Pez Outlaw Diary: Pez Outlaw, She Whispered, "Kolinska" #Netflix #Prime

The Pez Outlaw Movie is on Netflix & Amazon Prime.

We chose the KGB over a WAR Zone, more on that later.

Left to right black Santas 1, 2 and 3.
These are the pez that put Pez Outlaw on Scott McWhinnies Most Wanted list of criminals.

The Pez Outlaw Movie is on Netflix & Amazon Prime.

I will always treasure the 70+ trips I made driving around Eastern Europe, they changed me in ways I find hard to describe. When I realized my traveling days were coming to an end I made a couple more trips to Eastern Europe, just to say good-bye.

She Whispered, "Kolinska" With that one word, Kolinska, a decade long Fairytale that changed my life began.

It was at toy shows While selling Pez in the early days that I started hearing stories about Europe and Pez Warehouses. I met a lady, I think her name was Maria, she whispered a story about a place called Kolinska in Slovenia. She said it was a warehouse, that had a store also, where you could buy pez. I also was told by Dwayne D. about the train trip he and his girlfriend took in Eastern Europe & how they brought back Silver Glow Pez dispensers.

Yes I'm a big fan of Orson Welles but unlike Citizen Kane (Rose Bud) or The Graduate (Plastic) for that matter, this actually happened. At the time I was a Machinist/Welder at Campbell Inc. in Lansing Michigan.

Feeling like I had enough info, Josh n I planned my first trip to Europe to buy Pez dispensers. I scraped together just under $3,000.00 & we were off. I really can't remember today if the first trip was Kolinska or the crazy drive through Eastern Europe of 4 countries in 2 days. Either way the game was afoot, shoe factories, border guards, crazy driving and pretty bad food.

Slovenia
Flight to Ljubljana.

After waiting all night on benches in a small corner of the Vienna airport finally it was time to board. Joshua n I walk out onto the airstrip and are directed to board Sky Kings plane. Pilot copilot n 4 seats for passengers. One of the seats occupied by the overweight male stewardess handing out sandwiches from Rubbermaid containers. This did not look good. The flight turned out to be quite similar to a ride on a scary roller coaster with the male stewardess in your lap more than his own seat. Something to do with flying over the Alps in winter in a small plane, wind currents, downdrafts & low altitudes. We drove clown cars down through the mountains after that. The single most beautiful drive you will ever take is a winter drive from Vienna to Ljubljana through the mountains. The air is crisp & clean. The scenery unmatched anywhere in all my travels. Whenever I think of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen it is that drive in winter. Though driving clown cars through serious mountains can be a harrowing experience.

These are the Pink Bunnies I got from Marcos.

We arrive in Slovenia after taking our first and our last clown plane ride. I will never get on another small plane for the rest of my life. Honestly people say this & are usually exaggerating, But I literally thought I was going to die on that plane. After spending some time to regain our composure off we went to Rent a Clown Car. Josh & I had already decided we would not be using the return ticket to Vienna. Here's something you may not know. You can rent cars in Eastern European countries & drive anywhere. But if you rent say in Vienna or Germany you must get special paperwork, which is checked at borders to drive into Eastern block countries.

After leaving the airport we find our way to Kolinska the Pez warehouse & packaging facility in Ljubliana. Really terrific people, they invited us in for espresso, saying they had no problem selling us whatever Pez dispensers they had, that we wanted. Explaining that the Pez dispensers they had was limited, that Plastdispenser in Ormoz the plastics plant was where we needed to go for Pez dispensers. Two things to note here. They actually had quite a good selection of Pez dispensers. Though a month ago they had Pez dispensers I would drool for like rooster mmm, pig mmm, wyle, foghorn, henry hawk, cool cat etc. Second Pez corp downsized this facility, within 2 years they were selling soup & catchup.

Small group of the Black Santas I got from Marcos.

Foghorn Leghorn

They said Plastdispenser in Ormoz had all the pez dispensers. Though this information came with big warnings and concerns by them. Ormoz you see is very close to Zagreb and the war at that time. The whole Cerbs vs Croates thingy that involved ethnic cleansing.

Would Josh n I have driven into a War Zone to get Pez? We almost did.
We got lost n came within a 1/4mile of driving into a WAR. Josh n I had a good laugh n drove as fast as we could in the opposite direction.

If you took a wrong turn near Ormoz, within minutes you would have been smack dab in the middle of a war. That's not good. Second thing the road from Ljubliana to Ormoz they said was very dangerous, a lot of people were dying on it lately. Now I am really encouraged.

