This Is The Most Shocking PEZ Dispenser Ever Sold
PEZ is one of those candies that seem to be more fun to collect than to eat — or, at least, their special dispensers are. These spring-loaded bobblehead-like plastic dispensers have come a long way from simple Vienna mint candies to a staple of pop culture in the United States, so much so that certain humble-looking sugar dispensers can easily fetch a few hundred dollars from eager collectors. A sunglass-wearing pineapple dispenser from the 1970s can pull in nearly $3,000 in auctions alone, and in one case, a dispenser with the head of a political donkey that was a gift to John. F. Kennedy during a visit to Austria has an estimated worth of around a cool $15,000 (via Work and Money).
Aside from their surprise value, it's fun to collect PEZ dispensers simply to get your favorite character to dispense your candy for you. Nearly 1,400 different character heads and innumerable variations have been created (via Smithsonian Magazine), with characters ranging from beloved icons like Looney Tunes, the Muppets, Sesame Street, SpongeBob SquarePants, and an enormous amount of Disney products. Despite the idea that PEZ dispensers are a family-friendly collectable, there is a particularly infamous figure in history who found his way into dispensing candy alongside SpongeBob and Bugs Bunny — and he also hails from Austria as well.
The most infamous PEZ head
In Hayward, California, Gary and Nancy Doss arrange and make tiny adjustments to the rows upon rows of PEZ dispensers that fill their little storefront, taking care not to knock over even one of the 550-plus Pez dispensers that make up the aptly-named Museum of Pez Memorabilia (via Roadside America). Among this whimsical collection of friendly cartoons and celebrity caricatures is a PEZ dispenser that is perhaps best left kept in the dark.
The Dosses are the owners of the infamous Adolf Hitler PEZ dispenser. One of supposedly 50 left in the world before PEZ started cracking down on bootleg products, this shocking effigy of the World War II dictator wasn't made by the PEZ Company, Gary Doss explains, but rather by an unknown individual as part of a series of bootleg or "fantasy" PEZ dispensers that are also popular with collectors. All it took was the counterfeiter simply spray-painting the trademark hair and toothbrush mustache onto a generic cartoon PEZ before mailing it out.
The practice of fantasy PEZ seems to be well-known in the world of collecting, as the Museum of Pez boasts a healthy collection of "fan-made" dispensers in their showroom. While these are usually comedic and clean, such as Elvis Presley and Alfred. E. Neuman dispensers (via PezCollecting), it seems that certain creations are better left un-molded.
As for the infamous Hitler dispenser, it is stored in the backroom of the Museum of Pez, never to be on public display.