THE PEZ STORY

Pez (stylised as PEZ) is the brand name of an Austrian candy and associated manual candy dispensers. The candy is a pressed, dry, straight-edged, curved-corner block 15 mm (​5⁄8 inch) long, 8 mm (​5⁄16 inch) wide, and 5 mm (​3⁄16 inch) high, with Pez dispensers holding 12 candy pieces.

1927 – PEZ is born when Austrian Eduard Haas II introduces tins of peppermint candy. known as ‘Pffefferminz’ in German, hence PEZ.

1949 – After years of selling them in small tins, the inventor Oscar Uxa patents a small mechanical dispenser and shows it at the Vienna Trade Fair that same year. It held 12 tablets, just as the latest dispensers do.

1952 – PEZ sets up operations in the USA in New York City and gets their first dispenser patent

1956 – A dispenser styled like a space gun is released, followed a year later by a three-dimensional character head, and then a year after that, their first licenced dispenser – Popeye.

1960’s – The range of flavours and character styles increases dramatically, with unusual flavours like Chlorophyll and Flowers.

1973 – The company finally starts manufacturing the candy in the US after decades of production in Europe.

1978 – New interchangeable rubber head character dispensers are introduced.

1984 – Little tabs are added to the dispenser base to allow it to stand up. These feet are used by collectors to date and value vintage dispensers.

1991 – PEZ becomes part of popular culture with the first collector convention in Ohio. Just two years later, PEZ hits the cover of People magazine and is the star of a Christies auction in New York.

2000 – The first furry ‘plush’ dispenser launches.

2005 – Star Wars comes to PEZ, followed by American Chopper family, the Teutals, in 2006 and Mickey Mouse in 2007, the last of those celebrating the 80th anniversary of PEZ.

Today, PEZ remains super popular with over 70 million dispensers sold annually, along with 5 billion candies across 90 countries. A new range of designs are released in a catalogue every year.

PRIVY-LESS STANDARD PILLS

With the silver pills having exactly the same dimensions as the original candies, and the almost countless variations in dispenser styles, PAMP-MTB have taken the obvious step in making the silver capsules available as a seperate item.

The only difference from the seperate custom issues is that these don’t have any form of privy mark.

Each pack comes with the same six capsules, each 5 grams in weight, so just under a troy ounce in total. The six come packaged in a neat container and the beauty of them, is that they fit in any of the thousands of dispensers that are on the market, covering almost every media franchise under the sun.

It’s hard to imagine a better way to get the young interested in stacking, as long as they don’t try to eat them. If you see bits of tooth scattered around the house, it’s fair to say your kid might not be the next Albert Einstein…