Original subtitles

[Johann] Okay. Ready?

[eccentric music plays]

Cheers, you guys.

♪

Oh, ta-- tastes awful. Oh, that's cold.

[gagging]

I always say to you, "Are you mad?"

Doing a movie about Steve? Okay.

In my-- you know, in my eyes, you are--

you are making a movie about a loser.

So, uh, why are you doing that?

[intriguing music plays]

I met Steve Glew about 20 or 25 years ago.

I did not even know what Steve was-- was doing.

♪

No one knew him. No one knew where he came from.

No one that you asked had any idea who the hell he was.

But everybody wanted what he was selling.

♪

[Steve] I mean, I was handling amounts of money

that I had dreamed of.

And doing a deal for $500,000...

I had no idea that he had made millions of dollars.

I remember reading something and thinking,

is my dad a criminal? [laughing]

-[horse neighing] -[tense music plays]

[Steve] I learned to protect my space.

I saw people follow me all the time.

[tense music plays]

I was paranoid beyond belief.

♪

[heartbeat thumping]

When I'd get home,

and open that bag, it was diamonds.

It was gold.

-[heartbeat thumping] -[tense music plays]

Pez.

I won the lottery.

It's like printin' money. [laughing]

["Fools Love" by C.L. BLAST plays]

♪ Listen, Steve ♪

♪ Got your loving, ha ♪

[reporter] Welcome to the wonderful world of Pez.

Those colorful little candy dispensers

many of us purchased for pennies years ago.

Well, pennies make dollars, folks.

♪

♪ You nearly made me throw my life away ♪

What-- what is that, a Pez dispenser?

You want one?

♪ You played a game only you could win ♪

[man 1] Some Pez are quite rare.

[man 2] And how much is this worth?

[Richie] Between three and four thousand dollars.

♪ Your love is like fool's gold ♪

♪ Just like a mirage, baby ♪

♪ And all that I got from you ♪

[Steve] People inside the Pez cell

think that this thing has already peaked,

and it has not.

♪ Fool's love, oh yeah ♪

♪ Nothing but fool's love oh yeah ♪

♪ Nothing but fool's love ♪

[music fading]

[birds chirping]

[Steve] That's good.

I've been waiting to tell this story for 20 years.

[intriguing music plays]

When we moved out here, we became back-to-earthers.

We had goats, we had chickens, we had pigs,

we had a cow or two.

♪

[Kathy speaks]

Yeah, you couldn't imagine living anywhere else.

[Steve] Right there. It was where the grey barn was.

-[Kathy] Silver barn is. -[Steve] Yeah.

[Kathy speaks]

I wear three pair of socks,

and I keep a paper towel with me at all times.

It just helps you cope.

[Steve] My whole life, I'd been poor.

Poor is when you don't have enough money.

When your house payment's only $125 a month.

Um, yeah, we lived in a ratty old house

that snow came in, till we wrapped it in plastic.

Literally, a big sheet of plastic.

[Steve] The expectations in my life were [laughing]

this guy won't amount to nothin'.

He's a joke.

But I've always had an inner person that...

that knew there was more.

Uh, that I could achieve more.

[bleak music plays]

[Josh] At that point in our life, um,

we didn't have two pennies.

And if you did have two pennies,

it was because you weren't paying something else.

♪

There was never excess money.

You used to make, like, $11 an hour as a--

as a skilled tradesman who knew his stuff.

♪

[Steve] My job was mind-numbingly boring.

I worked for almost 25 years

as a machinist in a factory.

[machinery whirring]

I would set the cut, and, uh, while the cut was running,

I'd have plenty of time to think.

And I'd think about, uh, something better.

[whistling]

[Josh] Tom Clancy was his author of choice.

[tense music plays]

He's in books, submersing himself in that story and--

and kind of living that adventure.

Because he hated his job.

-[tense music plays] -[Soldier] Target acquired...

[Steve] I mean, I suffered through it.

Don't get me wrong.

But I always wanted out.

I always was waiting,

every minute of every day,

to figure anything out

that would get me the hell out of there.

♪

[Kathy speaking]

[Steve] Yeah, I was pretty miserable,

until I found cereal boxes.

And I just really loved them.

[quirky music plays]

I'm a cereal box guy. Always have been.

Being compulsive obsessive,

it's not the box, it's the stack.

There's a sense of joy when you find

something you hold special.

There it is.

The screwier a box is, the better it is.

♪

[Steve] I love cereal boxes.

They're just fun. Cap'n Crunch.

And they're a part of my childhood.

We were the generation that ate the sweet cereal.

And I eat the sweet cereal still.

♪

[dog whimpering]

[cart squeaking]

[quirky music plays]

[Mike] Steve, uh, was never shy about things.

He'd be running up and down the aisles, like,

"Oh, look at this box variation.

Look at this, or look at that."

And he was very passionate about what he did.

[Kathy speaking]

♪

[Mike] Steve figured out a way of working the system

of mail order premiums.

Like, send ten box tops for this free craft radio.

♪

[Steve] Frisbees, sports item, cars.

I was getting all kinds of stuff.

I learned to take those out and sell 'em,

and it was generating revenue back into the family.

And it was thousands and thousands of these items.

[Mike] He totally skewed their system, and--

and he did it often enough that they actually changed

corporate policy about-- about premium redemption.

You know that little disclaimer?

They say "one per household."

That's me. I did that. [laughing]

I mean, it-- it was the first

effort of "push it till it breaks."

We started going to toy shows,

and I was yankin' down 300 bucks a show.

Thank you. One dollar. Thank you. Just one.

♪

After they closed the window on cereal premiums,

it seemed like the end of the road.

But I had enough product for one last toy show.

That's when everything changed.

Everything.

It was very, uh, film noire.

[entrancing music plays]

I remember the moment completely.

♪

Pez.

Oh, my God, oh, my God,

I want one of them, I want one of them.

[intriguing music plays]

Oh, my God.

I could sell these and do really, really well.

