Fall may be bringing cooler temperatures and the trees will soon become multi colored, but the Pez scene is as hot as ever with a few surprise releases. Halloween pez will be rapidly replaced by Christmas Pez and President pez volumes will be released in time for elections!
The Smurfs Click and Play pez arrived in the Pez Collectors Store and we were tickled to discover that the little full body figures on the tops were made of a rubbery material rather than the hard plastic typically used to form the heads of pez. Smurf boy, Papa Smurf, Brainy Smurf and Smurfette are awesome!
The University of Utah Utes have a new pez football with their Utes logo – a U in a circle with two feathers hanging on the side – and this dispenser is an exclusive so it is not easily available to those outside of Utah. Thanks to Carol Frank and Paul Turley for these images. We have placed an order which will be arriving soon so that this new football pez can be added to everyone’s collection!
The Rio 2 pez have been a European only release, but two of the three pez (Jewel and Blu, but not Rafael) in the set have been spotted in the USA mint on a USA Rio 2 card! The cards look terrific - thanks to Norman Oswald Jr for this photo from Wooster, Ohio! These are being released in the USA as a part of the Favorites assortment but not alone as a Rio 2 assortment, and Rafael the toucan pez is not being released in the USA. Grrrr! Who makes these decisions??? Meanwhile, the European Rio 2 pez with Jewel, Rafael and Blu are available in the Pez Collectors Store!
Pez Candy, Inc. has been busy at the Big E which is a large fair in the Northeast. To celebrate the championship wins of both the men and women University of Connecticut basketball teams, Pez produced an exclusive limited edition printed UCONN basketball pez in a tube, with only 2000 produced and only available at the Big E. We have arranged to get a few of these very limited dispensers in tubes and they will be available in the Pez Collectors Store by the end of the week.
Halloween is coming up this month and we have a few of the new pumpkin pez on green stems and witches on purple stems available now in the Pez Collectors Store.
It is interesting to see the changes that have taken place in the Halloween pez molds through the years for example, from the diecut pumpkins to the small head pumpkin, polly pumpkin, jack-o-lantern and now the flat top pumpkin mold. We have many of the older versions of the Halloween pez, in glow in the dark and standard available in the Pez Collectors Store! Check out the Retired Halloween and Current Halloween categories!
We have recently refreshed our inventory of some of the Japanese mini pez sets. These Bandai brand mini pez are becoming much harder to find and they aren’t being made any more. Take a peek at the Bandai Mini Pez category to see if we have some of the sets you are missing!
In November, the President Pez volume 6 and 7 will be released. These will be the last sets that contain 5 Presidents because in 2015, the volumes 8 and 9 will each have just 4 presidents. These boxed sets continue the alternating blue and red theme we have seen from the beginning of the US President Boxed set releases.
Rumors are flying about new pez for 2015. Last month, we provided as much information as we were allowed to share about the scheduled 2015 lineup. We cannot at this time confirm or deny the reports of Transformer pez being released in July 2015. But, how cool would those be!
Similarly, there are rumors about the 2015 pez releases in Europe, first reported we believe by Faster Pez in his blog. The reported quarterly line-up includes a couple of assortments not scheduled for release in the USA. We have not been able to verify the European lineup at this time. According to Ran’s blog found at http://fasterpez.com/pez-2015-lineup-pez-international/, in the first quarter, Europe can expect to see:
Penguins of Madagascar but we have no way of knowing if this will be a rerelease of the previous Madagascar pez or if new pez will be added to the assortment.
My Little Pony – Whaaaat? How exciting! Imagine the different ponies that could be included in this set!
Star Wars – we expect these may be along the same lines as what we know will be released in the USA in September, 2015. Remember, the USA expects to see Yoda, C3PO, Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2D2 and two additional all new characters (I am still hoping Han Solo finally gets his due). No word whether Europe will get the same crystal boxed set that is expected later in 2015 in the USA.
In the second quarter,
Hello Kitty but it is completely unclear if this will be a refresh of the graphics or if new dispensers will be added. In the USA, we are expecting the packaging to be updated, but don’t expect new dispensers.
Minnie Mouse – but there is no information on just what will be happening here, whether it will be new packaging, new dispensers or what. New and different Bows? Here are a few of the current European Minnie Mouse pez sets available in the Pez Collectors Store now.
In the third quarter,
Minions from Despicable Me but we don’t know if these will be the same as the Despicable Me pez scheduled for release in the USA in March, 2015 or if these will be something different.
Back to the present, we are really excited about attending the maiden voyage of the Pez on the River Gathering in Winona, MN next week. It is scheduled October 10 and 11 and it is sure to be a good time for all! We hope to see many of you there!
That is all the news for now. Until next month, Happy Pezzing!
All the best,
Chris Jordan
www.pezcollectors.com