The drive down was interesting, a bit hilly with steep drop offs at roadside. Though the real problem was it was 1 lane north & 1 lane south without even a yellow line to divide them. To complicate things even further drivers in either direction treated it as though both lanes headed north or south at the same time. Remember this is me the guy the King of Austria thought was the worst driver in the world, who could not believe I was allowed to drive at all. Fair due though I learned my European driving skills in Slovenia, Slovak, Czech & Hungary. Just driving in your own lane on that highway was a duel with death.

Henry Hawk

My job was navigation, Of course we got lost. I remember screeching to a stop when Josh yelled that sign says Zagreb 20 miles. Whoa did we ever stop n turn around. At the time the War in Croatia was going on, nope got our own crazy, don't need there's.

We spent that night at some weird hot spring spa. Kinda cool if you like taking a swim in hot sulfur waters at a KGB retreat.

KGB Resort. This place was actually pretty cool in a KGB sorta way. At the center of everything was this old looking glass enclosed swimming pool with a brick changing room attached, surround by wooden cabins for rooms. Lockers the whole bit. It was the pool that was the big deal. The pool was fed by a hot sulfur spring, so you swam in hot sulfur water. Of course we tried it. It was a very unique experience and as we were lost when we found it, I could not tell you for the life of me where it was.

thats how Joshua n I ended up at that old KGB Spa/retreat. We spent the night. then we headed south till things made sence again. Context, after the Zagreb Fiasco. We made the mistake of going in any direction but that one. Very Very fast. We were so lost. Technically we were in good shape, we had 3 directions left, north, west n south. We had only lost east as an option. If anyone was following us, my guess they are sill lost after 25yrs.

Being lost was not unusual for Josh n me, we were lost a lot. We really didn't care, all we cared about was finding our objective. We'd find our way out after that. Though it wasn't long after this that we figured out chase the Taxi.
Chase the Taxi was hire a cab, show them an address then follow the taxi like a hunting dog.

A lot of these experiences were very unique and the last remnants of the old Eastern Block in Europe, soon gone forever.

Ex KGB Towers. At the borders of most old Eastern Block countries there were at regular intervals Guard Towers. They reminded me of water towers here but flatter and more saucer in shape with windows n a wrap around porch. These were the big ones, there were also smaller ones made of wood that reminded me of Park Ranger Towers over here. There were still a lot of cold war things standing in the early 90s.

One more thing that always struck me as odd. After crossing customs leaving Hungary, you would get on the Highway to Vienna. At the first overpass on the side of the hill was this wooden building that looked like a club house. It was manned with Austrian cops of one sort or another in the early to mid 90s because I saw them. In the later 90s, they appeared empty. This area was the same area where during the 1956 Hungarian revolt against Communism, where the Hungarian people fled across the border into Austria to escape the tanks that the USSR had sent in to squash the rebellion. The reason I know this is on one trip to Hungary I read a book that went into a lot of the details about the 1956 Hungarian revolt and the exodus from Hungary afterward.

I've got to tell you about the toilets in a lot of old eastern block countries. You know how when your sitting doing your business here it is a straight shot down in this country. Well that portion is way forward in the bowl, your business in the old country quite often lands on a flat raised area like table & just sits there till you flush, sometimes it leaves, sometimes not. To further aggravate the situation, above the toilet in our cabin was an open propane heater. So it baked the toilet & its contents. Sorry if this bit of color grossed you out and the only reason I tell you is it really grossed me out.

Next morning we arrived at Plastdispenser the pez plastics factory in Ormoz. First thing I noticed was very long lines of cars at one side of the factory. After watching for a while I realized they were dropping off assembled Pez dispensers n picking up components for Pez dispensers to be assembled. People from the surrounding community were doing home assembly of pez dispensers. The population of Ormoz is 2,400 people. Until that moment I had no idea this was how it was done.

Later I found out this at one time or another was how it was done at most injection molding plants in Europe. Which means just like the Queen of Austria found pez dispensers n components for Pez dispensers in the community around the factory in Linz. You too could find them in the communities surrounding factories in Pamplona Spain, Ormoz Slovenia, Gyor Hungary and early production in China. One thing you need to know is workers especially home assembly workers always have pez stuff in there garages.

