Business & Tech
PEZHEADS to convene near Orange headquarters
Northeast convention will sell and trade coveted dispensers
By Scott Benjamin
The leader of the Fliptop Pezervation Society will hold a pajama party in a suburban hotel within walking distance of a building that hosts celebrities ranging from Santa Claus to Luke Skywalker.
"We've sold out at 120 rooms," said Richie Belyski, the coordinator of the Northeast PEZ Collectors Gathering at the Courtyard by Marriott in Orange. It is about a two-minute drive from PEZ's corporate and factory operations, which have been there since 1975, and the PEZ Visitor Center, which opened in 2011.
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
After Cleveland, it is the largest PEZ convention in the world.
After he couldn't find a hotel in Stamford this year that met his "standards," he opted to return it to the Courtyard by Marriott, where it began in 1999. It will be the first Northeast convention since before the 2020 pandemic.
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
"There was no better place to have a PEZ convention then right around the corner,” Belyski said in a phone interview with Patch.com. The dealers, who are traveling from as far as Canada and California, will attend a private event at the PEZ Visitor Center on Friday, May 5.
The dealers will sell and trade out of their rooms wearing pajamas with the best entries being awarded prizes.
"It is slightly different than a costume contest," Belyski remarked.
There is a $10 admission charge for the general public on Saturday, May 6, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m at Courtyard by Marriott.
Belyski adopted the Fliptop Pezervation Society moniker when he took over the PEZ Collectors News publication in 1995. A one-year subscription still costs just $21.
Twenty-four years ago he started the Northeast PEZ Collectors Gathering at the Courtyard by Marriott, but the volume of activity was so "crazy" that Belyski moved it the following year to a larger hotel in Stamford.
He said PEZHEADS come in different varieties.
Some like to buy big-ticket items. For others, Belyski said, “One hundred on the shelf may be as enjoyable as a large purchase."
Belyski said he covets the vintage dispensers.
His newsletter recommends that collectors put their dispensers in a "dustproof case" to avoid getting dirt or dust in the nooks and crannies, and "keep them away from the sun light, because they do fade."
Belyski was buying and selling antiques a generation ago while working as a police officer on Long Island. Someone suggested he add PEZ dispensers to his repertoire.
“I remembered them as a kid, like a lot of people do,” he commented.
Belyski, who now lives near Myrtle Beach, S.C., said that years later he introduced Shawn Peterson to some of the executives at PEZ. That eventually led to Peterson, who then lived in Missouri, devising a plan for the Visitor Center. He now lives in Waterbury and also oversees PEZ's online operations.
Belyski said that since the Visitor Center - which features memorabilia and gift items - opened there has been more of a synergy between the dealers and PEZ. He even has organized bus trips to PEZ.
In a phone interview with Patch.com, Peterson said that PEZ puts out more dispenser characters than it did some years ago, but that is largely related to what is happening in the entertainment industry.
“It [comes in] cycles,” he commented. “It can be based on the blockbuster movies of the summer.”
In a phone interview with Patch.com in January, Chris Jordan of Missouri - who was named by the PEZ collectors at PEZ Head of the Year in 2016 - said that among the general public the most popular dispensers are "Disney and Star Wars."
Ed Randall of Sirius/XM MLB Radio has said that Strat-O-Matic has an A-list that includes Cal Ripken Jr., Bob Costas and former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Who is on PEZ's A-list of collectors?
Belyski said the line-up includes two members of the rock band Less Than Jake. Goo Goo Dolls bass guitarist Robby Takac is a collector and stopped by the Visitor Center in 2013.
Accomplished musician Bill Mumy, who starred as Will Robinson the 1960s CBS science-fiction series "Lost In Space," also is on the roster.
But as they say, it is not collecting PEZ that makes your famous, but what does make you famous is getting your head on a PEZ dispenser.
Resources:
Phone interview with Richie Belyski, Wednesday, April 26, 2023.
Phone interview with Shawn Peterson, Thursday, April 27, 2023.
Ed Randall, Remember When, MLB Radio, Saturday, February 18, 2023.
