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DE PERE, Wis. Mar 7, 2005 — For most people, PEZ is just a candy, but Barry Umbs calls his addiction to collecting PEZ dispensers "a bit of an illness."

Umbs, an engineering manager for Rockwell Automation in Milwaukee, joined some 60 other self-described "PEZheads" at a convention in De Pere on Saturday.

The man has been a feverish PEZ dispenser collector for the past 15 years, and seeks not only each kind of dispenser, such as ones featuring Bugs Bunny, but the same kind from different countries, with different patent numbers and packaging.

"It's conceivable I could have nine of this same kind, but each one has something different," he said. "It's the thrill of the hunt that gets me."

The event, the second held by the Bryan and Tammy Lewis of De Pere, offered PEZheads the chance to buy, sell and swap their dispensers, show off their collections, and share PEZ news.

They held it in the pool room of their apartment complex.

The candy dates back to 1927 in Austria, where candymaker Edward Haas made tiny mint blocks for adults as an alternative to smoking. In 1952, PEZ came to the United States, where the makers put cartoon heads on the dispensers to sell them to children.

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