Josh and I were admitted in, then escorted to the upper level where the offices were. As we waited on the glassed in balcony, we were able to take in the view of the entire manufacturing area where production of pez components was actually done. In the dozen visits I made to this factory, this was always my favorite part of every trip. That is before Pez Austria bought Plastdispenser outright and banned me. A few years after Austria bought Plastdispenser, they moved dispenser production to Linz and Gyor. Ormoz was soon making brooms and dust pans. I always enjoyed standing there, just watching for about 10 minutes, before announcing I was there. The lady who I always did business with, Ljuba greeted me and invited me into her office. I have recently been informed that the reason I was dealing with Ljuba was because of her language skills. I explained what I was hunting for. She called Ljubliana and was told she could sell to me. Before they showed me what they had I was introduced to Marcos.

1st one

Marcos was there pez test shot guy and pez experimenter in chief. This guy loved his work. He took us to a cabinet which housed there pez collection. I later gave him a pez space gun and a pez shooter for there collection. Most facilities had a pez collection of one sort or another. In Ljubliana it was different pez dispensers on a beam around the top of the a room in the warehouse. Seeing the pez collection one piece jumped out at me, it was a black Santa Pez dispensers. Like I said Marcos loved his work, he was a very enthusiastic guy when it came to testing pez colors. Josh & I went nuts you'd think we had just seen an alien. We were told he had made a small run of these Pez dispensers because he thought the company ought to do this. Austria had decided, saying it was to controversial to produce. COKO PEZ an African caricature on the box for chocolate pez candy was ok, but a black Santa Pez dispensers was to controversial. This would be big news to approximately 20% of the population in America for whom Santa is actually black. In my opinion Marcos was correct.

Black Santa is probably the most historic Pez Dispenser ever made by Pez without corporate approval. Reason being Pez Corporation was scared to death of him. Black Santa was very taboo, way to controversial to exist or do as a Pez Dispenser. For these historical reasons I believe my Black Santas are the rarest & most desirable Pez that exist. There were 3 different versions of my Black Santas. I know the politically correct answer to rarest is Make-A-Face. I disagree. Black Santa is rarest Pez as it was never meant to exist. Like Bubble boy, it was an in house rejection. Unlike Bubble Boy he was never mass produced. Make-A-Face was mass produced. Even Owl MMM was produced in larger numbers than Black Santa.

Let me restate, Black Santa was an actual proposed dispenser to Pez Austria. The first group of Black Santas are actually prototypes. Black Santa was rejected because of racist prejudice. Some of this was Austrian Pez Corporate Racism, some was an interpretation of perceived racism by Pez Austria about the USA. So Black Santa was deemed to offensive by Pez Corporation as a whole.

Unlike Bubble Man/boy my sales of Black Santa did not influence Scott McWhinnie to mass produce Black Santa. Out of 30 to 40 Pez One of the only dispensers Scott did not duplicate. No Comment.

Asked if Black Santa was produced as a Misfit, my answer follows.
nooo, noooo. no way never. a real bug up the Austrian ass about a Santa that is Black. very serious on that. Marcos/Slovenia thought it was a great idea which as per his job he created for submission as possible. he got shot down very hard. thats why when josh n i thought he was agenious about it we became fast friends. he felt vindicated after being ridiculed n scorned.

Marcos Creations.

Black Santa Pez dispensers. red hat ones and white hat ones.

Psycho Lucy $100.00

Psycho Lucy Pez dispensers. White paint on face instead of black. I asked Marjan if he could make a Lucy Pez dispenser with white eyes. Somehow in translation this came out a White face Lucy Pez dispenser. So he created normal Lucy Pez dispenser but all face detailing done with white paint. This Pez dispenser was thought of because of the Lucy with White eyes. Marjan created about 300 of this Pez dispensers for me. I named her Psycho Lucy because my first reaction when he showed this Pez dispenser to me was. She looks Psycho.

Lavender thin ear Easter Bunny Pez dispenser.

Pink thin ear Easter Bunny Pez dispenser. Marjan created the lavender and pink bunny Pez dispensers to show executives and try to generate interest in this thin ear bunny being colors other than just white. The idea was rejected at that time also, so I got a few lavender and approx 30 pink bunny Pez dispensers.

Marco's Dino

Multi color Dino Pez dispensers from the Flintstones. These were odd color combos. Only got 2 or 3 of these Pez dispensers.

I finally found a picture of this very unique Marcos creation.

Value $250.00

Ljuba told Marcos to show us what they had. Thumper Pez dispensers copyright removed on green stem. I'm specific about this one because at the time John L. said he had doubts it was a real Pez dispenser and changed the stems for a while till he accepted them after finding out they had actually been sold at stores in Ireland. Which made me wonder who he might think had the ability to manufacture Pez dispensers outside of pez corporation. Until that specific situation I never even considered the possibility. That's neither here nor there though, it just made me wonder.

picture courtesy of Rudi.

