was relaxed and the food was excellent. Later that evening, PEZingo was played. Bingo type games don’t excite me much but Peg likes them. I crashed in the room with a pizza while Peg went on to win game six! Yay, Peg!

Ah, Saturday morning. The Convention Floor Show is your last chance to find that special last deal. It’s fun to see all the dealers set up in one place rather than spread throughout the hotel. It’s also time to say goodbye to friends until the next big gathering.