Charlie's Angels

Charlie is an electro-mechanical pinball machine produced by Fipermatic Indústria Comércio Importação e Exportação Ltda of Manaus, Brazil — but it isn't an original design. It's a Brazilian-assembled copy of Gottlieb's 1979 machine "Charlie's Angels," produced under what's known as the "Gottlieb Made In Brazil" program: Gottlieb shipped unassembled game components to Manaus, a tax-free zone, where Fipermatic completed final assembly locally.

Surviving examples show some interesting variations between units. One documented game has a backglass with no manufacturer logo, a purple background behind the three angels, and a purple silhouette, while its playfield carries the Gottlieb logo with text fonts that differ from the U.S. version. A second documented game instead carries the Fipermatic logo on its backglass, with a gray silhouette and background; its playfield logo is undocumented. It's possible that the unbranded backglass variant was produced locally in Brazil rather than sourced from Gottlieb. One consistent feature across the design is a maximum displayed score of 199,990 points per player.

Rather than being a mysterious independent creation, Charlie is best understood as a real piece of Gottlieb history — evidence of how the company used Brazil's tax-free assembly zones to extend its reach into South American markets in the late 1970s and early 1980s.