A Star Wars Pez is a Pez candy dispenser themed after the Star Wars movies, and is one of the company's most prominent merchandising deals. Approximately 100 dispensers have been released on the market from 1997[1][2] to 2023, among the many collectibles spawned by the franchise.[3]
The extreme interest of marketing executives in all things Star Wars has spawned a scholarly interest in the "materializing fantasy media" such as these Pez dispensers.[4] It has also led to several museums to feature such Stars Wars memorabilia in their exhibits and/or gift shops, as well as media attention on this fairly odd phenomenon.
In museum exhibits and gift shops
In recent years, several museums around the United States have featured Star Wars Pez in their exhibits and/or gift shops. These products are displayed and exhibited because they are classic Americana.[5] Despite the dispensers' "popularity and cult status," the manufacturer's original factory in Austria does not give tours or sell fancifully-shaped memorabilia.[6] Only in January 2012, Star Wars dispensers are prominently displayed at the company's new North American headquarters in Orange, Connecticut.[citation needed] One travelogue wrote, "The company has been making the cartoonish plastic heads for 60 years now, representing everything from Star Wars to U.S. presidents to the Geico chameleon."[7]
The Clayton Historical Museum, in Clayton, California opened a new exhibit on the history of candy manufacture in January 2012 that featured these confectionery dispensers.[8]
Pez with Star Wars characters have been featured prominently in the Star Wars Museum in Maryland.[9][10] The Star Wars Pez dispensers are pictured on a fan website, which describes them as "some Candy Heads from 1980."[11]
Another Pez museum in Easton, Pennsylvania also has featured prominently their obligatory Star Wars memorabilia,[19] ("Of course, we had to include the Star Wars Pez Dispensers"), including an oversize Darth Vader figurine.[20] This museum closed to the public in 2012.[21]
Other influences
Carrie Fisher's "Princess Leia Pez dispenser" is one of the "merchandising horrors" she discusses in her one-woman show Wishful Drinking.[22]
Star Wars Pez has a gateway drug-like effect for some young collectors. One fan of Pez dispensers started her huge horde with Star Wars figurines at the age of three.[25] Another fan calls Pez dispensers generally "a gateway drug to hardcore collecting".[26]Pezheads shopping for new dispensers frequently place Star Wars first on their shopping lists.[27]
Walmart released an exclusive limited edition gift set in 2005 containing nine Star Wars Pez dispensers previously available individually.[49] That same year, Pez also released the same nine dispensers in a special numbered limited edition set.[50]
In 2019 to celebrate the premier of The Mandalorian, Pez partnered with Funko to produce seven Star Wars dispensers akin to the Pop! Vinyl line of figures:
For the 2019 holiday season a limited edition gift tin (of which "only 75,000 tins" were produced) with four dispensers was released for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker:[78]
Grogu (with “Galaxy's Greetings” in white letters on red base)
Grogu (with “Merry Force Be With You” in white letters on red base)
October 2023 marked 100 years of Disney, and Pez released several collectable tins of platinum dispensers for the 100th anniversary celebration.[93] The Disney 100 Star Wars tin[94] includes:
^Matt Lake, Mark Moran, and Mark Sceurman, Weird Maryland, p. 137, 138 (2006 Sterling Publishing Co. Inc.), ISBN978-1-4027-3906-4, found at Maryland at Google Books. Accessed February 2, 2012.
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