Arcade Otaku - アーケード オタク

Hello again. I was browsing around and came across this old discussion:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=27024&sid=138bce6bb ... 20#p375004

Jan wrote: ↑March 21st, 2014, 1:24 pm the clones are different in every way, beside most part of the Shell (?).

Taito licensed the Name "Vewlix" , nothing else. So a clone might be a Vewlix but not a Taito Vewlix.

Not sure about the clones that have the Taito Logo, they might have used original Taito Parts for them or they might be bootleg parts (or completly un-licensed Vewlix cabs), i don`t know.

In the end it dosen`t matter , Taito licensed the name for one reason only, to get atleast some money from the clone sales , thats all.

I'm confused. Yes I get that "official" Taito Vewlix are supposedly better than Chewlix clones and may or may not actually be made in Japan instead of China. That's not what I'm curious about. I'm curious as to whom Taito licensed "Vewlix" from and why? Wouldn't they just make their own cabinets? What is the point of licensing what is essentially an open-source design from China that they could copy on their own just like every Chinese vendor does?

Or was the above post inaccurate?

Licensed to, not licensed from

cools wrote: ↑July 15th, 2019, 11:16 pm Licensed to, not licensed from

Taito licensed the name to Chinese vendors to make knock-offs for 1/6th the price? That seems hard to believe...

I've done a fair bit of digging into the whole chewlix thing myself and from what I've found it's not the case.
Simply put every Vewlix that isn't made by Taito themselves are bootlegs, all the chinese ones don't contain original parts nor are they made in the same place.
All the claims that say they are somewhat original trace back to old threads made by speculating chewlix owners (at least on reddit anyway).
You can verify this yourself by comparing photos of chewlixs to original vewlixs, things like holes will be drilled in different spots, materials will be different etc.

As to why they can get away with the vewlix branding, I'd say Taito can't be bothered chasing copyright infringement cases in China, that or they never registered it there in the first place.

That being said chewlixs are great cabs for the money. Considering how hard it is to get a vewlix, their cost and the fact it would be used; chewlixs are a good alternative

LupinTheThird wrote: ↑July 16th, 2019, 1:10 am

cools wrote: ↑July 15th, 2019, 11:16 pm Licensed to, not licensed from

Taito licensed the name to Chinese vendors to make knock-offs for 1/6th the price? That seems hard to believe...

Yes,very hard mainly because it is very easy to enforce copyright in China

BTW, i highly doubt that the China Vewlix available these days, being copys of copys , are still part of that thing any more. Pretty sure the Vewlix will go out of production soon anyway.

Jan wrote: ↑July 16th, 2019, 10:20 am

LupinTheThird wrote: ↑July 16th, 2019, 1:10 am

cools wrote: ↑July 15th, 2019, 11:16 pm Licensed to, not licensed from

Taito licensed the name to Chinese vendors to make knock-offs for 1/6th the price? That seems hard to believe...

Yes,very hard mainly because it is very easy to enforce copyright in China

BTW, i highly doubt that the China Vewlix available these days, being copys of copys , are still part of that thing any more. Pretty sure the Vewlix will go out of production soon anyway.

I contacted RS Company in Japan about an official Cabinet and all that Taito has left are black DBs. Which is exactly what I want but they are ~$4000 plus ~$1000 in handling and freight not counting customs so when it's all said and done they're close to $6,000 to get an empty cabinet. They no longer have the 2P board, Old-style Jamma Kit, nor Type X2 or JVS kits. So basically Taito done with the hardware and selling off remaining stock to arcades that need to replace a cabinet. I'd really prefer to go official but you're talking nearly 4-6 times the cost. For that I can set up two linked horizontal and two linked vertical for shmups with Chewlix. The rep who contacted me was very frustrated that they couldn't offer better options and believes Taito has no plans to manufacture more at this point unless some big arcade partnership comes along.

Taito will reproduce whatever you need if you are willing to pay. They still stock items that are demanded in Japan, there is no demand for 2 Player Panels nor jamma Kits nor JVS I/Os in Japan.
Type-X2/3/4 is no longer for sale because Taito switched to a lease model.