Way back in the first live action Transformers film, near/during the climax, the AllSpark started going nuts and bringing life to ordinary machines, making new Transformers life. (New, expendable Transformers life.) One of these guys was born from a Mountain Dew pop machine. He'd later get his name from a fan who shouted out "Dispensor!" at Hasbro panel after they'd asked for suggestions. (Hi, Susp.) Anyway, he's got kind of a cult following and even got a little Robot Heroes figure.
But TakaraTomy was all "Dudes, that is not enough," and for their "Movie Advanced" Age of Extinction toyline, they grabbed Payload, who was an armored money truck from the first filme's toyline, gave him a new head and arm attachment, and dubbed him Dispensor the pop delivery truck. We first got word of this being a thing that would happen from a really super-fake reading list of toy solicitations. I mean, why the hell would TakaraTomy make a new Dispensor and spend money retooling an older toy to do so? It'd be insane! List must be fake.
Ha ha ha.
Instead, no, this world's gods are benevolent, and he is real. Payload, who he's retooled from, is a toy I personally haven't owned, so the toy itself is new to me. Back in 2007, Payload was one of the generics from the accompanying licensed video game. His most distinguishing feature in robot mode was his single-lensed camera head, shared with the other kinds of generics, so replacing it with a new head really makes this version of the toy stand out as his own guy. The new arm attachment is nice, as well, since Dispensor's most distinguishable feature was his arm which fired pop cans. It pegs over a forearm (if you don't transform out the hand) or pegs into either side of the vehicle mode.
Same as with Payload, Dispensor's secondary gimmick (after transformation) is the large claw that emerges from his chest. When not emerging, it sticks about half a foot out the back of him. This makes his robot mode a little back heavy, and you have to pose him leaning over forwards a little to accommodate this.
A pop machine is painted on the top of the truck. You could stand the truck up on end to pretend he's a pop machine, but the thick rear bumper kind of gets in the way of doing this. Instead of saying "Mountain Dew" like it did in the film, he instead has Mountain Dew-esque logos on him which read "Mood Wiplash," a misspelled name of an alcoholic Transformers drink from the More Than Meets The Eye ongoing comic book series.
Yes, that's right, I said "pop" all those times and not "soda." I'm from the midwest. Eat it!
