Happy St. Patrick's Day this month! February was a month full of surprise releases and new additions arriving from Pez International and Pez USA! With Valentine's Day behind us, we now begin looking forward to Spring and Spring comes with St. Patrick's Day. We are expecting another surprise for this holiday, but what will it be? Another leprechaun? Something different? We will have to wait and see!
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice from Fantasia is Mickey Mouse in a Sorcerer’s hat with moon and stars. This classic Mickey Mouse version is iconic and it is now a new pez! This is definitely going to be a favorite among Disney collectors and pez collectors alike! He is in stock now in the Pez Collectors Store.
Pez USA has released the new Barbie Pez Assortment. The Barbie pez assortment includes a variety of skin tones, eye colors, hair styles, and shirt styles on the bust mold with arms. The set includes Dark skin Curly Black Hair Barbie, Light Skinned Blue Eye Blonde Barbie, tan skinned, green eye Brunette Barbie and light skinned, green eye Purple Hair Barbie. These are the same as the European Barbies released in 2023 for the Barbie Movie. The set comes mint in bag with pez candies and are available now.
A PEZ Cherry Presenter Girl Dispenser has been released as a limited edition exclusive. The Pez Presenter girl wears a banded pillbox hat. The Cherry Pez Presenter Girl has blonde hair and a red band on the pillbox hat and comes on a red stem. Based on the European information, we can also expect a Brunette with yellow banded hat as the Lemon Pez Presenter Girl and a Redhead orange banded hat as the Orange Pez Presenter Girl to be released at some point. There is no reason to believe that the other PEZ candy flavors will not also eventually be represented as well! The USA Cherry Pez Presenter Girl comes mint on card that says Limited Edition Team Cherry and had 3 packs of Cherry flavored Pez Candy. The USA version is in stock now in the Pez Collectors Store.
The European Cherry Pez Presenter Girl dispenser is the same as the USA version, but the European card shows the upcoming Presenter Girl Pez heads on a Limited Edition card with geometric abstract circle graphic, and the candy packs include Lemon, Orange and Cherry Pez flavors. The European version is on its way to us now and will be available soon!
A new Valentine’s Day Candy Brick Mascot with the 11.4 patent was released in both Europe and the USA to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The Candy Brick Mascot has heart shaped pupils and is a pearly pink color candy brick mascot on a red stem that features the 11.4 patent number. The USA version comes mint on card that says Online Exclusive Limited Edition around a heart shape that says Let your Love Shine. These are sold out and retired now, but we have them in stock in the Pez Collectors Store.
The European Valentine’s Day Mascot is on its way to us now and it is the same as the USA version, but is on a European card that says Love Valentine’s Edition and Be my Valentine, so quite different graphics! The European version will be in stock soon.
The 2024 European Hello Kitty Pez set includes Blinking (we would say Winking) Hello Kitty with one eye closed on a blue stem printed with bows, a Full Body Happy Hello Kitty on a pink stem and Hearts Hello Kitty with Heart eyes and a printed dark magenta stem and the Full body Happy pez with Hello Kitty standing up with arms outstretched. The Full Body Hello Kitty is being released in the USA, but Blinking and Hearts are available only in the European assortment. The set of 3 2024 European Hello Kitty come loose and ready to display, available now in the Pez Collectors Store!
The 2024 European Emojis first shipped to distributors in Europe include Party Emoji on an orange stem, Crystal Heart on red stem, Tongue emoji on a yellow stem which is a duplicate from the 2022 European Emoji set, and Smirk on a green stem. This set is available now in the Pez Collectors Store.
The Rainbow Emoji that is supposed to be part of the 2024 set was released later and is now on its way to us. The Rainbow Emoji will be available separately, mint on card or loose just as soon as our shipment arrives!
Space exploration is exciting! Odie, aka Odysseus, landed on the moon this month, albeit sideways but functional, marking NASA’s first soft moon landing in over 50 years! Now Pez is launching the Space Mission Pez Assortment in April. The set includes a Gold and a Silver head Astronaut, the space shuttle and a Mars Rover. The space shuttle is the opaque white version using the same mold as the crystal 2024 New Years limited edition release. These look great! We will have them in stock just as soon as they are released by Pez!
A limited edition exclusive Memorial Day pez featuring the USA Flag and Fireworks on a clear colorless crystal ball is being shown as coming soon in the display case at the Pez Visitors Center. We look forward to this new addition!
Pez also has plans for a limited edition exclusive 4th of July release. We can also expect some limited edition online exclusive to be released for St. Patrick’s Day and for Easter. Pez constantly keeps us on our toes! We just have to wait to see what new exclusives they release!
Remember those Hockey Jerseys? We knew that mold wouldn’t go to waste with just 7 different NHL teams represented on the jerseys. Well, imagine the Jersey as a Hogwarts sweater! We will begin seeing them added to the existing Harry Potter Pez assortment beginning in July! Who knows, perhaps Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin house jerseys could be added after that, if the Hogwarts sweater dispenser goes well!
Everyone has heard of the People’s Choice Awards and this concept was used to create the Pezzy Awards by host Branden Gozell Lopez! There was a call for nominations and many deserving pez collectors were nominated in each category. Pez collectors were then invited to cast their votes for their choice among the nominees for each category. The winners for the 2024 Pezzy Awards are:
• Longtime collector: John Devlin
• Best tattoo: Lacy Ash
• Fantasy: Christopher Yarrison
• Display: Bill Faith
• Young collector: Thomas Powell
• Collector of the year: Adam Germroth
• Tour guide: Jessica Goodsell Orozco
• Gathering: Maryland
• Convention: Pezamania
• Breakout Pezhead: Erin Panda
• Media: Nenad Pez Blog
• Community Leader: Jeff Rosenberg
• Hospitable: Sandy and Cheryl Gardner-Ghionzoli
• Legend: Steve Glew
• Enabler: Juan Orozco Jr.
• Jokester: Chris Wiley
• Artist: Eddie Santiago Flores
• Informative: Brian Trauman
• Lifetime achievement: Chris Jordan
• Heart of Gold: Judy Mesler
Congratulations to all those nominated and chosen as leaders in so many different areas of our wonderful hobby!
Pez conventions will begin happening soon! Be sure to get your hotel reservation made if needed because the hotels fill up fast. Also be sure to register for the convention as early as possible. The hosts are all hard at work trying to pull together the best experience possible for all the attendees and you can make their job so much easier by registering early!
- April 6 Spring Virtual Pez Convention, https://www.virtualpezconvention.com/
- May 18 Maryland Pez Gathering, Woodlawn, MD https://www.marylandpezgathering.com/
- June 20 – 23, MIPezCon, Pez Boy vs. Pez Girl, Michigan Pez Convention in Farmington Hills, MI www.mipezcon.com
- June 20 – 23, The P.I.G, Hi 5, in West Chester Township, OH www.thepigevents.com
- July 17 – 20, Pezamania 33, PEZlymics Games, in Independence, OH www.pezamania.com
- August 15 – 17, Northwest Pez Convention, Winter Wonderland, Spokane, WA https://nwpc.pezworld.com/
- September 12 – 14, 11th Pez On The River in Winona, MN www.pezontheriver.com
- October 5, The IN Crowd Pez Gathering, Indiana Facebook The In. Crowd PEZ Gathering Group
- October ???, Pezylvania XIV in Kutztown, PA http://pezylvania.com
That’s all the news for this month! Happy Pezzing!
All the best,
Chris Jordan
www.pezcollectors.com