♪

♪

Toy world is full of people.

They go, "Shh, shh, don't tell anybody."

♪

Where did you get those?

♪

Kolinska.

[Steve] It was-- it was haunting.

'Cause it's like "Rosebud" from, uh, Citizen Kane.

-Rosebud. -[glass smashing]

[Steve] And she leaned over and told me,

"You want the good stuff?

You gotta go to Kolinska."

It was like the temptation

of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

♪

The collectors loved...

things that weren't available to the open market.

Things that you couldn't go down

to your grocery store and pick up.

They wanted what was available in Europe.

And so I was like, "Dad, let's see what we can get,

you know, right from the factory."

I don't go places.

I mean, Europe-- Europe is this thing

that rich people only do, and...

not something in my world.

[dramatic music playing on TV]

[man on TV] Welcome aboard. Welcome aboard the spacious...

[Josh] I was about 20 years old.

I had never been out of the country.

But there was no way I was gonna just

let that dream die anyway.

I kind of took the reins

and contacted a-- a local travel agent.

This needs to happen

in order to take that next step.

How bad do you want that next step?

[man on TV] A new concept in air transportation.

I don't know.

I don't know, yeah, okay. Let's go.

-[bold music plays] -He got me a passport.

[airplane whooshing]

Next thing you know, we had tickets.

Next thing you know, we're on a plane.

♪

[David] Well, I heard that he was making a trip to Europe,

and I thought he was insane.

♪

He didn't speak any foreign language.

There was no internet, he had no contact people

on the ground, he was just some hillbilly

from Michigan who got on a plane...

and then just landed somewhere.

[militaristic music plays]

You know, the state of Europe

was vastly different back then than it is today.

The Berlin wall hadn't been down very long.

[Peter Jennings] The wall has suddenly become irrelevant.

Something, as you can see, almost to party on.

How do you measure such an astonishing

moment in history?

[David] He was operating out of this capitalist scheme,

but he had no idea what he was doing.

But, you know, he has that,

like, magical little troll quality.

[uneasy music plays]

[Josh] When you're doing this, and you're fully invested,

it's either win or lose.

Live or die, you know?

So we always had everything on the line.

♪

We had to take out a loan from our credit union

to make this very first trip happen.

Failure wasn't an option. We had to find the factory.

♪

But here you are, you know, these small-town guys

going out into the world, you know?

It's-- it's the big adventure of a lifetime.

[car rumbling]

At this time, the conflict and genocide

in Croatia was going on.

And we were right on the southern border.

[car rumbling]

So, we were driving around,

you know, trying to go off from a map,

but at one o'clock in the morning, in the dark,

where you're not seeing every sign or anything like that.

And we got hopelessly lost.

[uneasy music plays]

[Steve] We screwed up.

We were on an old dirt road somewhere,

and there was a chain across the road.

♪

And it just basically said, "Zagreb - X miles."

♪

[Josh] We were out in the middle of nowhere,

looking in the dark for any pops on the horizon.

-[men yelling] -[intense music plays]

[car beeping]

[music intensifying]

-[engine sputters] -[siren blaring]

[engine sputtering]

♪

Well. [clears throat]

-I don't know why... -[lovely music plays]

but Kathy's always believed in me.

We met at age 18.

[Kathy speaking]

[Steve] Kathy was one of the flower children,

uh, the beautiful people.

I was just a guy. Not worth a hill of beans.

And yet, she sees the guy that's-- that's there.

The potential.

[Kathy speaking]

[Steve] The minute I saw her, I knew she was it.

Completely.

And we've been together every day since.

Kathy allows me my dreams.

Until I get too far off path, then she reins me back in.

[Kathy speaks]

She knows I get dangerous, and careless...

occasionally.

But she supported me 100%

on the-- the trip to Europe.

-[worrisome music plays] -[men yelling]

[Steve] I thought we were dead.

[engine sputtering]

But thank God I had Josh. Thank God.

-I mean-- [lips smacking]. -[car rumbling]

I truly began to appreciate him.

♪

Our first trip to Europe for Joshua and me was like

our graduation from childhood to manhood.

I did lean on him to be able to emotionally do this.

[Josh] The next day we were supposed to be finding

the factory, and still we had no idea where it was.

And then, I see it.

It's printed, the address is printed right on here.

[Josh] It's right there, and you're just, like, holy crap.

♪

I'm-- I'm amazed how an American

is able to get into the factories.

♪

We really get a long ways by playing up "dumb American."

"Came here for Pez? Dumb American."

You know what I mean?

♪

[Johann] I couldn't make out any sense of this.

Uh, I don't want to insult Steve now,

because appearance-wise, what is it-- like, a homeless.

Yeah.

Actually, he looks like a poor, homeless guy.

♪

I got in.

Looking disheveled and crazy

has always worked for me.

Everybody underestimates you.

And that's when I met Marcos.

And what he showed me, it was overwhelming.

♪

It was exactly like

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

♪

We had got our golden ticket...

and we were in there to buy our heart's desire.

♪

I saw so much wonderful Pez.

This is the stuff people dream of.

♪

[Josh] It was, like, you hit the lottery.

-It was unreal. -[Steve laughing]

♪

[Steve] Marcos's job was design.

We had made a friend. A soulmate.

That truly appreciates

the artistic talent, the vision.

I-- I got what he was saying and how much he loved it.

It was stuff that just wasn't sold in the U.S.

Pez USA rejected damn near everything Marcos would do.

[brooding music plays]

[Bud] My name is Bud Damberg,

and I'm the former marketing manager for Pez.

And I was there for about 15 years.

I love working in the candy industry.

It's one of the sweetest industries around.

Literally. [laughing]

Back in the 1990s, Pez USA

and Pez International out of Austria,

operated very independently.

Pez International had distribution

throughout the entire world.

But not the United States.

Because of Pez USA's agreement

with the parent company in Austria,

they have 100% control

of everything Pez-related in the United States.

And the, uh, president and CEO

of Pez USA was Scott McWhinnie.

