February is upon us and the new Valentine hearts have come pouring in. Pez Co. seems to have outdone themselves this time with all the new Valentines available. We have many listed now in the Pez Collectors Store. The block style font is new for 2008 and hearts with this font say “I Choose You”, while the Italic style font series from previous years says “I Choose U”. Otherwise, the sayings are the same 13 different sayings (no Best Freinds have been spotted in the new block font). We received the following 6 combinations in our shipments so far, and these are available in the Current US,
- Pink
Crystal - Red Crystal on Red Stems with printed hearts, Black Block Style font, 13 sayings
- Hot Pink on Hot Pink Stems with printed hearts, Black Block Style font, 13 sayings
- Maroon on Maroon Stems with printed hearts, Black Block Style font, 13 sayings
- Purple on Purple Stems with printed hearts, White Block Style font, 13 sayings
- Purple on Purple Stems with printed hearts, White Italic Style font, 13 sayings (first available in 2006)
We have also found some additional combinations on cards. It seems Pez Co. got a bit ahead of themselves with these cards, too, as they all say copyright 2009 Pez Candy, Inc.
- Pink
Crystal - Red Crystal on Red Stems with printed hearts, White Block Style font, 13 sayings
- Hot Pink on Hot Pink Stems with printed hearts, White Block Style font, 13 sayings
- Maroon on Maroon Stems with printed hearts, White Block Style font, 13 sayings
There are further rumors of people finding the new block style font on Purple, Hot Pink and Maroon, all on their matching stem, with no printed hearts on the stems. That sure is a lot of hearts to collect if you want to get them all.
The one thing that has not come pouring in yet is the Mickey in Gift Tins with DVD. These were delayed and we were told that they should begin shipping by the end of January and we are still waiting...
We received both good news and bad news regarding the Disney's Fairies assortment – the bad news is that the initial ship date has been moved back from 7/1/08 to 9/1/08, but the good news is that three characters, Tinkerbelle, Iridessa and Silvermist will be released this year. Pez Co. will keep us waiting until 2009 for the next two characters, Rosetta and Fawn, then a special, limited edition sixth fairy will be introduced in 2010. Wonder who that one will be?
Iridessa Silvermist Tinkerbelle
Fawn Rosetta
February 15 is the date scheduled for initial shipments of the first 7 Major League Baseball teams – Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees. The cards for the MLB have been spotted and it looks like they will feature a very real looking photo of a bat, ball and glove on all cards, each with the individual team logo on the card as well as the MLB emblem with a block saying “I Live for This” below the emblem. The top of the card has a blue, red and white diagonal strip, representing the MLB emblem and the whole effect is stunning.
Four additional teams have been added to the Major League Baseball line-up for shipment in June – New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians will be coming soon. We have been told that they will be distributed regionally, similar to the way NCAA footballs were, but we will be getting all of them for sale from the Pez Collectors store.
Speaking of NCAA Footballs, two new additions have been announced for July release – University of North Carolina (UNC) and Virginia Tech (VT) will join the other 10 NCAA footballs this summer. We have placed our order and can’t wait to see what those Tar Heels and Hokies are going to look like!
Easter promises a new variation of the lamb for this year. Check closely as the lamb got new wool on the back of his head for 2008. We have heard rumors of a new rubber duckie style dispenser being added for 2009 Easter, along with a new Cupid for 2009 Valentines, a new black Bat for Halloween and a new white bear for Christmas, but those are all 2009 releases, so we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Kung Fu Panda is still scheduled for April release and sneak previews have been spotted already. The characters in this set seem to include
Bruce The Shark from Finding Nemo will be added to the Best of Disney Pixar series beginning in the second quarter of the year, so we will start watching for it in April!
Batman and Villains is due out May 1. Another sneak preview says this set is going to be Wow! Pow! Awesome! Batman has a royal blue head using what looks like the dark knight mold, on a grey stem. He didn’t get his emblem on his stem, but the Villains in the set more than make up for that. Two-Face, Joker and the Riddler look fantastic in the preview photos!
We have seen a mockup of the Star Trek the Original Voyage gift set scheduled for release this fall. If the mockup can be believed, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, Scotty and Chekov will be featured along with the Starship Enterprise! Now that one will be worth waiting for and it will be hard to wait!
We also found out that the new characters for the Winnie the Pooh Gift Set scheduled for release September 1 are Darby and Buster.
That is all of the news, scoops and sneak preview information we have as an update to our January newsletter. We hope you find this information useful!
Happy Pezzing!
Chris Jordan
www.pezcollectors.com