PEZ collector shows off his dispensers

LEWISTON – Ron Hood has PEZ underwear, PEZ bubble gum, PEZ Christmas ornaments and PEZ dispensers by the hundreds.

Hood, a collector of PEZ items, has taken his huge collection out of storage and lined his basement walls with rows of packages of the small iconic candies. By his count, he has more than 2,200 PEZ dispensers.

He also has more than 740 pieces of PEZ merchandise that include hand puppets, lapel pins, bubble gum, juice, Christmas ornaments, popcorn and a pair of framed boxers that hang on the wall leading down to the basement.

“Everyone says, ‘What’s it worth?’ I’m not in PEZ for the money,” says Hood. “They always make people smile – you give them a PEZ and they can’t help it.”

Hood, 40, began collecting PEZ items with his son. They went full-tilt when Wal-Mart opened a store in Auburn in 1992, opening a new world of PEZ availability.

PEZ, which was first created in 1927 in Austria, is named for the first, middle and last letters of the German word for peppermint, “pfefferminz.” The first PEZ dispenser came out in 1948, and PEZ candies and dispensers have been marketed in the United States since 1952.

The spring-loaded PEZ dispensers with plastic heads on top have since become favorites among collectors.

Hood has arranged his basement walls by origin: one is U.S.-released PEZ dispensers, two are foreign-released and one is strictly Japanese. He has catalogued his entire collection in a computer.

There are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Muppets, Star Wars characters, the Looney Tunes cast, circus animals, nurses and firefighters.

Hood says dispensers used to be released less frequently than they are now. It took Bart Simpson nine years to get his own PEZ, he said, while these days “Shrek 2” already has one.

Hood’s collection is becoming well-known.

Part of his collection is on display now at the Lewiston Public Library, with factoids about the product. Two years ago, he gave presentations on collecting and PEZ at the elementary school where his daughter, Alexandra, was in third grade.

He buys some PEZ items on eBay, and trades with over 1,000 collectors around the world through a Web site dedicated to PEZ. Peers there voted him PEZHead of the month in February 2002.

Hood’s now eyeing other rooms in his home for space for his collection to expand, but he’d like to keep it out of the living room.

“Some people get freaked out, and they know they’re not real, but look at all those eyes looking at you,” he said.