Santa Claus is the bestselling PEZ dispenser of all time.
It takes three thousand pounds of pressure between the two candy dies to compress one single tablet. These tablets pour into bins that are coded for that particular flavor. Once the bin is full, it’s released automatically and travels by conveyor to the wrapping room.
An operator will pour the bins of tablets into the hopper, where individual tablets are vibrated down a narrow conveyor that lines up the tablets on edge and groups them into rows of twelve. These rows pass through the machine, where they are wrapped, and a lot code number is printed on each individual roll. The wrapped rolls are stored in large tubs and moved to the production floor, where they will be packaged with a dispenser.
There are two basic types of candy/dispenser packaging done in the factory: blister cards (refers to the clear plastic bubble that is placed on a thick paper backer) or poly bags (refers to the type of material used to make the bag).
One of the fifteen-foot-tall mixers that are used to blend batches of PEZ Candy at the factory in Orange, Connecticut.
The blister machines have three bulk bins at the beginning machine. These bins are separated by flavor and are filled with the candy fresh from the wrapping room. The candy packs are lifted by machine from the bins to a narrow conveyor. It’s important for each retail package to be consistent in appearance, so the candy should all face the same direction.
The three high-speed tablet presses used to make PEZ candy tablets.
The candy wrapping machine can wrap approximately three hundred rolls of candy per minute.
To achieve this, each candy pack passes by a camera that will detect which way the candy roll is facing. The camera reads the orientation of the letter “P” on the package logo; if it’s backward, it shifts lanes and changes direction to face the proper way. At the other end, clear film is pulled into the machine where a thermal form shapes each individual blister. The blisters are made six at a time and then cut into individual trays.
Small suction cups lift and place three rolls of candy into the newly formed blister tray. Workers will then place the candy dispenser by hand into the tray. The card back is placed over the blister, rotated 180 degrees and heat sealed. Workers remove the blister packages and place them in the appropriate display box. Display boxes are then packed into cases and loaded onto a pallet for shipment.
The poly bag machine works similar to the blister machine. There are two bulk bins at opposite ends of the conveyor that feed individual rolls of candy into the machine one at a time. They, too, travel by conveyor, but for this process, there isn’t a camera to detect the orientation of the logo. The candy rolls will be loose packed, and there is no way to control which direction they are in the packaging. Since it has no bearing on the retail appearance, adjusting the direction of the candy logo is not necessary for this machine.
In the center of the conveyor, a machine feeds a glossy paper insert into each of the conveyor trays. The insert provides additional advertising and instructions on how to load your dispenser. Most importantly, it’s the tool that allows the poly film to wrap around the dispenser and candy for packaging.
The workers will place the dispensers by hand into each individual compartment on the conveyor, where it is wrapped with film, heat sealed on each end and cut into individual units. Another worker will place the newly made dispensers into a counter display box, where it is put into a case and sealed. The finished cases are then palletized and moved to the warehouse.
Peach has never been offered as a PEZ candy flavor.
Once all the finished goods are made, they are moved to the dock area and either placed directly on a truck for shipment or moved to the warehouse for storage. These days, nearly everything is made because an order has been placed for that item. Some orders are so large that they must be stored while the remainder of the order is being created.
This machine packages a dispenser and candy to create a finished product know as a “poly bag.”
A section of the PEZ warehouse in Orange, Connecticut. There are approximately 6,500 pallet locations that house an average of fifteen million dispensers.
Some retailers require that their entire order reach each of its distribution points on the same day or within a few days of each other, depending on location. It sounds easy enough, but it actually requires careful planning. If the customer has distribution points in various parts of the country, it’s necessary to calculate how many days it will take for a truck to deliver to each of these points. Some shipments need to leave days ahead of others depending on how far they go just so everything can arrive at the same time.
The warehouse that is currently in use was built onto the side of the factory in 2008. There are approximately 6,500 pallet locations in the warehouse. The automated system can help workers locate and retrieve goods using a giant forklift that is computer controlled using a wire that is embedded in the floor. The warehouse is divided into four sections: finished goods, components (labels, blister cards, packaging material, header cards, etc.—i.e., everything it takes to make the retail goods), raw dispensers (dispensers that are fully functioning but have not been packaged) and raw ingredient material.
Restaurant chain Jack in the Box featured its mascot as a PEZ dispenser and used the phrase in its advertisements: “Somebody call the PEZ hall of fame and tell them I’m on my way.”
Finished goods are transported from this facility to all parts of the United States and Canada. PEZ can be found in over eighty countries worldwide. European counterparts do essentially the same process for goods sold in other parts of the world. Over the years, dispensers have been made in almost a dozen different countries around the world, including the United States. Currently, there are two factories that produce dispensers for the entire world: one in China and the other in Hungary. The dispensers from these two locations are imported into the United States for packaging or sent to European facilities for packaging and distribution to other parts of the world. All PEZ Candy sold in the United States and Canada is proudly made in the United States at the factory in Orange, Connecticut.
