EASTON MUSEUM OF PEZ

EASTON MUSEUM OF PEZ

AUGUST 15, 2007

by Ham

Project Absurd recently took a trip to Easton, PA, where we first visited the Crayola Museum. After we left the screaming, yelling, and running mound of annoyances called "children" and their crayons we went behind the building to find the Easton Museum Of Pez (I didn't give them a link because their site is down). Now, this is not the world's only Pez Museum. No, no. I've found at least three others in my online searches. Since this museum was pretty small, I think all of the Pez Museums should combine their forces and make one giant Pez Museum. Now, that would be cool. It probably won't ever happen but... well, a boy can dream, can't he?

Anyway, small on size or not, the Easton Museum Of Pez (EMOP from now on) was a pleasant relief from our previously mentioned Crayola Museum experience - if only for the fact that almost no one was there. Anyway, when you walk in the EMOP you see a small shop on your right selling candy, soda, stuffed animals and something else. What was that again? Oh yes, PEZ!

After you pay your $8 (or whatever the cost was, I can't remember), the "helpful" attendant points at a curtain to your left. After walking through the curtain, you are greeted by a life-size Darth Vader.

That wasn't exactly the first thing I expected to see when walking into a Pez Museum, but it was quite a cool sight nonetheless. Anyway, the entire EMOP was about the size of a large living room. You can probably guess what kind of things were scattered throughout the room. Yes, those little stick like figures with their large half-detachable heads. No, no, not Christina Aguilera! Although that is a good guess. Pez Dispensers! Tons and tons of Pez Dispensers! As far as the eye can see! Little ones! Big Ones! They even had a life size one!

Okay, sorry about that last outburst. I got a little too excited there. I was just trying to spruce up this article a little bit. After all, there's only so many things you can say about Pez Dispensers.

Anyway, if you turned around after looking at the guy above (more on him later) you would see this wall display:

Yes, it's the Castle Of Pez. That would make quite a good cartoon or video game, wouldn't it? Ok, maybe not.

On the opposite side of the room, you would see this display:

Let's take a closer look at some of the Pez Dispensers scattered throughout the room, shall we? Here we have a bunch of "Crazy Fruit" from the mid-1970s. And, no, we're not referring to any members of a famous disco band. Shame on you!

I enjoy the upside-down purple bowl that's used as a stand.

Next we have the Rock N Roll Section of the EMOP. In the first photo we see Buddy Holly, Alice Cooper, Elvis Presley, Ozzy Osbourne, Jim Carrey from Mask (huh? in the Rock Section?), a California Raisin (huh? again) and some orange-haired fellow with an eye patch. In the next photo is KISS, who were apparently made from a Wonder Woman Pez Dispenser. Yes, we soon found out that not all of the dispensers in the EMOP were "offically released" Pez Dispensers. There were many bootleg, or hand-made, dispensers throughout the room. Anyway, I give credit to whoever made the KISS dispenser for also including the Eric Carr and Vinnie Vincent figures.

To go along with the Rock theme, there was also a Beatles display, which included some facts about the group. I love the rainbow font they used to label some of their displays. Anyway, the four Beatles with the blue torsos have heads that look like they were taken from the Beatles cartoon, while the red-bodied Ringo with sunglasses was included for no reason.

Looking around the room some more, you'll see the wacky alien display. In the first picture are some wacky aliens (appropriate!) and in the second is the world's favorite "space monkey" (as David Letterman says), E.T.

Next up is the cartoon section of the EMOP. Ok, these things weren't all in the same section. I'm just putting them together on the site to form some sort of theme, ok? Anyway, here we have Casper The Friendly Ghost, Smurfs, Disney characters, and Sesame Street characters.

The painting behind Mickey Mouse and pals is just smashing. I also enjoy all of the different displays. I didn't expect to see Pez dioramas when I walked in the building, but I sure fancied them! Who wouldn't? I particularly enjoy all of the little things that the Sesame Street characters have next to them. Bert has some paper clips, Ernie has something yellow, Cookie Monsters has cookies (what else?), Big Bird has bird seed and a teddy bear, Zoe has her ballet slippers and the ever-so-annoying Elmo has a goldfish. Man, I don't know why it is but I just get a violently angry whenever I see Elmo. He's such an annoying b*tch.

Anyway, here's a couple more of America's favorite cartoon characters. A bigger-than-life size Garfield offers us some of his smaller Pez Dispensers. Next, we are attacked by hundreds of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that all look exactly the same (except for their coloring). In the third photo, The Simpsons play hockey with The Flintstones. No, I don't understand it either.

Next up we have some pretty cool Pez Dispensers based on cereal characters. I don't know how I missed these when they came out.

Of course, we had to include the Star Wars Pez Dispensers.

Is that supposed to be an Ewok log bridge above the display? If so, I think Wicket and pals were perhaps a little drunk when they made it.

Speaking of "a little drunk", who invited Carrot Top to the EMOP?

Now I'll get back to a few of the larger displays at the EMOP. I was quite impressed with the "Wall of Pez":

There was a large car that had "smashed" through the wall with the words "Psychedelic" and "Blast From The Past" written around it.

Who exactly is that guy driving the car, you may ask? Well, to me he looks like he may be related to the life-size Pez Dispenser pictured near the top of this page. Whether that's true or not, there is a sign explaining that this guy's name is Zip.

Yes, he is an original character created for the EMOP. So, you won't be seeing Zip in any of those other crappy Pez Museums! So there!

This last display was probably my favorite. The haunted house display contained all of our favorite scary characters from the movies. And that's not all! The display even contained some "special effects" that occurred after you pressed a button near the display. This display is so cool that I've also included a short video clip of it, which includes a bit of the "effects" near the end of the clip.

Scary, indeed.

So, I'd say the EMOP was pretty cool. I wouldn't make a special hours-long road trip to go there or anything, but if you're in the area you should definitely stop by. On the way out, be sure to ask the "helpful" attendant if you can buy any of the dispensers you saw in the museum. You'll see him try to control his anger as he tells you no, that none of them are for sale. I think asking him this is the equivalent of asking a dollar store employee, "How much is this?".

(Posted 11/2007)