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| Hanging PEZ on Elfa | ||
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1.29.2010
11:50 AM | Link0 comments |
 Recently I've received a few questions about my PEZ display method, so here's a little more info to make things clear. I've been really happy with this idea, so I'm happy to share!Racks: For as long as I've collected PEZ, I've used John Thompson's excellent PEZ display racks. I don't think he currently has a website, but please contact him by email for pricing. These racks are pre-drilled with holes for hanging, and they are quite easy to hang by themselves with two little nails (I used this method when I first started collecting). If you're OK with lining up lots of little nails on your wall, then you definitely don't need to read further. However, someday you might want to move some shelves around, which is why I decided to try another way to hang them. Elfa: My solution was to use the Elfa system, but without Elfa shelves! Since Elfa is sold piece by piece, it's easy to buy or order just what you need from the Container Store. The minimum you will need is one horizontal hanging bar and two vertical uprights (I have several sets of these now, but I have a lot of PEZ!). The final piece of the puzzle is how to hang the PEZ racks on the Elfa uprights. S-hooks: The answer is to get a package of S-hooks from any hardware store. I don't even know what these are normally used for, but they are basically just a little piece of metal bent in the shape of an "S". One end of the "S" goes into the slot on the Elfa upright, and the other end goes into the PEZ rack. I had to bend the hooks a little bit (to stretch out the "S"), but this was easy with pliers. The advantage of this method is I can move whole racks of PEZ up and down the uprights to anywhere I want, which is great if you are reorganizing your collection. You can also space them far apart or really close to make more room. And since the Elfa uprights have perfectly aligned slots, you know your shelves are always level and perfectly aligned with each other! I've posted a couple photos on Flickr to help visualize this method. Have fun displaying your PEZ, everyone!  View photos: PEZ on Elfa
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| Perfect PEZ shelves | ||
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4.18.2009
7:24 AM | Link4 comments |
 Last weekend I spent several hours reorganizing my PEZ collection, which was a lot of work, but also a ton of fun! I have one wall of my toy museum room devoted to PEZ, but it was becoming dangerously full, so I had to take action to make room for future collecting. I realized that I could fit four more PEZ display racks way up on top (next to the ceiling), so I decided to move around every single dispenser to put them into logical groups (Disney PEZ turned out to be the largest grouping by far!). Since I had to use a ladder to get to these new top racks, I decided to put the holiday and other color variation dispensers at the top (they are kind of the least interesting to me, except for the original Santa Claus PEZ from Mom that started my whole collection!), and then work my way down with everything else. I put just a few things into storage, like some cheap Party Favors and Body Parts, since they were just taking up room and weren't really "true" PEZ. I also squished everything to get as many dispensers on each rack as possible, and now I'm happy to say I have several racks completely empty for future PEZ! I really enjoyed making my collection look great - reorganizing is about the only way I get to "play" with my toys!While I'm on the subject, I've written about my PEZ display method before, but I want to mention it again since I think it's really convenient (and I haven't read about anyone else doing it this way!). I use the fantastic PEZ racks available from John Thompson Acrylic Displays, but I hang them from Elfa shelving uprights using cheap S-hooks from the hardware store. With this method, I only had to hang the Elfa crossbar at the top and hang the uprights once. After that, I can move racks around whenever I want (even full of PEZ), and I'm always guaranteed they are horizontally level. It's really easy and looks great! View photos: PEZ Racks Before & After
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| Star PEZ | ||
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12.06.2007
6:41 PM | Link0 comments |
 One of the segments in my Christmas video project this year was a little spoof of classic Star Wars scenes acted out by PEZ dispensers! I love Star Wars (of course), and I have so many PEZ actors waiting to perform, so it was really easy to make. Since not all of the characters I needed are available as PEZ, I had to use a few stand-ins. Where else can you see Fred Flintstone as Han Solo or Santa Claus as Obi-Wan Kenobi? My favorite sequence to shoot was the cantina scene, since I could have gone all day picking out weird looking PEZ creatures from my collection! I also had fun printing out various backgrounds to shoot against. Watch for the thrilling lightsaber duel (and please ignore when my hand creeps into the frame)! Enjoy! Watch video: Star PEZ
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| PEZ catch-up | ||
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4.07.2007
11:56 AM | Link0 comments |
 This rainy weekend I'm finally catching up on some PEZ collecting duties! First, I hung nine more Mini-PEZ shelves (order some for your collection!), which completely fills up my Elfa shelving uprights. I have lots of empty room to fill now, but when that's gone my Wall of PEZ will be totally full (and then I don't know what I'll do, but I'm not worrying yet). I had two boxes of stuff from Canada Candy Connection to open up, and I had fun taking photos of everything. The first few of shots needed a little more light on the PEZ themselves (because I was using my tripod on the edge of the table), but then I thought I could do better using a bean bag right in the middle of my stage. I was going to go buy one, but I realized that I had some bean bag juggling cubes that work great (I never learned to juggle, but at least these are good for something!). All of the new photos are in my PEZtastic set on Flickr, with lots of new Mini-PEZ from Japan, plus some new Disney PEZ, including the new limited edition Black & White Mickey & Minnie!
