Take the five boroughs of New York City, double it, and you have Sao Paulo, Brazil.  ~20 million people - and yes there was pinball !


Pinball Clube Brasil is run by local pinball enthusiasts who share a lease on a commercial space.  They pool all their collections
together and house them at this one location.  Let's everybody enjoy each other's games.  There are a couple meetings a week
where the members gather to fire up the games, have some drinks, and chow down on some of the best pizza on the planet.


They made this space their own, for sure!  The place is adorned with everything imaginable.  Go online, play music, play console games,
and hours could be spent looking and reading all the memorabilia on the walls


While they certainly have American imports (all the US hobbyist's faves), we're going to mainly look at the largely-unknown phenomena
of TAITO "knockoff pinballs" which were extremely popular in Brazil during the 80's.


FIREPOWER becomes FIRE ACTION !!
Seeing a TAITO pinball is like deja vu... not a Bally, but a close copy of one!  They took the popular themes at the time, sat down
and re-produced everything from the ground up.  The whole theme, layout, and their OWN artwork!   Most obvious is always the
backglass, because Taito's backbox/displays were totally different than Bally's or Williams'.  They reworked their version of
the backglass artwork (and the new title of couse) to make it their own.


Williams GORGAR becomes Taito DRAKOR


Williams FLASH becomes Taito SHOCK


Williams BLACK KNIGHT becomes Taito CHEVALEIRO NEGRO !


A closeup look at the playfield lets you see how the Taito knockoff artwork is close, but totally different.


The detail and nuances of the Williams artwork are certainly not there, but when this is all you know, you'd simply never know.
The language is Portugese.


Chevaleiro Negro - Upper playfield.


Chevaleiro Negro - Taito Neon Sign


SPACE SHUTTLE - Taito Style


Bally EIGHT BALL DELUXE becomes Taito SURE SHOT


Gottlieb's BLACK HOLE .. the TAITO Version





Black Knight curtains ?


This is a tool cabinet amazingly stenciled with a T2 design.


Favorite American collectibles








STTNG Topper


RFM Topper





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