Also very fondly known as the "Pezident."

He was the ultimate decision-maker.

He ran a very tight and very lean ship.

"I love Pez" is a very common, uh, statement.

However, the kids of today know nothing about nostalgia.

They love Pez for what it is.

[Steve] The people at Pez USA

decided what came into the US and what didn't.

If Scott didn't want something sold in the United States,

it wasn't sold in the United States.

Europe would bust it's butt and come up with a great idea,

or get some really good licenses,

and Pez USA would say no.

No, stupid, we hate it, no,

no, you're ignorant, we hate it.

But everything unique and creative

that they came up with, I could not get enough of.

And that endeared us to them.

They loved us. Just loved us.

[Josh] These people were hungry for American dollars.

They wanted to work with us.

They wanted to do business with us and everything.

I was looking at the, uh, cabinet, in the office,

and they had a display in there of--

of dispensers that hadn't even hit the market.

Um, one of them was the Bubble Boy dispenser.

[bubble pops]

[Steve] Our jaws just dropped to the floor.

Uh, especially once, uh,

he told us the stories behind 'em.

Bubble Man was a reject

from an idea to sell gum.

[Josh] Now, I had heard of the Bubble Boy dispenser.

He wasn't going to be released.

Well, he gave me one from the cabinet.

I mean, that was-- that was the coolest thing.

He also gave me a purple Dino and a yellow Dino.

Stuff that should never have been out there,

but it existed.

[Steve] It was just really wonderful Pez.

♪

At that point, I was home free. I had my product.

All of the obstacles had been hurdled.

-All except one. -[quirky music plays]

Coming back through US customs was the hard part.

[P.J.] Here at Homeland Security Investigations,

we investigate transnational crime.

Uh, basically any crime that touches,

uh, the United States border.

Uh, either inbound or outbound.

It runs across the spectrum.

It could be, uh, contraband, in that-- in the--

in the form of narcotics, money,

body parts, human heads, of course, arms.

You know, various animals.

Unfortunately, sometimes those animals don't make it,

but other times they do, and all of a sudden

you're opening a, you know, a suitcase,

and there's birds in there or something else.

♪

[doves cooing]

It can be entertaining.

Uh, for a serious crime,

you could be looking at decades in jail.

♪

[Tina] He just had great big duffle bags

full of thousands and thousands of Pez, and I don't know what

the customs people thought,

or maybe they didn't even really look at them.

They must not have, or he wouldn't have been able

to bring 'em in without all the proper paperwork.

♪

[Steve] It was something I learned.

You had to be methodical about how you went about it.

I had to appear to be...

a fool.

Disheveled. Crazy.

So, I'd stay awake for 24 hours prior to hitting customs.

[P.J.] Well, that's-- that's exactly

what you don't wanna do.

Uh, you know, the more odd and the more you stick out,

if you're disheveled and don't sleep

and you're acting a little, uh, kind of out of sorts.

If anything, that's gonna attract more attention,

and it certainly would for me.

[Steve] Oh, I knew it would work.

Um, doing crazy things that made no sense.

-Because then I'm harmless. -You should be honest.

You're gonna have to declare what you're coming in with.

You needed to be as honest as you could,

without being completely honest.

Yes, I was definitely doing

something technically illegal.

Did I care? Nah. Not in the slightest.

Not in the slightest.

♪

[interviewer speaking]

Um, the items that-- that Steve Glew

was bringing over were grey market items.

Um, which were items that were not manufactured

for United States market.

They were legitimate Pez dispensers,

but he did not have the licensing rights

to bring them in.

[intriguing music plays]

Pez Candy Inc. in the United States

is the only licensed entity to sell them in this country.

[interviewer speaking]

[chuckling] Let me think about that one.

♪

[Steve] A snafu made everything I did possible.

There was one simple, little thing

that would have shut me down.

Pez USA contacting international customs

and registering...

that they were the sole importers

of Pez products from Europe.

My name's Julie Hilario, I'm a special agent

with Homeland Security Investigations.

Oftentimes, we find that trademark owners

may not be knowledgeable

that they need to record their trademark

with U.S. Customs and Border Protection

for enforcement at the border.

[Steve] One of the customs agents that I dealt with,

he said, "uh, you know, uh, well, you know,

you're not the importer for this."

♪

And he got his sheet out, and he was lookin',

and he was lookin', and he was lookin'.

He said, "Oh, my God."

[Julie] Pez USA, I did check,

and their trademark is not recorded

with Customs and Border Protection.

Yeah, I wasn't aware of that.

I mean, I know that, um...

they had some very expensive lawyers in New York

that spent a lot of time and money.

They were supposed to make sure that it was registered

in all the classes of trade.

They have a US patent

and trademark with USPTO, um, but they didn't take

the second step of actually recording their trademark

with Customs and Border Protection

for enforcement at the border.

And he goes,

"if they're that stupid...

go ahead." [laughing]

♪

[machinery whirring]

When we got back from Europe after the first trip,

going back to work sucked, big time.

It was like being in prison.

[machinery whirring]

But not having any money,

I had to stick it out for a while.

I guess my dad, uh, had done some talking

to, you know, the-- the Pez dealers,

and one of them heard that-- that I had that Bubble Boy.

-[phone ringing] -[groovy music plays]

[Steve] Buyers appeared...

through word of mouth.

The phone chain was people talking to people

that talking to people.

[phones ringing]

Honestly, I was flabbergasted

at the prices that people would pay.

[Josh] They're like, you know,

I'll buy that Bubble Boy from you.

-$1,250. -[cash register dings]

I was like, what?

I mean, it was a gift from Marcos,

so we didn't have the intention at all of selling it.

Here I am, a college student

paying for my own tuition and everything...

being offered 1,250 bucks

for a piece of plastic that was given to me for free.

[Steve] The last thing in the world I wanted to do

was sell Bubble Boy.

But, hey, man, I gotta pay some bills. [laughing]

Money talks. Money talks.