Chapter 14
Come Visit Us!
After nearly forty years of business in the United States, PEZ now has a Visitor Center that is open to the public. Since opening its doors in December 2011, more than 300,000 admission tickets have been sold.
After the design team finished plans for the Visitor Center, construction started in October 2010. Despite a record amount of snow, construction kept moving and continued through most of 2011.
Fixtures, such as benches shaped like candy packs and a fourteen-foot-tall dispenser, were ordered and specially produced for PEZ. The giant dispenser and other larger-than-life scale versions of our products were created by some very talented folks in Texas and shipped to Connecticut. The giant archways in the center of the exhibit were done by a company in Kansas City. The wall graphics were installed by a company based in Chicago. There were people in many parts of the country helping to bring this vision to reality.
As construction and design began to enter the final phases, it was time to unpack my collection and find a home for everything. From the built-in vault to the free-standing displays, each piece in the center is catalogued and displayed with purpose. The displays date to the very first year of the company. Every dispenser that was ever sold at retail, and a lot more, is available for view.
The Visitor Center did a soft launch and opened in December 2011 to local residents. An official ribbon-cutting ceremony was planned for March 12, 2012. This would be the grand opening event. On hand for the event were Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy; several state representatives, including Rosa DeLauro, Tony Hwang, Paul Davis and Themis Klarides; Orange first selectman Jim Zeoli; and a host of regional and local businesspeople and members of PEZ senior management.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I conceived the idea of a visitor center for PEZ after researching other businesses and my experience at Hallmark C
ards in Kansas City, Missouri. I established a couple of contacts with the PEZ company through research for my earlier book. They helped me to contact senior management and initiate a meeting with Joseph Vittoria, president/CEO, to propose the idea.
During the spring of 2005, I was traveling to Stamford, Connecticut, to attend the Northeast PEZ Collector Convention. To my surprise, the meeting would also be shared with fellow collector Richie Belyski, publisher of PEZ Collector News, who was there to conduct an interview with the new CEO for the newsletter. Upon arrival at PEZ, we were brought up to the president’s office, and introductions were made. Vittoria said he liked the concept of a Visitor Center but the company didn’t have an archive of material that vast to use in a museum. Fortunately, I did!
In the fall of 2009, I received a phone call for which I had hoped for years and that would ultimately change the course of my life. It was Vittoria asking if I still had interest in this museum project—of course! In just a few short months, a move was made. I called Connecticut home in January 2010.
Since then, tens of thousands of people have found their way to the center each year. Young and old, die-hard collectors and the curious have all stopped in for a look. Guests from all fifty states and more than fifty different countries visited in 2015 alone. The PEZ Visitor Center is a four-thousand-plus-square-foot multi-function facility. Part museum, part retail store, part activity center and part party venue, it is a whole world of all things PEZ. Guests can see the world’s largest PEZ dispenser, play PEZ trivia, learn how a dispenser is made, shop the factory store, taste any of our twelve different candy flavors, view the production area and enjoy the largest, most comprehensive collection of PEZ memorabilia on public display in the world. There are interactive exhibits and scavenger hunt–type games for children. Everyone who plays the featured game wins a free PEZ dispenser. The Visitor Center hosts birthday parties and special events by reservation.
Installing one of three giant candy packs that will become the exterior sign of the Visitor Center, circa 2011.
Left to right: Joseph Vittoria, PEZ president/CEO; state representatives Tony Hwang, Themis Klarides, Paul Davis and Rosa DeLauro; and First Selectman of Orange Jim Zeoli.
The front lobby of the Visitor Center and main floor exhibit featuring the world’s largest PEZ dispenser.
Installation of the archways inside the Visitor Center that represent an exaggerated version of an assorted fruit candy pack, circa 2011.
The front entrance of the PEZ Visitor Center in Orange, Connecticut, circa 2013.
Want to learn more about the candy-making process? Schools and groups of ten or more can schedule a candy demo with one of the experts. Groups are provided hair nets and taken into a special room adjacent to the actual production floor where they learn step by step how the candy is made, and at the conclusion, a fresh batch of PEZ candy is made for everyone to sample.
There are twelve candy tablets in a regular-size roll of PEZ candy.
The Visitor Center is open seven days a week. Admission tickets can be purchased on arrival, and every paid admission receives a store credit good toward any purchase. Come learn about the brand that has been inspiring and innovating since 1927!
Chapter 15
Know Your PEZ
BODY PARTS: Introduced in the mid-1990s, “body parts” are amusing attachable parts with which you can dress up your PEZ dispensers. The pieces snap on around the stem of the dispenser. The arms are movable and the hands are designed to hold various accessories.
BUTTON: When the head is tilted back, it’s the rectangular piece inside the stem, usually red but sometimes white, opaque or pale yellow, on which the candy actually sits. There are a couple versions: a rectangle with square corners and a rectangle with rounded corners. The square corner version is the oldest.
CHANNEL: The groove on the front of the dispenser that runs the length of the stem.
