Reprinted from The Des Moines Register GC, Des Moines, Iowa
Sheila Mansfield was interviewed by Patrice Beam of The Des Moines Register GC.
Candy 'melts in your mouth,' but collectibles last a lifetime
M&M's started as K-rations during World War II. Now the candy and merchandise are popular all over the world.
It's unlikely that every M&M's collector owns a life-size statue of the "Big Blue" character. But for
Sheila Mansfield, it's just one of more than 2,000 items that she and her husband Dwaine, have on display
in their Perry home.
When did you start collecting M&M's merchandise? In the 1980s, I had some M&M tins and a set of their
Christmas tree lights. When Dwaine and I married in 1996, we decided to collect M&M's merchandise together.
Of course, we didn't realize how much stuff there was to collect. We have more than 2,000 items, including
cookie jars, figurines, clothing, toys, and household items.
Why did you decide to collect M&M's? The characters are cute, colorful and make me feel good. When
people come to visit and see the collection spread out in our basement, they smile too.
When did M&M's first come on the market? They came out in the 1940s in K-rations for our troops. Then
they were manufactured for the public. One of earliest M&M's collectibles is a book of matches with an add
for candy on it.
Merchandising started slowly. An example is when we first started collecting, the company would put out one or
two new items for Easter. This past Easter, they came out with 35. In the late 1990s, merchandising erupted
to the point that the company is now sponsoring a NASCAR Winston Cup racecar.
What is your most expensive collectible? It's a Colorworks dispenser. It's set up so M&M's can be mixed
and matched. Say you want yellow and blue to go with your wedding decorations. Not every store has one.
No, I won't tell you what we paid for it. Let's say it's worth $2,000 if we wanted to sell. I bought it on
eBay and it weighs almost 500 pounds. The guys who moved it into our basement said "don't call them" if we
ever move it out.
Do you correspond with other collectors? Shortly after we started collecting, we became charter members
of the M&M's Collectors Club. I'm secretary of the international club and president of the regional chapter.
This year out annual convention was in Las Vegas, and next month the chapter is sponsoring a Picnic Swap Meet
on June 7 at Pattee Park in Perry.
Are M&M's an international product? M&M merchandise is big all over the world, including Australia,
Austria, and Hong Kong. It's hard to go anywhere without running into other collectors. We trade items and
information.
People on the East Coast get items we don't get in the Mid-West. In other countries, the candy tastes different
and the colors on the containers are a different intensity. Some special events, such as Halloween, have M&M's
"toppers" in Mexico that are not found in this country.
What is a "topper"? It is a plastic character that tops a cardboard cylinder filled with M&M's. "Toppers"
started out as a Christmas decoration with a string attached; now they are toys.
If you are a collector, you buy American-made items and ship them to collectors overseas and they in return
send you items from their country. Foreign "toppers" are square instead of round.
The foreign "toppers" with flags on them are hard to find. Originally costing $1.50, today some are worth $300.
I understand people voted for the favorite M&M's color? The color vote was a contest to choose a new
color of candy. People worldwide voted on the Internet or by mail for pink, aqua, or purple. Even people who
couldn't vote for anything else could vote for their favorite color. Purple won by a slim margin.
In honor of the color vote, Hot Wheels produced a set of four cars in three colors plus yellow. We were at
Wal-Mart when a full box was unpacked. They originally cost $4 each. We only bought one set. Today, a set
on eBay goes for $115.
Is it hard to know what items are going to go up in value? Last year at Easter, there was a set of four
plush baskets at Toys "R" Us. We bought an extra set to trade. Six months later they were on the shelves at
Target and you could get them everywhere. It's hard to know what will be hot and what won't.
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