[Steve] The collectors bought pretty much

everything I had, overnight.

I paid 27 cents each.

300 bucks.

Without those early sales, I never

would have been able to quit my job.

[chuckling]

One of my last memories in the shop

was Enya playing on the radio.

["Orinoco Flow" by Enya playing on radio]

And it was just floating.

Through the whole shop. Her voice. And echoing.

♪

♪ Let me sail, let me sail let the Orinoco flow ♪

[Steve] Her music was, like, a place I wanted to be.

And traveling to Europe, and my dreams,

married perfectly well with that.

♪

[Kathy speaks]

[Steve] When I left the shop for the last time, I went from,

uh, working 79-hour work weeks to doing my own thing.

I went to selling toys and Pez full-time.

♪ Sail away, sail away, sail away ♪

♪ Sail away, sail away, sail away ♪

♪ Sail away, sail away, sail away ♪

[people chatting]

[David] At that time, the hobby was kind of this small,

closed group, and we all knew each other.

And Steve was like this, you know...

magical troll who just sprung forth out of nowhere.

But then he found out about the Pez community

and started talking to all of us.

[Steve] The Pez community was a smallish community

that taught me everything I-- I learned.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Pez collecting.

You're hooked now.

♪

I mean, I like to drink scotch, I like fast cars.

But there-- there's nothing that compares with the feeling

you get when you get a great find in Pez.

So, this is my Pez room.

So, I've been collecting about 20 years.

Your Thors, you're gonna be-- $200-300 range.

This Pony would probably go about 1300.

[Tina] I have 53 covered grandstands.

They each hold 80 dispensers.

[Johann] I have everything filled up.

Every empty space is filled up with junk.

So, if you want to give me a title,

you can say to me I am a crazy collector.

[John] I will say that I've spent

$2,500 for one dispenser.

The most I ever paid for Pez was $11,000.

-[interviewer] For one? -One.

[John] And so, in the Pez world,

the person who brought the most new product

to us was Steve Glew.

♪

[Steve] With the prices people were paying,

Josh and me were itching

to go back and get more product.

And I had heard the real mother lode...

was Hungary.

And Gunther was a person of importance there.

♪

[Steve] He had been a person within the upper echelon

at Pez corporation in Austria, in Linz.

And he had been tasked with the role

of opening up the East.

He had power. He had power.

♪

First time I met him, I believe

it was on our second trip to Europe.

I mean, like, I walk in the door

and I ask about Pez,

and Gunther Leitner came out in the most God-awful

plaid sports jacket I have ever seen in my life.

He comes up to me at the counter and he said,

"I hear you're here huntin' for Pez, eh?"

And I goes, "Yeah, I'm huntin' for it."

He says, "Yeah, I know, I know, I know."

And he says, "Don't you-- don't you know who I am?"

[Steve] No, I have no idea

who you are and I don't really give a damn.

Gunther took a Post-it, just a stupid little Post-it.

Wrote a few words, signed his name.

He said, "Okay, take this. Go over there."

And I handed the post-it

to the, uh, the guard at the gate.

I mean, he might as well have hopped to and clicked

his heels and opened up the gate.

I mean, really. That little Post-it.

Everybody did anything we ask.

People walked up to me,

and every time I showed it to 'em,

"Yep, yep. Yep, yep. Over here. Over here."

Next thing I know, they got a truck...

for me to load.

And take everything off to the airport.

And he truly was that powerful.

Just wished I could have taken it all.

I really wish I could've, but I couldn't.

I only had 4,000 bucks maybe in my pocket, so, I mean,

it was very disappointing for Gunther, you know?

Gunther didn't give the money to Pez.

He kept it.

Oh, and the last thing he says as he's getting out of the car.

He leans back in and he goes, "I don't know you.

I don't know you."

[laughing] Oh, my God.

[engine rumbling]

♪

[Bud] So, now we're finding out all these illegal dispensers

are all over the place.

Word came out that somebody took

some pre-production samples and were selling those.

Pre-production samples, illegal, on the black market.

And apparently somebody would go over to Europe

and meet up with some of the, um, workers who worked

in the factories after hours

and pay 'em a few hundred U.S. dollars,

and before you know it you had all these

pre-production samples disappear.

Well, my reaction was...

isn't anybody watching the factory?

It's not like when you go on a vacation

you bring a dozen back with you.

This guy was bringing thousands and thousands of them over.

Scott was furious that this was happening.

So, his mission was to find out

who was doing this.

♪

[sneaky music plays]

[Richie] I was a police officer for 20 years,

and I started my newsletter, Pez Collectors News, in 1995.

As a collector, the idea of the newsletter

was to get the word out there to other collectors and just,

what's out there, and what's real,

and is-- is there any fakes going around.

In a lot of senses, Richie was the number one spy

for, uh, Pez USA

No, I wasn't a spy.

People thought I was the Pez police, but no,

I really didn't tell them anything.

Did he report back to Scott?

Yes. Not a doubt in my brain.

Scott McWhinnie absolutely had a reputation

for kind of, "the Pez company hates collectors."

And he's not a particularly likeable guy.

He's a little pompous, he's a little full of himself,

he's a little insecure.

I was told by many people that-- that Scott McWhinnie

had spies in the Pez world.

That anything we would say would get back to him.

[Bud] Scott was very aware

of the growing collectors market.

He was also very well-aware of the illegal activity

going on in the collectors market.

So, one of the first things we did

to get information out to them,

was we invited Richie Belyski up to the factory.

He had a tour of the factory, um, he interviewed Scott

for an hour or two, and we went to lunch.

[Richie] It was interesting.

It was the first time I was ever in there,

and they don't give tours to people.

♪

[interviewer speaking]

Um, yeah. Yeah, he did.

He was sort of a little bit like a PR agency in a way.

[Richie] That one's worth about $700.

There's another sticker on the back.

An original sticker.

[man] Wow, that's terrific.

Well, thank you, Richard. We appreciate it.

We all love Pez, and now we know why.

