PEZ Museum Dispenses Sweet Memories
E A S T O N, Pa., Oct. 17 -- Only about a yardstick high, Andrew O'Tooledashes back and forth with a fiery energy, shouting the names ofhis favorite superheroes.
"Spider-Man! A Ninja Turtle! … Batman!" he cries, his fathershuffling alongside him.
Andrew is stalking every corner of the recently opened EastonMuseum of PEZ, a cotton-candy colored world of PEZ products thatcan captivate young and old alike. The museum is just paces awayfrom The Crayola Factory, another childhood playground where kidslearn how crayons are made.
Some 1,500 PEZ dispensers, all nestled in creative landscapes,fill the museum. Disney PEZ sit in a 10-foot-high castle.Halloween-themed PEZ are displayed in a haunted house. Andpsychedelic PEZ are set beside a real Volkswagen Beetle thatappears to be crashing through the wall.
From Crayons to Candy?
Owners Kevin and Tim Coyle hope to entice some of the 400,000 orso yearly Crayola visitors to turn left out of the crayon factoryand walk 30 seconds down a mural-filled alley to visit the shrineto the hand-held candy dispensers.
And if 4-year-old Andrew is the Coyles' typical customer, thenthe brothers have a hit on their hands.
"We were at the Crayola Factory and he wasn't nearly asexcited," said Andrew's father, Kevin O'Toole, of Garden City,N.J. "Plus they did a really good job. Everything's at eye levelfor kids.
"You know what made me laugh when I came in?" O'Toolecontinued. "I had that Hulk one when I was little, and then youlook at the price."
The Hulk PEZ that O'Toole was referring to was priced at about$75 — and that's on the inexpensive end for rare PEZ dispensers.One of the more expensive PEZ the Coyles have on display is abaseball glove, ball and bat PEZ from the 1960s. It cost about$400.
Popular Reads
ABC News Live