Sweet Music To Our Ears - When Pez Went Hi-tech

By Author: Hugh Nguyen
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Who doesn't love PEZ? The cute little dispensers with the interchangeable heads that flip back to give us our sweets on demand are a hit with kids and collectors, alike. What could be more low-tech than a design that's been around since the 1950's? What could be more low-tech than a plastic rectangular tube topped with a colorful plastic head? My personal favorite is a Yoda I got back in middle school about 20 years ago. There is nothing absolutely whatsoever hi-tech about PEZ. But, as they say, all good things come to those who wait. It took a clever guy with a creative streak and an idea whose time had come to take PEZ into the realm of gadgetry.

Once upon a time, the makers of Altoids candies held a contest. They asked people to come up with original ideas to recycle their candy tins after the candy was gone. The winner was the individual who stuffed the iPod speaker inside the empty Altoid tin. Great, you say, but this is supposed to be about PEZ going hi-tech. What does Altoids and Ipods got to do with anything? Everything, as you'll see in a moment.

In Missouri, a stay-at-home dad and gadget designer Patrick ...
... Misterovich followed that contest and saw that iPod Altoid tin. As a clever and creative guy, he became inspired to see what else could be done with empty candy containers. He had a vision, a creative bent and a little bit of luck, as all good inventors are want to possess. "I saw that (Altoid iPod speaker) and I thought, that's pretty neat, taking something that you wouldn't think of as electronics and turning it into a device," Misterovich said. "When I started thinking about how I could do that, the Pez idea came to me, and I figured it was something that was pretty cool that could appeal to a lot of people."

Patrick didn't start with the idea of a PEZ mp3 player right out of the gate, though. He made a list of possible candy-tach combinations. How about a LifeSaver laser pointer? Or a USB drive in a gum pack? And then, he saw it - PEZ on the candy side of the list and mp3 player on the gadget side. Like two lost soul mates on opposite sides of the stream, they simply needed Patrick to bridge the gap between them. Patrick didn't just sit there staring at the two of them. He took action. In less than 5 minutes, He had emailed the PEZ company. He was going to need permission to license his product using their product. He got the number of the PEZ candy company and called. Now, I don't know who you call at a candy company when you want to do something completely un-candy-like with their product, or how you go about presenting the idea, but somehow Patrick either knew or figured it out along the way. He's a clever guy, you know? After about two hours, he had licensing permission from the PEZ people to run with his "crazy" idea, and that's exactly what he did.

That weekend, he spent a few bucks on a Google ad and ran a test market to see if anyone would want to even buy the thing. The response was a bit overwhelming. Everyone from teens to toy collectors were apparent PEZ fanatics who would, indeed, buy a PEZ mp3 player if he would make and sell one.

Patrick's PEZ mp3 player had the capacity to hold 512 MB of music and the ability to switch out its rather generic looking head with any other PEZ dispenser head. Yay! Yoda could hold my tunes! It seems the only complaint critics had when the device hit the market was that it DIDN'T have the capability to hold actual PEZ candies. Oh well, not every invention is perfect, I suppose.

Patrick made some press announcements to introduce his PEZ mp3 player to a hi-tech hungry world. He started a website and was soon the topic of every candy, gadget, business and music blog in cyberspace. In the Spring of 2005, Patrick was king of the cool kids' table!

His company, Lincoln West Studio, sold the PEZ mp3 players for $99. His first production of 1500 units sold out rather quickly. PEZ granted permission for a second production run. That's when the trouble started, apparently. Because his device was electronic, it had to pass certification by the Underwriters' Laboratories to ensure compliance with safety standards. Once again, Patrick contacted the right folks and in no time, had the UL certification and the symbol to match. He once again issued statements to the press and the blogosphere that everything was a go on the PEZ pop tune provider. The next run of PEZ mp3 players would be due out in the Spring of 2007. And that's the last anyone has heard of him.

There's been no word from Patrick since. His website is defunct, his domain up for sale. Did big business put the little guy out of business? Did the dad working form his basement give up on his dream? Or did he just move on to something else? The world may never know. The few PEZ mp3 players available online are for the serious collector with serious money.

Once upon a time, a man had a dream and a PEZ dispenser was, for a short time, more than a candy dispenser. Gives a new meaning to the phrase `"sweet music`" doesn't it?
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