CLUB MED: A term used to distinguish flesh tone variations. Example: when a character’s face appears very tan, as if they have been in the sun or at Club Med. This can also be considered a color variation.
COLOR VARIATION: Refers to the comparison of like dispensers in which one has a different color to the entire head or to one or more of the parts found on the head. Example: a cow may have a head that is yellow, blue, orange, green, etc. These are color variations. The possibilities and variations are almost infinite.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Refers to the country in which the dispenser was made; will be indicated in raised letters molded in the base of the stem. USA, DBP, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Yugoslavia stems with half flowers are all highly desirable among collectors.
DBP: The German patent number on a dispenser. It means “Deutsches Bundes Patent” and will be accompanied by the numbers 818 829.
FEET: Small, rounded plastic protrusions or tabs at the base of the stem to help the dispenser stand upright. Feet were added to dispensers in the United States around 1987. Currently, there are two different styles. The earlier version is known as “thin feet,” referring to the fact that the plastic of the feet is not as thick as the plastic feet found on current dispensers. Beware: some people try to cut off the feet and pass them off as a footless dispenser. Some dispensers were produced both ways, with feet and without. Look to the spine of the stem as an indicator to tell if the feet have been removed. If the spine is considerably deeper than the channel, it’s likely the feet have been removed. Closely inspect the base of the stem for uneven edges or indications of stress marks for evidence the dispenser has been altered.
HEAD: The top-most part of the dispenser that tilts back to dispense the candy.
IMC: Injection Mold Code. A single-digit number molded into the stem found on the outside top corner of the dispenser base. It identifies in which plastic factory the dispenser was molded. Not all dispensers have IMCs. Here is a list to help identify which number goes with which country:
1 and 3: Austria/Hungary
2: Austria/Hong Kong
4 and 8: Austria
5: Yugoslavia/Slovenia
6: Hong Kong/China
7: Hong Kong/Austria/Czech Republic
9 :United States
V: Yugoslavia (changed to Slovenia in 1993)
KICKER: Sometimes referred to as the “pusher,” this is the small plastic piece that extends down from the back of the head and pushes out a single piece of candy when the head is tilted back.
LOOSE: The dispenser is out of its original packaging.
MARBLEIZED: A term used when two or more colors of plastic are combined and not thoroughly mixed, causing a swirling pattern to appear in the finished product. This is a sought-after variation by some collectors.
MELT MARK: Refers to damage on the dispenser, sometimes caused by direct heat or a chemical reaction between the plastic of the dispenser and certain types of rubber or other plastics. Some types of rubber bands or other rubber toys and items like rubber fishing worms have been known to cause melt marks when left in contact with a dispenser.
MIB: Mint In Bag. The bag will have colored ends and writing as well as the PEZ logo. These are the newer-style bags currently being used and have been in use since the mid-1980s. This packaging is also known as a “poly bag.”
MIC: Mint In Cellophane or Mint In Cello. The bag will be clear with no writing.
MOC: Mint On Card.
MOMC: Mint On Mint Card. Both dispenser and card are in pristine condition.
N/F: No feet.
PATENT NUMBER: A seven-digit number located on the side of the stem. Currently, there are seven different U.S. patent numbers on PEZ dispensers: 2,620,061 is the earliest, followed by 3,410,455; 3,845,882; 3,942,683; 4,966,305; 5,984,285; and 7,523,841. Patent number 3,370,746 was issued for the candy shooter and appears on the 1980s space gun as well. Patent numbers can help identify the age of a dispenser but generally do not play a part in its value. Not all dispensers have a patent number on them; certain dispensers have no patent numbers, and this does not affec
t the value of those dispensers. Feet first started to appear on dispenser bases when the 3,942,683 number was issued, but some exceptions can be found with feet and earlier issue patent numbers. These dispensers are difficult to find and carry a little more value with some collectors. Rare Italian-made dispensers carry the patent number BREV. ITAL No.461637. Mexico dispensers have the mark Mexico Patent NR 141 242. Both are extremely difficult to find.
PEZHEAD: A term used to describe someone who collects PEZ.
PIN: A steel pin that hinges the head. It is made of metal and found only in older dispensers. The pin runs through the side of the head and the sleeve, attaching it to the dispenser base.
PVC: PEZ Visitor Center.
REGULAR: The earliest PEZ dispensers. These didn’t have a character head; instead, they had only a thumb grip at the top and were marketed for adults. These were remade in the late 1990s but with a noticeable difference. Vintage regulars will have a raised thumb grip on the top of the cap. The remakes will have a square cap with no raised grip, and the spine will be deeper than the channel.
SHOES: An accessory for your dispenser that fits on the base of the stem. They are similar to feet in that their purpose is to give the dispenser more stability when standing upright. Originally made to be used with the Make-A-Face dispenser. Reproduction shoes have been made with a rounded toe in the front and can be found in multiple color variations. There is also a reproduction glow-in-the-dark version. An original shoe will always be black and have a “B” shape to the end.
PEZ Page 15