[Richie] I remember when I went to the Pez factory,

Scott McWhinnie pulled one out of his pocket.

He goes, "Hey, you see this dispenser?

-You know what this is?" -And I said yeah.

And he says, "Yeah, I'm gonna be sellin' it soon."

[bubble pops]

Bubble Man was designed by Scott McWhinnie.

He loved it.

Absolutely, [coughing] he was passionate about it.

That was his.

[cheerful music plays]

He had the character developed and designed.

Even went as far as having the name, um, registered.

♪

Um, and it was a project that Scott

pretty much worked on himself.

And I-- I think he-- he cared very much about it.

♪

[bubble pops]

However, that project was put on hold.

And when Scott heard that people were bringing

Bubble Man over into the United States

and selling them for an obscene amount of money,

that burned him up.

Most expensive one here right now is this guy here.

And he's not old. He's from 1992.

He's called the Bubble Gum Man.

He's a prototype.

Scott McWhinnie was watching, um, some news reel

of a Pez convention, and he saw the Bubble Man.

Some girl had one for sale.

[woman] There's only about 20 known in the whole world.

It was something they designed

that they didn't have to pay licensing for.

Manufactured a few, and looked at it and said,

"what were we thinking when we made this?"

-And that was the end of that. -It's butt ugly.

-[woman] That's right. -[laughing]

[John] And Scott McWhinnie had a fit.

[woman] And right now his asking price

is $1200.

[reporter] Wow, $1200 for a Pez?

That's amazing.

[music intensifying]

At this point, when Scott became aware of the-- the abuse

that was going, the best way of killing that

was to take those dispensers and put them into the direct

marketing program, and sell it to all the collectors

at a reasonable price.

[Johann] Okay, this is Bubble Man.

It's worth nothing.

Everybody shouted, "Bubble Man! Bubble Man!"

These are absolutely rare. They will not produce it.

And then it-- then they produced it.

Maybe actually on purpose to-- to-- to--

to damage the collector scene.

The reason that anybody was willing to pay 1200

to begin with was because, at the time,

they thought that there were less than ten.

[Bud] I gotta tell you,

when we put Bubble Man out there,

it was insane the amount of orders we got.

People want 'em, you know, for a $1.99.

You got a $1200 dispenser.

[laughing] So, it was like--

They've sold more Bubble Boy than any--

probably any damn dispenser ever,

and it came out of Scott being so mad

that he couldn't see straight,

and ordering the product to stomp on us.

You deal with the devil.

And in all honesty, Scott McWhinnie

was my arch-nemesis.

Oh, I hated his guts.

And that's when I decided to become the Pez Outlaw.

[upbeat music playing]

I needed a vessel. A person.

I needed to build him.

So that I can draw him in when I need him.

I definitely viewed the whole thing as an adventure.

The money, the travel, the quest.

My goal from that point on was for accumulation.

I needed the product so I could beat Scott.

Every sale I could take away from Scott McWhinnie

was a nail in his coffin.

As the Pez Outlaw, ain't nothing stops me.

I mean, for good or ill.

[car horn honking]

[Steve] I will win.

I will win. In the end.

At that point, we were going to Europe

about every three or four weeks.

And going to shows in between that.

Sometimes even landing at shows

and going directly to them.

[cheerful music playing]

[Josh] We had so much cash

a-- after some of these conventions that,

you know, you-- you did feel like a rock star.

I had so much money that I was absolutely drunk.

And ta-da, we have a basement.

[Steve] But I mean, we bought a ton of things.

We bought a new house.

Well, guess what? Here's my house in the ditch.

[Moriah] My mom really was able

to have the freedom with them coming into a little more money

to really pursue what she wanted to do.

She went to schooling to become

a therapeutic horseback riding instructor.

[Kathy speaking]

Steve had become nouveau riche at this point.

His Pez market was booming.

He was making tons of money, which he never had before.

Hey, that's how I was doing things.

I just-- talk to my bank.

Do this, do that.

He was so generous with his money,

he paid his family and all his helpers well.

I benefitted, 'cause I got to go to college

without having to pay for any of it.

It was magic. The whole time was magic.

I won the lottery.

Pez Outlaw was so dominant in the marketplace

that Scott McWhinnie, the Pezident...

He was losing.

They advertised nothing.

I had two full-page ads in one publication,

a full-page ad in another publication...

every month.

He was blatantly advertising these things.

There's the easiest way to find out.

Steve was his own worst enemy.

You know, put a billboard up, here I am, guys.

Come after me. [laughing] So, it's like--

Well, you gotta remember, at the end of the day,

Pez is a brand.

It's a registered brand.

You go over there on vacation, you bring back,

you know, a dozen, yourself.

You can sell them online. Nobody cares about that.

When you start selling thousands of 'em,

and you're running full-page ads...

now you become a business.

Scott took it very seriously,

"I'm gonna protect my product, I'm gonna protect my brand.

They're not gonna get away with that any longer.

[crickets chirping]

♪

[Josh] After I couldn't go with him anymore,

um, I wasn't scared for him, but I definitely was surprised,

uh, that, you know, he was able to-- to go alone.

[Steve] It was very nerve-wracking

headin' off on my own.

[Kathy speaking]

I think his mental health, uh, state of mind,

ex-drug persona, has to--

it-- it can't not play into paranoias.

[ominous music playing]

[car engine whirring]

I learned to protect my space.

[clock ticking]

Getting off the highway, taking back roads.

Totally paranoid.

I saw people following me all the time.

If I thought there was somebody behind me, man, I'd ditch 'em.

[tires screeching]

[David] He had things to be paranoid about.

So, I would imagine that he didn't know who to trust.

[Steve] Coming from the Midwest,

I had never seen officials with machine guns.

So, every border crossing was a threat.

Not just the people with machine guns...

[indistinct chatter]

...but the biggest nightmare would be losing the load.

That mattered.

-[dogs barking] -[man] [indistinct]

Every bag out on to the blacktop.

