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The Pez Outlaw Movie is on Netflix & Amazon Prime.
There never woulda been a Bubble Man if Pez Outlaw hadn't found n brought him to the USA.
The story that I'm about to tell you takes place in 1994 on my first trip to Europe hunting for Pez Dispensers out of the 100 that would follow over the next 10 years.
This was a magic time in my life when everything was possible, a lifetime ago.
On our first trip to Europe buying Pez Dispensers Josh n I ended up at the Ormoz plastic plant in Slovenia. Marcos / Elvis the Madd Genius at that facility in charge of all things concerning design n innovation gave us each a Bubble Man Pez Dispensers. We'd never seen or heard of him, nobody outside the company had, well excluding of course Johann n Dave. We were ecstatic. To tell the truth we loved Bubble Man as much as the Black Santa's Marcos gave us.
Funny thing about those 2 pez dispensers, Black Santa n Bubble Man. Both played a very significant role in me becoming a Pez Outlaw. Both utterly infuriated the then President of Pez USA n put me on the radar with him. In one trip I went from obscurity to #1 on Pez USA's most hated.
Those first few trips to Europe with Joshua buying Pez Dispensers were groundbreaking when I think Back all those years ago n what we found. Here we were just a couple of Idjets that didn't know any better, yet we found An awful lot of stuff nobody had ever seen before. Black Santa, Bubble Man, Pink Orange n Yellow cab C class trucks, Psycho Lucy, Pink n Lavender Bunnies, also that weird colored Dino from the Flintstones set. I know that I'm leaving something out?
That all happened in 1994, whew I'm getting tired just thinking about it.
It wasn't until 1998 that I had another year with as much impact as 1994.
In 1998 I created the 13 Misfits, The 8 Crystal Pez, The 8 Glow in the Dark Pez, 3 diff Hair Color Shell Pals, 2 diff hair color Aral gas pals n finally the Rainbow Crystal Zoo. N again I know that I'm forgetting something, OH Right I created the concept for the Glow in the dark trucks then backed out on production n Joe n Dave picked up the idea.
Drift Much, back on topic, Bubble Man.
I've heard a rumor that Bubble Man was created for a line of bubble gum pellet pez. For who I don't know, it fell through. He was also offered to Pez Austria n USA.
Rejected his destiny was at its end until josh n I got ours.
Johan n Dave had him by way I'm thinking of Gunther Leitner. he sent them things n they sent him money. Both Johan n Dave had a policy back then of just holding on to newer things till they matured or there fate was more certain.
When Josh n I got home we were talking about him to a drunk/obnoxious/ rich pez collector. He said sure he's not for sale, what if I offered you a thousand dollars. Josh was a collage boy then paying his own way. He told me dad I'm not stupid n he took the offer. Which after became $800. Still a lot of money in 1994 to a 19 yr old broke kid.
Sue Sternfeld called me wanting mine, not stupid either, I took her $800.
After that David n Johan heard about all the Hooo Haaa n started selling there's at I think $800 to $1200 ea. My guess they had a dozen ish ea. that's roughly how many are sent as samples for proposed pez.
Black Santa was the same n Johan n Dave got the early office samples of those also. hence the 3 variations
When this all became a Bubble Man Gold Rush, The then president of Pez USA aka Scott got wind of it n it really made him mad. Scott promptly ordered a butt load of them to intentionally destroy the value of the 20ish sold at $800 tro $1,200 each.
25 years later I have no emotion about all of this, it just came up when a friend asked for information about Bubble Man. Bubble Man just happens to have a terrific story, that we happen to share due to a fluke of history.
By the way I also named Bubble Man.
I know, I know, seems like this guy Pez Outlaw says he named n created all sorts of Pez dispensers.
It was a different time n Pez Outlaw was in the right place at the right time.
I guess I can put it this way.
After being given 2 Bubble Men, as you might guess I had to refer to him in some way.
Here's the funny bit.
I can't remember after 25yrs whether I referred to him as Bubble Man or Bubble Boy.
I think that I referred to him as Bubble Boy n that Scott changed it to Bubble Man when he flooded the market with him for the next decade.
Same thing happened with all my color variations.
I called them The Holiday Colors when I introduced them to the hobby, when Scott copied all of them to introduce the first Pez USA Corp[orate website, he renamed them The Misfits.
Scott loved to copy my pez, then rebrand them, such is life.
At least my names for the Crystal Pez n Glow in the dark pez that I created n introduced stuck.
Funny side note.
I honestly can't remember if I name the brown skin Santa that I introduced Mex-Tex or Tex-Mex, kinda dyslexic on that one.
Tina Christison Gunsauls says that it was Mex-Tex, I trust her memory over mine.
