Hah, reminds me of the icecream vending machine I saw at the Hotel in Cambridge.
Never seen one of those before.
It had a viewing glass so you could actually see how it worked.
I bought a Magnum Mint (goddamned, why don't they sell those in Holland !?!?!?) I watched through the glass.
There was something like an arm in the center. To my surprise, something that looks like a regular top loading freezer opened it's lid below the arm.
The arm started to move to the right position and then it started what can't be anything else than a pretty large vacuum cleaner
This way it picked up the ice-cream, moved it to the "drop area" and let it go.
The machine also sold icecream cups from Ben Jerry's for instance. Very cool idea and very cool to watch....