Every bag open. Every bag dumped.

Could I have possibly gotten arrested?

Yes.

Would traps have been laid? Yes.

Sometimes, all he really wanted was a bribe.

I learned, if something happens of that nature...

Hand out some money, you're done.

Being that close to illegal, maybe illegal.

Of course you're paranoid.

[Bud] Scott never, ever went to Europe

to go chase down Steve.

So, there-- there's none of this,

you know, Scott in a dark suit, you know,

trying-- you know, hiding behind corners.

You know, "I got you, Glew."

You know? [laughing]

There wasn't any of that drama.

None of that ever existed.

[Steve] Would Scott McWhinnie have tried

to have people follow me?

Yeah, he would've done that. In a heartbeat.

But if they were following me, I did shake 'em.

[music fades]

[garage door whirring]

Steve Glew was standing here.

This was the place-- the place Steve Glew was waiting for me.

I just decided to go visit Johann.

I don't know how I had his address,

where I got it, I have no idea, but I did.

He came to me without appointment.

He just was standing in front of my door.

All of a sudden, a guy pulls up on a, uh...

mo-- motorbike.

And I said, "You are lucky, I am Johann Patek."

And he said, "Oh, I am Steve Glew

from America and I want to buy Pez."

I just wanted to buy Pez.

My answer was, "Oh, yes, let's do."

Let's do some deals and I will show you something.

I ask him to wait outside,

and then I went in and brought him some Pez.

[Steve] I had to sit on the curb

outside this house he owned.

While he went in and got the product.

[Tina] Johann Patek. Yes.

I do not know very much about him that I would tell.

It's all very basic here.

[Richie] Johann is a collector in Austria.

You know, is this off the record?

-[interviewer speaking] -Oh, okay.

"What's in there?" I don't tell you.

I will tell you later.

There's not much to tell there.

I mean, he's basically just been a competitor of mine.

[Johann] And now, something dangerous will appear.

Let me see. Uh.

Hi, guys. Hands up, or I shoot you.

[gun clicks]

It's a genuine Pez shooter.

Now, Zorro. Oho.

I am fighting for the poor.

I am taking the money from the rich.

I am Zorro and I--

so everybody could recognize me,

I have Zorro written on my stem.

Otherwise, somebody would say, "I am a bank robber."

[Tina] He knows everybody.

But, yeah, he's a--

[interviewer speaking]

Um... [laughing]

He was in the right place at the right time.

Steve happened in and kind of got in that territory.

Um, and I don't know if they're friends.

[Johann speaking]

[interviewer] Can we go up there and film?

-No. -[interviewer] No?

-Okay, well, why not? -No.

Because this will-- in-- affect my business.

Oh, I have to...

[slaps wood] ...be silent because I'm on a tape.

I have no business.

I never was a businessman.

I always wanted to be part of the collectors game.

[Steve] He just didn't want me to see.

If people knew how much he actually had,

like, if I had opened my mouth to the world

that he had one bazillion...

uh, the value would have plummeted.

Then, all of a sudden, he wasn't interested anymore.

Because he thought he-- he could get it

for an apple and an egg.

But this was not so, and so we parted our ways.

He did not even know what he was doing.

I mean, every dedicated collector

is crazy a little bit in his mind.

Because otherwise he would not be a collector.

Collecting is, um,

more or less a-- a disease.

[saw whirring]

[Steve] I think my symptoms of anxiety,

depression, the highs, the lows,

where you-- you-- the minute you've-- you get high,

the immediate thought...

is what you know is coming.

The low.

So, you don't even get to enjoy it.

[melancholic music playing]

[drill whirring]

[Kathy speaks]

[Steve] In my brain,

I decided that what was going on--

well, I just made something up.

[drill whirring]

I have a very good...

imagination, and...

my heart is in creation.

Hah!

It's actually straight.

[Kathy speaks]

-[music fades] -[crickets chirping]

[Steve speaking]

[both laughing]

[upbeat music playing]

[Josh] By that time, I had my master's in business.

And I'd always envisioned, you know,

coming and working for my dad, uh, anyways.

He had the momentum,

he had the pockets, he had the mechanism in place.

[Steve] We had six employees,

Josh was on the team.

And I continued my adventures as Pez Outlaw.

I enjoyed messing with Scott McWhinnie.

He'd go into boardrooms in Europe,

screaming and yelling and calling everybody names.

Here he is, some president

of an international corporation.

-I am Pez USA! I am-- -[Steve] And yet,

I'm the number one thing on his mind?

Oh, my God, I think I love you.

We could've, um, sued him. Brought him to court.

The time, the money, the frustration,

to sue this guy.

I have other ways I could do it for a lot less money.

[tires screeching]

[Steve] I doubt literally that people were following me.

[interviewer speaking]

Yeah, the Shadow.

The Shadow was following him.

[laughing]

That's fun.

That's fun.

It ain't paranoid if it turns out to be true.

[shutter clicks]

[Bud] Scott would call his counterparts over in Europe

and discuss these illegal dispensers

that Steve was importing and selling,

and about having a stop put to it, and the Europeans agreed

to hire a private investigator to put an end to it.

I don't know who that was, 'cause they're private.

Did they find out anything?

It-- it seemed like there was pieces

of the puzzle that were hard to put together.

I mean, I have my own personal theories...

that...

you know, I think that maybe there was

some people with-- inside the company at the time

that were doing things they shouldn't have been doing.

[interviewer] Steve has told us that...

Gunther Leitner was actually

selling things under the table to him.

No.

I mean, my experience with Gunther,

he was always an upstanding man.

Upstanding businessman.

Gunther was well-known in the Pez organization

because he was in charge of the factories.

You know, he was the-- the top guy, so...

that-- that would be beneath him, to do that.

[church bells tolling]

♪

-[Gunther] Dog, come here. -[dog barks]

[Gunther speaking]

[interviewer speaking]

[interviewer] David Welch? Do you know that name?

