Collecting M&M Dispensers

Collecting M&M Dispensers

M&M's memorabilia covers all sorts of things. Firstly, there are the plastic dispensers that have the sweets inside of them, of which there are the round shape (like the chocolate M&M) or the oval shape (like the peanut M&M), in various colors just like the sweets and in different sizes. Then, there are also many various 'toppers' which are the characters that come off the top of the tubes which hold the sweets.




Most importantly however, from a collectors point of view, there are many other items which have been available across the World which the UK collector may be totally unaware of. Such items include soft toys, computer games, calculators, alarm clocks, die-cast cars, duvet covers, T-shirts, pencils, beanies, you name it more or less anything you can think of has been produced with M&M's on it. For instance a very interesting facet to M&M collecting is available in France, the 'Pochette Surprises'.

Collecting M&M Dispensers

 These could easily form a collection on their own, "They are very cute and an unusual addition to any M&M collection, there are over 250 of these small 'Pochette Surprise' M&M characters to collect. They come in a strip of three and each part has some M&M candy inside and a round plastic M&M container similar to a Kinder egg. Inside of the container is one of  the characters, some you put together, some are ready made figures, or maybe you'll find something like an M&M puzzle." These Pochette Surprises were bought in the UK for £1- £2 each, whilst US collectors would have paid from $3-$8  £2-£5 for them.

Collecting M&M Dispensers

For the novice obviously yard sales/car boots will be a good source to hunt for past M&M memorabilia, expect to pay $3-$8 £2-£5 for an early loose dispenser, or as much as$30- £20 if it is mint in its box. Bear in mind though, that we saw 10", 7"and 3" dispensers here, released in both the round and peanut shape. The 10" was made in red, green, yellow and a harder to find blue, the character is waving and when his arm is pulled down it activates a lever mechanism which dispenses the sweet into his hand. American collectors will pay over $200 for the blue dispenser as he was never available in the States.  There are very similar 10" dispensers available in Europe although their faces are different to the ones we had, more like the US dispensers.

Collecting M&M Dispensers

The old 7" and 3" dispensers that the UK had have an opening on their backs to get the sweets out of. These two smaller dispensers were released with the characters 'doing' various things like kicking a football or holding something such as a Christmas present, many different ones can be found in red, green, yellow and orange plus there were also 3" versions in brown and blue. The blue round version is very hard to find and the blue peanut was only released in Australia. Of the toppers we saw here there are many to took out for, they are on a white, square base in various colours and were produced around various themes such as Valentines, the World Cup and the Olympics. UK collectors will expect to pay £1 to a £5 for loose toppers, but if they are mint on their tube this could rise up to £10. The more established American market sees collectors paying $5 upwards for a loose topper.

Collecting m&m dispensers

The US M&M merchandise, dispensers and toppers are all different to those found in Europe. For instance the US has seen various wacky dispensers released including the round 'Baseball' player M&M released in '95, he is orange with a blue baseball cap and his sweets are dispensed into his baseball glove when his arm is pulled down. UK collectors will pay between £25-
£50  $30 - $60  for dispensers like him and for the blue peanut 'Blues'dispenser they had in '98! He has removable sunglasses and plays the saxophone, when his arms are pulled down his
sweets fall out from his stomach! There've been various others  a 'Couch Potato' M&M , a M&M yellow peanut man sitting in an armchair with his remote control.

Collecting m&m  dispensers

The US also has dispensers for the mini M&M's (smaller versions of the sweets) and not only are there plastic dispensers for these but also dispensers that are a soft toy too. This is manufactured by Swarmee and UK collectors will pay around $15- £10 to get one of these. There are other soft toy M&M's to look out for as the US has had several different companies that produce them.


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