Brian's report from and about PEZAMANIA...

One day, yes one day I'm going to participate in PEZAMANIA,
the World's largest Gathering of PEZ Collectors
and I'm not alone with my wish and feelings!
So many PEZ Collectors are out there dreaming to attend PEZAMANIA one day.

For all of those like me, who did not have the chance to be there this year, this is for you!!!
We are so thankful and happy, 

that our dear friend Brian "Youknowhisname" :D 

wrote us again an amazing report from and about PEZAMANIA.

Enjoy it, here we go...

Wow, 
it’s hard to believe that another Pezamania has come and gone! Months of preparing, getting items ready to sell, designing some swag, and it’s over in the blink of an eye… kind of like Pezzy Christmas! It may have gone by way too fast, but wow what a great time! 
Here’s my convention report:

Wednesday
Up and at ‘em at 5am! I brought a lot to sell at Pezamania this year, so I rented a U-Haul cargo van which I had packed the night before. 

Jessica Orozco and I filled up our coffee cups at 7-11 and the Pezamania adventure officially began! We arrived at the hotel around 1pm, and low and behold, my room was already ready. Lucky guy! But I didn’t want to move my stuff into the room just yet… there were too many people to see! First stop: Registration room, where Rick and Sue Marlowe greeted us with a huge smile and even bigger hug. We chatted for a bit, and I left some Swag Swap buttons in the room for participants to take. 

Speaking of the Swag Swap, many people asked me where the idea came from. My partner Porter and I attend a lot of comic and Star Wars conventions, and people make their own patches which represent them as a Star Wars fan and collector. They bring the patches to conventions and swap them with others. It’s not uncommon to come home with 100 items, especially at the larger Star Wars Celebration conventions! After seeing this, I thought “why can’t we do this at PEZ conventions?” Well the answer was so simple: There’s no reason; we can! After chatting with a few friends about the idea, there was definitely enough interest, and the Pez Collectors Swag Swap was officially created. But why limit it to just patches; there’s so much creativity in the Pez community! Patches, buttons, pins, candy packs, postcards, stickers, business cards… if you designed it, it counts! 

So after leaving the registration room, I already had people coming up to me ready to swap their swag. Man this was going to be fun! I was hoping for a great turnout, but it blew me away with the number of people who participated, and the awesome items that everyone had created. Not only were there the items I mentioned above made for the swap, but there was also artwork, magnets, candy pack holders, poker chips, fantasy dispensers, keychains, t-shirts, hand slappers (is that what they’re called Eric?!?)… the list goes on. It was so much fun!

After a lot of swapping and saying hi to friends, it was time to bring the stuff to my room. Wow, what a haul! But Jessica and I managed to get all of the boxes in. We worked up an appetite, so it was time to eat!

After dinner, we checked out the Pony games. John and Marian Devlin are so gracious to have this set-up as a continuation from the St. Louis convention, and it’s free to play! Can’t beat that; count me in! It was my turn to play, and I couldn’t believe it; I got a high score! I was a lucky top 3 contender, which means that I advanced to the final round (the actual race). It was complete with riding horses around the track (what a great visual! Ha!). After the actual races were done I came in third, and won a great prize: A vintage Figaro cat dispenser, and some great artwork for participating in the races. Thank you John and Marian for having these games at Pezamania!


Thursday
Too much fun was had on Wednesday; that means I had to get busy and open my room for selling! I opened the room late in the morning and people immediately came in. I was truly blown away with the sales. Looks like people were in a spending mood! Ok, money going into one hand, and out the other. Time to see what other rooms were open so that I could also add to my collection. There were quite a few rooms open, and when all was said and done I was coming home with some great finds: A Vucko wolf in a striped polybag (it had wonderful Yugoslavian-language candy packs and printing on the polybag); Mexican refill packs in bag with a vintage header card; a set of the convention dispensers; vintage loose candy packs; an error Princess Leia in polybag (her lips were printed above her mouth – thanks Don!), some fun fantasy dispensers (thanks Karen!), and some AWESOME paperwork showing mock-up Wonder Woman blister cards that were thought of when the DC and Marvel lines first came out – Incredible! Spent a good deal of time chatting in David Welch’s room with him and John Devlin about vintage advertising, previous conventions… the time flew by. 