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| Perfect presents | ||
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12.12.2006
10:12 PM | Link0 comments |
 I've received some really amazing Christmas gifts from my pals this year! This weekend I gave everyone this year's video project (which was a big success, judging by the laughter!), and they went together to buy me a fantastic new gig bag (for my drum kit hardware), since my old one was a serious pain. The new one is totally amazing and has wheels on it, so it's going to be so convenient! Then tonight, my pal Melinda and I exchanged gifts, and she gave me a beautiful Snow White figurine (part of the Disney Traditions series by Jim Shore)! It has a great folk-art style to it, and looks wonderful with my other Snow White sculptures. She also gave me a little LEGO set to add to my growing collection, too! Christmas is so much fun! Be sure to take a look at my latest Flickr photos, since I just got up-to-date with my latest toys, PEZ, and collectibles. View photos: Disney Collectibles View photos: PEZtastic View photos: Toys on Stage
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| Tons of photos | ||
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10.27.2006
10:22 PM | Link0 comments |
 As you probably know, one of my obsessive habits is taking close-up shots of new toys and PEZ dispensers, but I'm often lazy about getting them uploaded to Flickr. I always think it would be cool to upload one or two each day to keep things fresh, but actually I just end up forgetting about shots I took months ago. So, I decided to just catch-up with tons of older photos, so this is a good time to remind you about my ongoing photo sets! Most of the new shots are of PEZ, especially Japanese Mini-PEZ (since I've been buying lots of the sets I missed on eBay lately), but there are also some new toys to see, too. As always, I'm still working on my "technique" - I really want to capture the personality of each toy! View photos: PEZtastic View photos: Toys on Stage
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| Popcorn and PEZ | ||
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10.01.2005
6:54 PM | Link0 comments |
 The weekend is off to a great start! Last night the Greatest American Heroes played our monthly gig at the Carousel Lounge, and we polished off some old tunes that we haven't performed in quite awhile, plus added Diff'rent Strokes, which was lots of fun. This morning I got up super-early to do laundry, run through some Japanese vocabulary, and had bacon and eggs for breakfast (after playing 45 minutes of DDR, of course)! Later I saw a movie with Melinda, and there was a kids birthday party going on in the theater, so some parent had about fifty small bags of popcorn for everyone. He actually had too many, so he walked up the aisle handing them out, and we got some free popcorn (which was nice since I hadn't eaten lunch!). Then I did a bunch of shopping, and I stopped by Barnes & Noble to use a 25% off deal that ended this weekend (I got another DVD set that will take me forever to watch!), then grabbed a Jamba Juice and did my grocery shopping. I started to watch some TV and decided it was nap time, and wow, I really conked out! I have to leave for a party in less than an hour!Another thing I did today was order some more PEZ display racks! I got a bunch of new dispensers from my favorite PEZ shop, Canada Candy Connection, and I'm just about out of room on my famous "wall of PEZ". I've been using the excellent racks made by John Thompson for years, and I definitely recommend them (plus, hanging them with Elfa shelving is awesome!). I had been wondering if he was thinking of making special racks for the mini-PEZ dispensers that are so popular in Japan, and when I looked at this website I was excited to see that he has them available now! I can't wait to get them, since my mini-PEZ have been tough to display so far! | |
| Warman's PEZ Field Guide / Shawn Peterson : 4 of 5 | ||
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2.15.2005
6:36 PM | Link0 comments |
 This was another great birthday gift from my pal Dae, who is well aware of my PEZ addiction! I have several other books on PEZ collecting, but I had only just realized this book had been released when he sent it to me. This is a small format (four inch square) yet really thick book filled to the brim with perfectly clear, professional photos of nearly every PEZ dispenser in existence. Each dispenser lists a little bit of information, such as production year and approximate value, but generally the photos are the stars of the book. It's a lot of fun to see dispensers worth thousands of dollars that I'll never run across (even some where the photo depicts the only known existence of the dispenser!), as well as seeing everything in my collection and realizing how things have gone up in value. There's also an illustrated glossary at the end with detailed photos to explain PEZ terms like sleeve, channel, spine and so on, including ways to identify deceptive fake dispensers. The result of reading this book is I really want to expand my collection with some expensive PEZ! Maybe I need to start checking eBay more often.
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| Pillows, PEZ, and pods | ||
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1.14.2005
8:14 PM | Link0 comments |
Last night I went out shopping around (I've been getting out more in the evening lately) and bought some new bed pillows. Tonight will be the first sleep on them! I can't believe how skanky my old pillows were, since they're always in pillowcases, but then again, I've slept on them for about seven years now. I'm planning on getting a whole new set of bedclothes (isn't that a weird word) soon, once I can decide which too-expensive designer set to pick.
