PEZ began as a compressed peppermint candy in 1927 in Vienna, Austria. Today, the company sells and markets their products worldwide. Between their two locations in Orange, Connecticut and Traun, Austria the company distributes approximately 70 million dispensers and 5 billion candies per year. PEZ products are available in more than 80 countries worldwide.
PEZ TMNT History[]
PEZ first introduced their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dispensers in 1994. The two versions - smiling and angry – were based on the characters from the 1987 TV series. There were four TMNT characters in the Series 1 set - Leonardo with a blue mask, Donatello with a purple mask, Raphael with a red mask and Michelangelo with an orange mask. Each character came on 8 different colored stems - red, purple, orange, green, yellow, blue, black and teal.
A second set of TMNT dispensers weren’t released until eleven years later in 2005. These four Ninja Turtles characters were based on the 2003 TV series. Each character was given a different facial expression and sat on stems which were their signature color.
In 2014, PEZ produced a set of dispensers based on the 2012 TV series of Ninja Turtles. In addition, PEZ released a giant Raphael dispenser, which stood at 11.5 inches tall.
Two years later in 2016, PEZ introduced the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Connectibles. These dispensers came with arms, turtle shells and their weapons of choice - Leonardo has his katana, Michelangelo wields his nunchucks, Donatello has his bō staff and Raphael has a pair of sai. Connecting the parts turns the dispenser into an action figure. The dispensers could be bought separately, or in twin packs, with one pack containing Leonardo and Raphael, while the other pack held Donatello and Michelangelo.