[interviewer speaking]

[interviewer speaking]

[interviewer speaking]

[interviewer speaking]

[interviewer speaking]

[interviewer speaking]

[interviewer speaking]

[Gunther speaking]

[interviewer speaking]

[foreboding music playing]

[John] Steve Glew became so notorious...

that even over there,

they had pictures of Steve Glew in the factory.

And Pez even decided, let's put video cameras

here-- there-- there, 24/7 on the lines,

so if somebody came in at night or whatever, we can see them.

[VHS player clicking]

[Steve] It was definitely a cat and mouse game

between McWhinnie and I.

-[banging] -I was a threat.

[Bud] So, yes, there were meetings a-- amongst

myself and Scott and other people within the company.

But he was passionate about it.

And-- and passionate that, you know,

that he wanted 'em stopped.

[Steve] I had to be very careful.

Very careful.

Where I went, how much exposure

I gave myself.

They just knew who I was. Everybody knew who I was.

♪

[planes whooshing past]

On one of the last trips to Europe...

it's like visiting this very special,

wonderful place.

And the door to the factory offices

was wide open.

And Gunther... [laughing]

...Gunther happened to be there.

And he came running out of the offices

into the parking lot,

and he just goes, "You cannot be here!

You cannot be here! I cannot be seen with you!

I don't know you! I don't know you!"

[Steve] After that, I knew I was persona non grata.

And if I went near the place--

I mean, poor Marcos saw me and, you know, it's just,

big hearted wonderful Marcos, who you love dearly.

Won't look at you, won't say a word.

They were afraid of me because I could get 'em fired.

Um, they were afraid to lose their jobs.

Every one of 'em.

Even knowing me or saying they liked me

could cost them their job and their livelihood.

And eventually it did shut their factories down.

[interviewer speaking]

Uh, Kolinska turned into a...

a ketchup factory, and soup.

Ormoz turned into a dustpan factory.

And, uh, I don't say it with a brag.

But I accept responsibility

for both being shut down because of me.

[Bud] It had nothing to do with Steve Glew.

There wasn't one decision made

regarding a factory that had anything to do with Steve Glew.

Zero. [chuckling]

[Steve] I could see the writing on the wall.

I was headin' down the tubes.

Scott McWhinnie was winning at that point,

because when you make it impossible for somebody

to buy the thing that competes, you win.

Yeah, it was deeply frustrating.

I got the hell out of there and...

it was just sad.

-[cricket chirping] -[wistful music starts]

Once I got home...

there really wasn't room for old me anymore.

Kathy's hands started twitching.

And, uh, the Parkinson's started coming on.

I can't do that.

Not gonna do that.

Not doing that.

[interviewer speaking]

[chuckling] The whole story's about her.

I was busy.

Being what I call Pez Outlaw,

and doing what I needed to do

to earn what I thought was being a man then.

But I knew that I needed to be better.

It's okay, you'll be all grown-up and spotted,

and we'll show you these pictures.

[Josh] As things became more difficult for my mom...

he stepped up to a new level of being

that I don't even think the closest people,

you know, in our lives,

would've ever expected to happen.

Um...

but that...

that's how much he loves her.

My mom.

[hopeful music playing]

[Steve] I used to think I had to ride a horse...

to be the man she could love.

She liked horses, so, "Ooh, I gotta be a cowboy."

So, I tried to be a cow-- You ain't gotta be a cowboy.

Be useful. Be decent.

Be kind.

Tell her you love her.

[Kathy speaking]

I went out and did this crazy thing

because this crazy thing took care of my family.

But if I was gonna continue with Pez,

I realized that I had to take action.

We gotta find other ways to do things.

And that is what led to...

the big decision.

[Steve] Trying to find... There we go.

[upbeat music starts]

After buying all this product for so long,

i-- it finally occurred to me, why don't I create my own?

Um, I had a lot of good ideas, just like Marcos.

He's gonna hate me for this.

[laughing]

Steve was very creative.

He kept coming up with all these different

interesting color variations like, um,

crystal Pez with see-through heads.

[David] If the order was, you know, large quantities,

anyone can get anything directly from a factory.

I decided to create my own designs.

I'd named 'em the "Holiday Colors."

The half million-dollar order was my attempt to come out

of the shadows, and do business openly.

I was trying to go legit.

Yes, definitely I was trying to go legit.

And not have to talk in code.

And, uh, be able to say, "Yes, this is my product."

-[buttons beeping] -[dial tone]

I mortgaged my house.

I took out a line of credit.

-That got me 250 of it. -[cash register dings]

And then, believe it or not, I had 250 cash.

You know, we went from bringing it back

in, uh, duffle bags,

to importing it through a broker in Grand Rapids.

And we were spending huge amounts of money.

[upbeat electronica playing]

They created all my product...

in the name that it was going to, like, Taiwan.

And Taiwan packaging.

[whistling] Rerouted it to me.

Legally. On paper, legally.

I laid out the whole business plan, and...

I could afford to pay just under five bucks

per to have them made.

And then sell 'em for 25 and be on a good profit margin.

And I'd been assured that

this was going to be exclusive to me.

[dial tone beeping]

And I have faxes of those assurances.

[fax machine whirring]

We were set.

Half a million dollars was gonna turn into...

a minimum of 2.5 million dollars.

And then Christmas time rolls around,

and I was just so excited.

["What is Christmas" by Hal David & John Cacavas]

♪ What is Christmas? ♪

♪ Christmas is for living ♪

♪ What is Christmas? ♪

♪ Christmas is for love ♪

♪ Christmas is for taking dreams ♪

♪ And making dreams come true... ♪

Oh, my God. Are you kiddin' me?

♪ ...everyone, especially for you ♪

Everything I wanted was in front of me.

[laughing]

[Kathy speaking]

This is the stuff people dream of.

♪ Christmas is for everyone, especially for you ♪

[fireworks popping]

The best thing in the world.

And Scott McWhinnie, I'm not done yet.

[upbeat music playing]

We started selling it at conventions,

I started selling it at toy shows.