Today I went mall-walking at lunch, which felt really energetic (I walked pretty fast for about 30 minutes), then I tried my first Chick-Fil-A wrap (I had the chargrilled chicken). It was much tastier than I expected! The raspberry vinaigrette was a little gooey - kind of like pink paste, but not bad in small quantities. During my walk, I noticed there's a new bubble tea place! I've only had bubble tea once before (it was called "boba" when I tried it), but I was a little too drunk to appreciate it, so I hardly remember it. I need to go back to the mall to have some, so I can be like Zannah! In case you haven't noticed, this is Mikey's PEZ month with the camera phone! Hope you're enjoying my Flickr pics - I'm having fun choosing which dispensers to photograph and making up themes. I've decided that my camera phone gets the best color when I shoot them in front of a dark grey background, so I'm using the box of my Jack Kerouac CD set. My iPod photo has some totally kick-ass battery life! My old iPod would make it through one work day, but I had to be sure to charge it every night or I would be in trouble the next day. Not so with the iPod photo! I just went three work days straight, listening to it all day, except for lunch and bathroom breaks. Mikey likes comments. No comments for many days. Please make Mikey happy. | |
| PEZ on display | ||
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2.24.2004
6:20 PM | Link0 comments |
 This weekend I finally hung up my PEZ shelves to display my collection, which has been boxed up since my move. Since I have so many shelves now (and more on the way), I really wanted a better way of hanging them in case I needed to move stuff around at some point. I decided to use Elfa shelving (minus the shelves) from the Container Store, and I rigged a way to hang the PEZ shelves using slightly adjusted S-hooks! Now I can easily take them down or swap one shelf for another as needed! It wasn't very fun being a "hardware guy", since I had to drill holes (and even buy a drill!), but now that they are up I'm thrilled! At my old condo, I had them up in four sections of six shelves, which took up a full wall and a half. Now I have them in two sections of twelve, so I have tons of room to grow! It was also a blast to display some of my newer PEZ that were still in their shipping boxes, like Hello Kitty and the Emergency Heroes set. By the way, if you're a PEZ collector, John Thompson makes excellent shelves for a great price!
 Disneyland Countdown: 9 days!
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| New PEZ | ||
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3.09.2003
12:19 PM | Link0 comments |
 I kind of went crazy with my latest PEZ ordering! Recently I received no less than 24 new dispensers in the mail - here's the haul:
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| PEZ birthday | ||
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1.31.2002
1:57 AM | Link | I have the best friends in the world! Ten pals plus myself just had a fantastic Italian dinner with 4 liters of wine (whoopee!) - I received some wonderful gifts of CDs, gift certificates, a book, a cigar, and an incredible PEZ dispenser (a Captain America from the 70s, now looking proud next to Spiderman and the Hulk where he belongs!). Now I have the perfect reason to update my PEZ page on WEBmikey with my latest dispensers. After dinner we went to my place for some DDR fun, which was a blast as usual. I can't tell you how thankful I am for good friends! | |
| My PEZ | ||
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2.28.2001
9:32 PM | Link0 comments |
Just like everyone, I had eaten PEZ as a kid, but I don't think I saved any of the toy dispensers. One Christmas, Mom bought a Santa Claus dispenser that are in the stores every year for my stocking (I get a stocking full of candy to this day!), and I thought it was great - it made me think it would be fun to pick up a new PEZ whenever I saw one at the grocery store, and that's just what I did. Soon I had around 30 dispensers, all bought randomly one at a time, and it started getting tough to find anything I didn't own. I started looking for PEZ info on the web, and found tons of sites - I realized that PEZ collecting was a huge hobby, with some dispensers going for $1,000! At that point, I actually became a real collector, and started going to different stores to "hunt the heads" that I needed. Soon I had every US dispenser in production, so the next step was to buy European and Canadian PEZ (which include other characters not available in the US). I started ordering PEZ from web sites and spending some real cash, and when I went to Canada I bought every dispenser I could find. From there I could only move into "antique" PEZ, which slowed me down quite a bit, as the average dispenser goes for $25-$50 bucks! I haven't bought one at this price in a long time, since there are several new lines of characters out (I bought lots of them while I was in Japan). My PEZ are displayed on actual PEZ racks mounted on the wall. The best part of PEZ collecting is seeing how cool hundreds of little heads look all together! I now have well over 250 different dispensers. People always ask about my oldest and favorite ones - my oldest and favorite is Batman with Cape from 1966 (my only dispenser older than me!), which is worth $150! A few older old ones are Elephant with Hair (worth up to $200.00) and Maharajah from the early 70s. One year for my birthday, my amazing friends surprised me with a Captain America dispenser, which started up a fun buying spree for me! For a while I was a total fanatic, reading PEZ newsletters and dying to hear the latest rumors about new characters, but now I have fun just enjoying my collection and buying new ones as I find them - just the way I started out. By the way, my favorite PEZ website is PEZ Central, and my collection is featured on the site! Labels: pez | |
