How two Pez dispensers led to a collection of over a thousand
Although my first collection was the set of NatWest piggy banks in the late 1980s (I wrote about those here), the one I’m probably known best for is my two decade long haul of Pez. You know, the character topped sweet dispensers.
As the years go by, what becomes removed from the story told to the new people I meet in life is that it was actually someone else's vice that inspired me to purchase my first Pez.
In the early 2000s I'd become a fan of a ska punk band called Less Than Jake, from Gainesville, Florida. I discovered them, of all places, on the soundtrack to Digimon (there's another collection..) The Movie. Both the bassist and drummer collected Pez. It had inspired the titles of two of their albums (Pezcore and The Pez Collection) and appeared regularly in their artwork and merchandise.
This is me aged 15, sporting a LTJ / Pez hoodie, the year I saw them live for the first time.
I had a small display of the band's albums in my bedroom and decided I needed to buy a Pez dispenser to sit alongside them. And so, I purchased Goofy (Mickey and Donald seemed too obvious) in Autumn 2002 from my local Toys R Us (RIP).
I added Goofy to the shelf and thought no more of it until a few weeks later when I spotted a Hallowe'en series on sale at another shop. I was immediately drawn to the skeleton headed dispenser. Less Than Jake had a mascot called Mr Skull, who would join them on stage in a full set and mask. If I was going to have a dispenser to accompany my LTJ collection, this was the one, surely.
I bought it.
The dilemma was what to do with Goofy? "Do I just have them both on display? They're quite the odd couple. Two seems like a weird number.. Maybe I could buy more? One per each 'set' seems reasonable. That won't get out of hand".
Before I had chance to share the 'rule' I'd instated on myself with the people in my life, my Mum returned home from the weekly shop with Mickey and Donald to add to the collection. Twenty one years and over 1,250 dispensers later, any intentions I ever had of keeping this to a minimum are a distant memory.
It always surprises people I tell that I’m by no means an anomaly (well not in this case at least) when it comes to collecting Pez. The international community of Pez collectors have a wide spread, concentrating mostly across European and North American territories, centered somewhat around company headquarters in Traun (near Linz), Australia and Connecticut, USA. Pez fandom, including the complicated division between the European and American companies, was the topic of the fantastic 2022 documentary, The Pez Outlaw.
Despite Pez conventions dating back to 1991, the UK was without its own until 2016, when a fellow fanatic, Kelle Blyth set up the UK Pez Gathering in Norwich, Norfolk. Like me, Kelle’s introduction to the world of Pez collecting was via Less Than Jake. I was unable to make the 2016 event, but attended in 2018 and again in 2022, celebrating both 20 years of collecting and the purchase of my 1,000th dispenser.
I bought so many that day that I couldn’t tell you which it was, I’m choosing to mark it as being a gold C-3PO. ‘Shiny’ holds a special place in collecting, going back to my days of sticker books and Pokemon cards.
One of the highlights of this, and most other Pez conventions the world over is the exclusive dispenser Pez work with event organisers to produce. Here’s the video reveal of the 3rd UK Pez Gathering dispenser, designed by Kelle herself and limited to just 129!
We talk a lot about the value of community in marketing these days, it is, of course, based on the value of community for life in general. I only spent a few hours with the other collectors at Kelle’s 2022 event, yet they were among some of the best interactions with other people I had all year. Kind, welcoming, interested, generous.. all wrapped up in a fun, shared interest.
The side story to my years of Pez collecting is me getting to collaborate with the people who set me on this path, when I ran Saint November Records in the 2010s. Without wanting to come across an annoying superfan, I absolutely used Pez as an icebreaker when building a rapport with the Less Than Jake, which ultimately led to us releasing music by the band and bassist, Roger Lima’s multiple side projects. I would scout for new Pez on their behalf in advance of LTJ’s UK tours.
Perhaps the most bizarre, full circle moment came in 2019 when before a show the band were playing in Bournemouth (Boscombe, technically). I’d met Roger for lunch and was helping him to hunt for a cheap acoustic guitar in local charity shops. That’s enough of tale in its own right, what made this a landmark occasion is we also shopped for Pez. I can tell you which I bought, it’s more important that the 1000th, it was this lowly Bo Peep of the Toy Story series, from a branch of Primark.
I'm interested in exploring the reasons WHY we collect. It would be quick and easy to sink to the assumption that this about greed or hoarding, and maybe there is some instinctual influence along those lines. What I found I’ve found being a collector, particularly with Kelle’s UK Pez Gathering and the LTJ link is connection.
Perhaps a more positive take on why we collect is about identity and belonging? I’m planning to dig deeper into this theme in future articles. There’ll inevitably be many more Pez related stories to follow..