Anyway we got thumpers Pez dispensers, dalmation Pez dispensers, wyle Pez dispensers, pooh Pez dispensers, chip Pez dispensers, camel mmm Pez dispensers, duck mmm Pez dispensers, frog mmm Pez dispensers and all sorts of good stuff. We were ready to pay and I do mean pay. Another phone call was made to Breda. Breda was the name of my contact at Ljubliana. Breda told Ljuba .23 cents each, direct deposit into the company account. So off to the bank we went so I could directly deposit the total into the corporate account. It was always this way in Slovenia, really decent honest & nice people to know. Before we left though Marcos came after us. He had a bag of pez dispensers he wanted to give us. In the bag were a few Black Santa Pez dispensers, pink & lavender bunny Pez dispensers & the dino color variation Pez dispensers. Also a couple of new dinosaur pez dispensers. We asked him to sign 2 of the dinosaur Pez dispensers, which he did while making jokes in Slovenian about being Elvis.

I sold these signed by Marcos Pez dispensers in about 2007, whoever got them has a real piece of Pez Outlaw History that they are probably unaware of.

Another little side story here. After that first trip to Slovenia Josh and I always drove down from Vienna to Ormoz. On one trip through the mountains we stopped so Josh could go skiing. Josh went up & down that mountain all day, so much so that he could barely walk when we left. I don't ski, but I did take the lift to the top so I could take in the view. Very impressive view and since I'm not crazy about heights so just riding that lift to the top of the mountain was a very big deal for me.

2nd one

On about my third trip to see Ljuba she let me know before I got there that they had several hundred black Santa Pez dispensers for me. Marcos had been a busy boy. On the drive down I became very worried about this just being way to many to exist. I even considered burning or burying a couple hundred of the black Santa Pez dispensers by the side of the road, feeling the hobby would freak at so many.

Something happened and when I got there they said they could only let me have about 30 of the black Santa Pez dispensers. They were beginning to get heat from Pez in Austria.

A couple trips later I walked in and some tall Austrian guy saw me on the balcony. As usual I had stopped to look out onto the factory floor for a few minutes. He came closer then said those infamous words "I KNOW WHO YOU ARE".

This is very important.

That Poor Austrian exec had the look on his face of the Dog That Caught The Car. On the one hand he had just caught Pez Outlaw in his building. On the other hand it was all over his face, Oh Shit Pez Outlaw is in my building n now I gotta explain that. He then turned and disappeared into an office.

Seconds later Ljuba snatched me by the arm and yanked me into her office. Saying you gotta get out of here, before I lose my job. I'll meet you at the coffee shop across the road in an hour. Feeling lower than a snake I left, all the while people who had become friends avoiding eye contact.

I knew at that moment that one of the coolest parts of my life had ended.
As Pez Outlaw I traveled all over the world but nowhere was more magical than Slovenia.
Ormoz n Kolinska remain my fondest memories of that decade.

3rd one

When Ljuba got to the coffee shop she told me Pez Austria had bought Plastdispenser. That the Austrians were on the warpath because Scott was going nuts about me. That everybody knew what I looked like & if she sold Pez dispensers to me any longer she would lose her job. I never saw Ljuba or Marcos again & within a few years Pez Ormoz was making dust pans. My combined trips to see Ljuba or Breda were about a dozen in all. Though a year after Pez cut off business with Ljubliana I did see Breda one last time, she had about 1,000 road runner Pez dispensers so I drove down to see her n buy them.

I guess this is probably when all the trouble began. I had to keep a really low profile in Europe, no more blundering around without a care in the world.
By now I was also traveling alone and I had to use a middle man to buy Pez dispensers in Europe. This is also about the time I started staying at the Raba in Gyor, only leaving to meet my guy or get something to eat. Gunther and everybody else wanted distance.
They still wanted the over $9,000.00 per trip in cash please and there were approx 70 trips to Hungary alone buying Pez dispensers.
About a dozen to Slovenia at under $5,000.00 per trip buying Pez dispensers.
A few to Austria at under $4,000.00 each buying Pez dispensers.
Australia about $15,000.00 for one trip buying Pez dispensers.
Sweden about $9,000.00 for one trip buying the pez pal mariner playworlds.
Spain and South Africa were a bust less than $1,000.00 each.
None of these figures includes expenses, this was just for pez dispensers. It also does not include containers or air freighted Pez dispensers bought.

Other Books By Pez Outlaw/sj glew
The Cereal Box Price Guide
Princess Puddy n The Golden Bowl
The Barrel Book
Used Dogs

A few of the Slovenian Bills of Sale.

no redaction's.