| Peter Upton's |
Subbuteo Tribute Website. |
The Boxed Editions |
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Page 1: British Editions 1947-1969 |
The Team Colours Project (Ongoing illustrated team lists).
Subbuteo boxed Editions: 1947-69 (this page), 1970-80, 1980-89, 1990-2002
Subbuteo's other Sporting box sets:- Cricket, Rugby, and the one-off editions
These pages are an attempt to show the full boxed editions of eleven-a-side football produced by Subbuteo. It's that straight forward really. Once again, if anyone has information that will help with this page, I'd love to hear from you. This page is full of large jpgs, so expect it to take a little time to load. If you want to see the contents of these sets, I strongly recommend that you visit Chris Smith's Subbuteo365 website. This site shows the 1960s and 1970s sets in all their glory.
1947-50 The Early Editions.
Subbuteo's original box set was called the "Assembly Outfit". It was obviously very primitive, being put together by Peter Adolph, with help from his mum. It sold via mail-order, and the first sets were sent out early in 1947. The set came in a red box, about the size of a 1960s team box, with details written on a brown panel on the lid. It featured a dark brown celluloid ball, two team sheets of cut-out card players, twenty patented plastic bases, two "T" bases with wires for the goalkeepers, two flat packed metal wire goal frames (with paper nets), a number sheet, and a piece of chalk to mark a pitch onto any available cloth, preferably an old green army blanket.
The small scale nature of the business allowed changes to be made quickly, and Mr. Adolph continued to tinker with the set after launch. This was understandable, as he had originally advertised the game for sale whilst he was still inventing it! This means that there were slight differences in the early sets, and three different boxes are now displayed here. The box shown left seems to be the earliest. Table Soccer is clearly stated but the word Subbuteo was only in a small oval underneath, looking like an afterthought. Under the oval are the words "trade mark". On the box shown right, the word Subbuteo had increased in size, and was placed more prominently. On this box Adolph also advised that patents were pending in Gt. Britain, Eire, Australia and South Africa, and that his bases were a British registered design. The contents read the same as the earlier set.
The third version shown is a 1949-50 set. The lid was identical to the previous version in layout, but the obvious addition was a logo of a kicking footballer. On the contents list, the "T" bases were replaced by "goalkeeper bases", which meant that the goalkeepers swapped to standard bases at this time. Inside the set, the players became press-out card instead of cut-out. There was a nice catalogue/list in this set, showing the arrival of celluloid figures. Everything was becoming more professional and standardised. At this point, Adolph reached full time production.
| Assembly Outfit: | The original set with ball, two team sheets, 20 bases, 2 goalkeeper bases and wires, one number sheet, 2 goal frames and netting sheet, and one piece of chalk The players were cut out, or press-out cardboard. |
The Early 1950s "Red Box" Flat Editions.
By 1953, Peter Adolph was producing three different versions of his football game for three different budgets. (as well as cricket, rugby, and racing games). This meant the standard box set could no longer be Set A. The new version of the small original set was renamed the "popular outfit", and had a nice new orange and black label to match the larger sets (although the red box remained the same).
A step up from this was the Combination set. This still lacked a pitch, but had celluloid teams, and the deluxe metal goals (set N) which came already assembled with real nets rather than paper ones. If you imagine two deluxe goals side by side, then that is about the size of the original box for this set, as illustrated. Later the combination box was extended in length so the range had a more unified feel. I have seen a red box version of this bigger box, with a label to match the Super set shown above.
Top of the range was the aforementioned Super Set. This was supplied with a pitch, and had the players already assembled and displayed for the first time.
Popular Outfit: |
This was the Assembly outfit going by a different name, with 2 flat card teams, goals and balls. |
Combination: |
With flat lightweight plastic printed teams, goals and balls. |
Super: |
Combination set plus playing pitch. |
Mid 1950s-1962 "Blue Box" Flat Editions
This was a later 1950s re-box. Again, the boxes were red, but the tops/labels were altered to blue (with white sides featuring the product name and logo for the first time (this was a new kicking logo used extensively in the 1960s). As usual there were three sets in the catalogues. Here the I've illustrated the inside of a Super set just to show how nice a set this was (the interior was identical on the red box version).
In addition to these standard sets, the Subbuteoworld site illustrates an additional version of the blue box Super set with an extra layer featuring many of the items from the A-Z range. This seems to be a combination of Super Set, and the basic accessory outfit (Set A mark 2). Sets have also been sighted with just the referees (set P) included.
The blue box sets seem to last until around 1962, when the new OO scale sets were first introduced. The flat editions then moved into green boxes to match the new sets. The final versions of these sets had plastic goals rather than metal ones. Whilst the big sets had the standard plastic Set N, the popular set had to put up with a pair of cheap all-plastic goals, which were narrower than the ball. Despite the small size of these goals, the popular set gained a deeper box, so that they would fit.
Popular Outfit: | Same as before |
Big super set: | Not in the catalogues, this was the Super set plus the basic accessory outfit that included sets FF, P, Q, R, T, V, Y and probably Set Z (early version). |
Illustrated above is the interior of the Big Super Set as mentioned above. Supplied with the standard "blue box" lid, this set came in a deeper box, with individual card trays packed with goodies.
1960's "Green Box" flat editions
Despite the arrival and success of the OO scale Continental Editions, the flat sets were still offered as a cheaper alternative in the 1960s, and the Combination and Super Set were still on the 1976 price list. These final versions of the flat era were re-boxed to match the 1960s continental sets, and also used the plastic goals from these sets. The Popular Outfit box changed size again, becoming shallow once more, but with an increased width to allow for the other items (and the paperwork no longer needed to be folded to fit the box).
Popular Outfit: | With cardboard team, goals, balls etc. This budget set has a very small flat box, and featured very cheap all-in-one plastic goals which were too narrow for the ball. Price 10/9 |
With flat lightweight plastic printed teams, goals, balls etc. Price 19/11 |
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Combination plus pitch. All in a lovely display box. Price 49/11 |
The Continental range started with an announcement in the 1961-62 catalogue that OO scale teams and floodlighting were "available from September". The first Continental box set included both these items, and was dated October 1961. Interestingly, no club or display editions were advertised until 1963, so the OO sets started as quite a deluxe option.
The first difference compared to the usual 1960s sets is that the green colour is restricted to the centre of the lid. Like the 1960s accessory range there was a white surround, and the sides were also plain white. Inside, the inserts were a pale green (matching the green Super Set shown above). The teams were the original early heavyweight design, rather than any of the moulded figures that were used later. The goalkeepers were also an early version, with the moulding rather less defined. I have also seen early Display editions that feature the original heavyweights in red and blue, and it would be interesting to know when the moulded players actually first appeared.
The OO scale sets of the 1960s slowly increased to the full range shown above, with editions for every budget produced. These were successful enough that the standard range varied little from these sets for the next decade. In 1967, a display edition cost 28/11, a club set was 59/11 and a floodlighting set 89/11. When the international set was introduced it was 119/6.
Display: | |
The 1970s editions now have a page all to themselves. Just follow the link to page 2 of this list.
Subbuteo boxed Editions: 1947-69 (this page), 1970-80, 1980-89, 1990-2002
Subbuteo's other Sporting box sets:- Cricket, Rugby, and the one-off editions