Weird gumball machine

[PerformaVending]

I was in Tomah Wisconsin for the big race event yesterday, and stopped by their Walmart beforehand. Before I left, I noticed these in their "gameplay" arcade room-

 

The unit on the left is of course the Entervending Twister (or something very much like it), which is only the second one I've ever seen in the wild, and the first by a "national" operator. The unit on the right though is more intriguing. I had never heard of this thing before today.

 

The unit is called a "Martian Blaster", and it's rather striking. It has a little screen inside the round portion just above the coin mechs, and the animated alien just kinda stands there. As I was on my way to the races, I didn't have any change on me to give it a try to see what it did. When I got home I looked it up, and found an ancient Vending Times article about it (HERE), but that was about it. Evidently it's manufacturer, Vendamation, (signed as Vend-A-Mation) is no longer in business.

 

I've seen a lot of strange and unusual vending machines out there, but never anything like this one. Did I just miss a big trend, or did I really stumble on a rarity while out and about?

 

TL;DR- I saw this cool machine, and I'm wondering if anyone has any more info about it, as I think it's cool looking.

[havending]

Twister is a good machine but they quit making it

[PerformaVending]

Twister is a good machine but they quit making it

 

Isn't that the way it always goes?

[mayhem4masses]

Eye-candy... No pun intended. I wonder how much those things went for new? Probably expensive, somewhere in the $300 to $400 ballpark I would guess. Which is probably why they went out of business. Especially in 2008 (article from vending times) at the hight of the economic meltdown. I blame bad timing for a startup like this. What a shame, it's a good looking machine.