A man recounts his time smuggling rare Pez dispensers from Europe in The Pez Outlaw. In the 1990s, Steve Glew was working a dead-end job a a machinist, while maintaining a side hobby of collecting cereal boxes. However, Steve would find his true calling when he discovered there was a lucrative collector’s market for rare Pez dispensers. As a result, Steve would make multiple trips to Pez International’s European factories and bring back thousands of dispenser designs unavailable to the US market. Scott’s actions raises the ire of Pez USA president Scott McWhinnie, which results in the two having a cat and mouse game for many years.
The Pez Outlaw is a documentary by Bryan and Amy Bandlien Storkel telling the strange-but-true story of Steve Glew and his years of smuggling rare Pez dispensers out of Europe and his self-proclaimed arch rivalry with “Pezident” Scott McWhinnie. In addition to interviews with Glew and various Pez collectors, the story is told through incredibly cinematic reenactments, which take the form of a spy thriller and at one point visualizes a Pez factory as appearing straight out of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Most people have probably have had a Pez dispenser at some point, as the five inch stick of plastic with pop culture heads that dispenses a chalky and sweet fruit flavoured candy is common at most hobby and toy stores. If anything The Pez Outlaw opens the lid on the lucrative collector’s market for Pez dispensers, as people would pay lucrative money for rare designs. Altogether, The Pez Outlaw makes for a very entertaining documentary with a very interesting subject.