When the 2007 Transformers movie was released, the demand it created for toys based on the characters from the movie was something Hasbro hadn’t predicted. The movie ended up being quite popular and did very well, so, shortly following its release, toy shelves everywhere were stripped bare of movie-related Transformers toys. It was a difficult enough task to keep the core movie cast on the shelves, so the movie wasn’t mined all that deeply for characters to release as toys. We did get some characters from the accompanying video game, but there were several characters who were left out of the toy line, which is a shame because there were some interesting concepts that would have done well — like Dispensor.
Dispensor was a character that was on screen for mere seconds, but he made enough of an impression that seven years later Takara has finally released him as a figure in its new “Movie Advanced” line, and the demand for him seems to be as strong as ever. I mean, he was a soda machine who became animated by the Allspark and, in a fit of psychotic fury, started launching cans of soda as projectiles at anything that moved. Who wouldn’t want that?
I’ve wanted this figure since 2007, so I’m happy for the opportunity to finally get one for myself, even though I had to pay a premium price due to his being an import figure. Was he worth the wait? Let’s take a look.
Takara’s packaging for this new line of movie figures looks a lot like the packaging for Hasbro’s own movie line. Usually there’s no English text on a Takara release, but we’re seeing some here by way of his name on the bubble and his bio on the back, and I’m getting a kick out of the way they misspelled the character’s name in the bio.
That gives me a chuckle.
The Movie Advanced line is made up primarily of repaints and reissues, and that is the case with Dispensor as well. He may be a new character released in the line, but his mold is a familiar one we originally saw back in 2007 as Payload, a drone character from the video game. It’s not a bad mold by any means, but it does have its drawbacks, and its use here as Dispensor does come packed with all of Payload’s disadvantages, but it’s not all bad.
Check out the video below for a transformation demonstration:
I love the look of the figure… from the front. From the side and the back, the extended arm that’s tied to his action feature is downright obnoxious. There’s no folding it away or removing it, so the best you can do is find a way to live with it. Looking at him head-on, however, he looks awesome. I love the colors and the sculpt, and his new head sculpt succeeds in making him look psychotic and dangerous. He does look a little bit more “humanoid” than he perhaps should, but that’s to be written off by the choice in base body that Takara used.
He should look something like this:
What we got is something decidedly less “monstrous,” but I can look at the figure and know immediately who he’s supposed to be, so the mold serves its purpose to that end, I suppose. Four arms would have been cool, though.
When viewed up close, his head almost looks as though it was molded out of clay or something. It looks sloppy and crude. Thankfully, it looks much better when viewed from a normal distance, and it integrates into the overall sculpt much more effectively too. It does look kinda iffy in extreme close-up, though. I do admit that.
His only accessory is the soda-can cannon that can be attached to his arm. So even though he’s “just a repaint,” we’re getting some newly molded parts and an elaborate new deco that all make the figure feel like something brand new and not just a rehash.
Dispensor is definitely a deluxe-class figure, so he comes in at approximately 5 inches tall. That works for him, considering he’s supposed to be a soda machine that transforms into a killer robot.
… except he doesn’t really transform into a soda machine at all. Payload’s alt mode was an armored truck, so Takara took that mold and did what they could to make Dispensor look like a soda delivery truck, loosely based on a Mountain Dew truck. As a compromise, the roof of the truck was designed to resemble a soda machine, which almost works. The truck can’t be propped up on its own to serve as a soda machine without additional support, but it can work if you want it to, and if you can somehow ignore all the truck parts hanging off the soda machine. It’s a decent effort, and I applaud them for going that extra step in the figure’s deco.
In these pics, it looks as though his truck mode is made up of two distinct green colors, with his cab being a lighter green. It’s not noticeable at all in person, though, so, once again, the camera seems to be picking up something the eye alone can’t.
Dispensor was a long-overdue figure, so I’m happy I was finally able to add him to my collection. He’s not a perfect representation of his movie counterpart, but Takara did what they could with the resources available to give us something that’s a close approximation. If you’re not put off by the price of an import Takara figure (expect it to be $30-$40), then I’d recommend snagging one. Dispensor is a fun figure that looks awesome on the shelf.
