Largest Pez Memorabilia Exhibition in Conneticut

Imagine walking into to a room and finding every single Pez dispenser that has ever been created? Also in the next room is every piece of Pez memorabilia ever released? Well think no more as the place actually exists in Connecticut. Pez dispensers have captured the collector’s imagination for many years. A fact that I found interesting when researching the collecting world when creating Sqrall.com was that the wife of the eBay founder was a Pez collector and this was one of the reasons he created eBay, now that's a helpful husband! 

There is currently one of the world’s largest collections on Pez memorabilia in a candy factory in Connecticut.

In a recent article on courant.com they outline not only what an incredible history of Pez and all things associated with it. I know my children rarely walk past the pez dispenser stand without checking out the latest creations and I happily stand with them. The exhibition has items from Mickey Mouse and every Disney character of recent memory, the Peanuts gang, the Star Wars characters, Prince William and his bride, Kate Middleton, superheroes, Garfield and friends, the Simpsons, Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Chuck E. Cheese, Olympic mascots, Hello Kitty, Jack Sparrow and the rest of the gang from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, the Flintstones, "Wizard of Oz" characters, pilgrims, Indians. There are dispensers for breast cancer awareness, animal welfare charities and Hurricane Katrina fund-raisers. There are generic animals: dogs, cats, birds, alligators, team-logo baseballs and hockey pucks, race cars and big rig trucks, and tiny Pez dispensers designed to hang from cell phone cases. There are furry plush Pez dispensers, a Swarovski crystal Pez dispenser and Pez dispensers that are the full body of the character, not just the head. There are sneak peeks at Pez dispensers that are coming out this year: the rock band Kiss, Strawberry Shortcake and friends, Hot Wheels that can be removed and played with.

"There's this one, which has a little slide rule that came out of it, so you could cheat on your math test with your Pez dispenser," Peterson says, pointing out a vintage dispenser. He turns to some others: "These were 'psychedelic' dispensers, showing a hand holding an eyeball and weird stuff like that."

The center also provides a timeline about the history of Pez and its eventual move to Orange, which supplies Pez candies to all the United States and Canada. (Just the candies; the dispensers are made in Hungary and China.) While children and families visit the center, workers work on the floor, putting out 12 million Pez tabs a day, 1 million rolls. "We use 100,000 pounds of sugar every week," Peterson says. "There's a silo full of sugar behind the factory." Upstairs is a lunchroom, where visitors who bring their own picnic lunch can chow down and look at vintage Pez advertisements and Pez vending machines.

I will certainly be stopping by the pez dispenser display today to see what they have!