After chatting I was still hungry, and it was time for dessert! Yvonne and Mike Chadwick brought me one of my favorite desserts from Detroit – Sanders bumpy cake! That was so nice of them to remember how much I love it! I took the bumpy cake down to the hotel lobby, and shared it with everyone there. It was soooooo good; thank you guys!


Friday
Woke up at 9am and started to get ready for the seminar. The past few years Rick had asked Eric “Pezburgh Punk” if he would do a candy pack seminar, and last year Eric asked me to join him in hosting the seminar to discuss candy display boxes. Unfortunately Eric couldn’t make it this year (you and Judy were definitely missed!!!), so I was trying to think how I could make the seminar a little different than last year, and not rehash the same information. So instead of just display boxes, I did a presentation on the history of candy packaging – from vintage display stands, to various PEZ products that weren’t actually dispensers but still came with candy. A big thanks to Chad Davis, Jessica Orozco, and Eddie Santiago for helping me to set up! 

At 11am people poured into the seminar room, and it was time to begin. I was a little nervous, but hey, I’m talking about Pez – what could be easier than that? I could have talked for hours and hours. Luckily I had set a timer so that I actually didn’t do that! It was quite a lot of fun. Everyone who came got a limited edition Pez Collectors Swag Swap patch with the official logo on it, and a few lucky winners in the audience went home with some fun candy prizes too. 

After a quick lunch, it was time to head back to the seminar room, as Mark Bourland was giving a presentation on Pez alternative items to collect. Paperwork, display boxes, Haas items, candy packs, ashtrays; wow, Mark had quite a collection to show off! He also made a great video showing the items that were displayed in his house. We were all silent in awe with our jaws dropped wide open as the video progressed. Mark, you have quite the collection, and thank you for taking the time to share it with all of us!

As the day progressed, more rooms were hopped and swag was swapped. At 6pm we settled into the ballroom for the Pez games. There were some really great prizes for the winners! Every game had fantastic items. I didn’t win, but it was fun to watch the winners get their goodies!

After the games were over, I headed back to the room to open it for late night sales. There was a decent amount of traffic, and after I closed the room, it was time to head to Jerry and Marian Gomoll’s room for some homemade hooch, snacks, and awesome conversation. Thank you guys!

Saturday
Official convention day! Woke up at 6am and started hauling my goods (and Pez too! Ha!) to the ballroom to set-up my dealer table. By 8:30am the show opened and was instantly busy. Throughout the whole day until it closed at 2pm, I was quite busy, which was awesome! I made a few final purchases as well and before you knew it, it was already time to pack up. Thank you to everyone who bought something from me, it is greatly appreciated!

After the show a few of us grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed back to the hotel for the charity auction. This year John Devlin and Landon Proctor were the auctioneers, and it was great! There were some truly wonderful items donated to raise money for the Gliding Stars: autographed dispensers, vintage Pez in cello, artwork, dispensers that lit up. Some of those great items just happened to make their way home with me to Chicago!

After a very busy day, it was time to socialize and see some good friends for the last night of Pezamania. Chatting in rooms, drinking and dancing in the bar, hanging out in the Lizard Lounge. What a perfect way to end the convention!

And just like that, another Pezamania is in the books. I truly had a wonderful time this year, and have the pictures, pez, and swag to prove it. Rick and Sue Marlowe, thank you so much for organizing an incredible event. People save up all year long to come to this convention, and you guys go above and beyond to make sure that it’s well worth everyone coming. Love you guys!

Until the next convention,

Brian “Youknowmyname” Jaskolski

Huge Thank you to Brian for your wonderful report <3
and a big thank you to Eddie, Shiho, and PHOTY 2017 Jessica 
for all the great pictures!