Recently I took my family over to New Zealand for a holiday, which was really nice.  Normally people purchase alcohol and cigarettes at duty free but I decided that my dollars were better spent on M&M dispensers.  So, in addition to the alcohol (okay so I did spend some on that too), I bought two new toppers and two dispensers.

The two toppers are part of a set of eight that form a complete train, I will be travelling to America in September (Las Vegas to M&M World) so might just get the rest of the set then.

I couldn’t resist these dispensers also, the Chef and Wizard are two of six.

Toppers

Toppers are the plastic decoration that sits at the top of tubes of M&M candies.  They were first introduced into the US market for the Christmas season in 1988.  Since then more and more occasions have shared the M&M candy experience from Valentines Day thru Easter.

I have seven toppers in my current collection some with round bases and some with square bases.

The Plain Green M&M with a his toy sack is from Christmas 1993 and the Peanut Green M&M on his sled is from Christmas 1994.

Green M&M with her Easter bonnet and Blue M&M lazing in an Easter egg are from the 1999 Easter season.

Over the years the toppers have also been expanded to include other events such as sports, Olympics and World Cup Soccer.   Most M&M toppers cost less than five dollars (US), however some rarer ones have sold for upwards of $125.  The Plain Green M&M Scuba Diver pictured above is from a collection of six square based toppers (3 surfers and 3 scuba divers) and is valued between $15-25.  I wish I had the Yellow Scuba Diver as he is valued between $60-100.