[Tina] Everybody wanted his colors.

You know, he had five different stems

of a yellow snowman and of the red snowman.

You could only buy them from Steve.

It was so different than what Pez was putting out.

So, this is Pez's version of the skull.

Right? So, this is his variation.

You know, he did the black face with the yellow eyes.

It just popped. It looked cool.

Steve Glew had so many color variations of things,

that I was in shock when I saw those all out at one table.

[Steve] They were selling like a madman.

And it was more than I could dream of.

To have my own product line that I was proud of.

And I was, I was extremely proud of it.

That was the year that I did a million bucks.

It was magic.

Going legit had worked,

but it was the briefest moment ever because,

oh, man, did the shit hit the fan.

[ominous music playing]

[Tina] Steve and David Welch

and I were walking from our rooms upstairs

down to the convention floor.

And we walked through the door,

and the first thing we see is this huge display.

[Bud] I had a job to do, and I executed the job.

And the job was to help stop this.

This is what Pez did with the Misfit.

This is how they packaged it.

To them, it was misfit, it was ugly.

The ones that Steve had done were on Pez cards.

They were made at the factory.

They were on the-- a stripe candy card.

But then when we walked into the ballroom that day,

they were on a completely different card,

and they were actually labeled on that card as Misfits.

Scott came up with the name Misfits

'cause they didn't fit into the rest of the assortment.

The Misfits were manufactured

as a way to put him out of business.

Where he was selling them for, say, 20, 25 dollars,

we're selling them now for $1.99.

[Steve] He sold for less than I paid to have it made.

So, basically...

pulled the gas right out of him.

Scott used the marketplace.

He used the market to-- to kill him.

[Tina] The Pez company decided to put him out of business.

Steve and David turned around

and they went back to their room,

and they never came back that day.

[somber music playing]

It was horrible.

It was just horrible. They hurt him.

They hurt him financially, really bad.

[interviewer speaking]

Yeah. Yeah.

A little-- a little satisfaction.

The man was broken that day.

[Steve] I dropped my prices,

pushed it out into the market as cheap as I had to.

It didn't work.

Worthless.

[downhearted music plays]

[Mike] I didn't realize how devastating it was

to him, though, initially.

This was right around the time my wife

and I got married, and Steve was supposed to drive up

from Michigan for our-- for our wedding.

And, uh, he just was a no-show, and I didn't know why.

We lost contact after that, and Steve stopped calling.

I think he-- I think he stopped taking phone calls,

too, because of what-- of what happened to him.

[somber music playing]

That's when he went into his-- his period of seclusion.

Where he just, like, dropped off of the,

uh, off of the map.

[Kathy speaking]

[Bud] You know, he just sort of went off the radar.

Which is exactly what the plan was.

[music fading]

[Steve] I lost all my money

and went $250,000 in debt.

You know, you fight for-- to pay your bills.

You damn near lose your house so many times it's tiresome.

[melancholic music playing]

[grunting]

Josh had to slowly let go of all four of the employees,

including my son-in-law.

And his last job...

was he fired himself.

[Kathy speaking]

[Steve] Yeah, I went through some pretty bad years.

Financially and mentally.

But I think that...

the crash was important to find me.

I had a decade of what I call a primal scream.

Scott McWhinnie decided...

that he finally had the way to kill me.

And he was right. He did.

Okay.

[upbeat music playing]

After the crash, the story was all I had left.

And that's when I wrote my blog,

Pez Outlaw Diary.

You don't just create a product.

You create a story.

When Steve started writing his blogs...

nobody knew any of that about him.

[Mike] Steve feels that this is his legacy now.

He wants people to know what happened.

He wants the story to be out.

It validates it. It says, "Yes, this happened."

[Steve] I think everyone wants to be remembered in life.

They wanna make their mark.

And they wanna get it right.

At least once.

Honest to God, if it wasn't for Pez Outlaw,

nobody would remember Scott McWhinnie.

He's a plot point in my story.

If I can get this character of Pez Outlaw...

deeply ingrained enough

into the history of Pez, then...

that will be enough.

It's a good story.

It's a good story.

[cheerful music]

[people shouting joyfully]

[Tina] It was 20 years before I saw Steve again.

And he swore he'd never go to another convention.

I said, "Steve,

everybody wants to know about you, Steve.

Everybody wants to hear your story."

[Richie] Nowadays, I think that, you know,

with all the new collectors coming into the hobby,

they-- they don't know of the backstory.

They don't know-- they weren't there when it happened, and...

[Jim] For a guy like me who wants to collect

everything Pez, his history was--

was part of the influence of-- of even why I collected.

[audience cheering]

[John] Steve Glew was a featured person

at the convention,

and he hadn't been heard from for years.

And I mean, there was many, many,

many people that wanted his signature.

He definitely has a great cult following.

[Jim] He-- he was just this...

I don't know, Pez God.

[laughing] I mean, how-- how else do you say it?

[David] I think everyone wants someone just to say,

"I see what happened to you

and it-- and it matters."

It's-- it's a huge thing

to find out that you're not alone.

[Steve] Everybody wants their story told.

Everybody wants to be remembered.

The story of Pez Outlaw

is an act out of my mental issues.

Learning to cope with anxiety, depression...

and...

the voices in your head, so to speak.

And in some cases, some of the things

that you have are actually tools.

They are not burdens.

Honestly, I think his story is good,

and it's fun, but I think the human side

of Pez Outlaw is way more valuable.

I can be who I am and be miserable...

or I can be who I am...

and try and find the good in it.

And if you're lucky, like me,

you married your therapist.

[Kathy speaking]

[Steve] She's been everything to me.

Everything.

[music fades]

[Johann] I hope you have success.

I wish-- I wish you-- because you're very sympathetic man.

But I think you picked the wrong topic.

That's my impression.

Let's see...

if you-- if you also have to take out

a mortgage for your house.

Then I-- I-- I-- I keep right.

You picked the wrong person. Anyway.

♪

♪

♪