Peter Upton's |
Subbuteo Tribute Website. |
Subbuteo in the 21st Century. |
La Leggenda Platinum Edition - Centuria Partwork 2018-20. |
2018 saw the launch of a third La Leggenda parkwork to the Italian market place. This one, called The Platinum Edition, stuck with the heavyweight replicas debuted in The Vintage Edition. Whereas that partwork had concentrated solely on European club football, this one looked at national teams, primarily those who had qualified for the World Cup. Later in the run that rule was tweaked slightly to allow for Wales and Northern Ireland from the 2016 Euros, and the lovely GB kit from the 2012 Olympics among others.
The pricing was the same as the previous edition, with the first issue at 6.99 euros, the second at 9.99 and the rest at 12.99. As before, many of the issues, especially the early ones, have extras included to allow the game to be played. So there are goals with issues three and six, balls with issue four, and line flags with issues five and seven (three each time). Amusingly, the 1966 World Cup England (issue 8) has the referee and lineman set. I wonder if this includes a Russian linesman.... After that, the partwork saw a couple of bench sets, followed by a green fence stretched over about 20 issues. Larger accessories - the pitch, a replica brown scoreboard, and a rather natty manual timer, were expensive optional issues.
February 2023: The timer is now illustrated, along with the lovely referee set. Thanks to Francesco Manelli for the photographs.
As of June 2020 the partwork is still advertised on the Centuria Website.
As with the Vintage Edition, the following Italian websites have bigger pictures and more details.
The Teams.
This partwork had the shortest run of teams, but still managed an impressive 80 sides. It finished in March 2020, and I wonder if the pandemic in Italy hastened its end. Partworks will extend if they are still selling well enough. Although there are probably too many sides common to previous Subbuteo ranges (and did we really need another three Argentina teams?), there are new teams to enjoy. Panama's debut at the 2018 World Cup is in here, and Cuba from the 1930s is a nice bonus. The stars are some of the really distinct kits of the past twenty years. The Nigeria from 2018, the Ghana away from 2010 and the Great Britain Olympic team to name but three. These are complex designs rendered very impressively on such a small scale.
Two Argentina's in the first ten? The urge to cancel your subscription after the second one must've been high. None of these teams are remarkably different to the original lightweight La Leggenda, except for the figure type. That doesn't really hint at the better teams to come.
A second Italy already, and the dull North Korea team from the lightweights. Why not use the kit worn vs Chile and Portugal.... white shirt, with blue trim, white shorts, dark red socks.... and a proper badge? Still, hold that cancellation letter, as here are the first teams new to official Subbuteo, (Panama and Iceland), plus the complicated, best selling Nigeria kit of 2018.
Thirty teams, and you own three Argentina, two Portugal, two Brazil, two Spain, and two England (at least one is an away shirt).
More Spain. More Uruguay.... but a Togo who should've been in the lightweight edition with Angola.
For the casual buyer, the partwork descends into obscurity. For the Subbuteo collector - it is heaven! Note that Wales and Northern Ireland are the first non-World Cup teams in the selection. Both used their 1950s World Cup appearances in the lightweight partwork. Here it is Euro 2016. Although Northern Ireland had two World Cup appearances in the 1980s, personally, I'm glad they picked this attractive outfit. Nice to see Cuba from 1938.
The fourth Spain (not even from a vintage year for them) is
forgiven as its a nice away version.
And the second Mexico is not the usual green either thankfully, although it
looks worryingly like another Spain
The famous Algeria from 1982 gets another outing after its lightweight partwork
showing.
Ecuador and Jamaica are complicated kits, accurately rendered. A highpoint for
the range.
Who can resist a Peru kit? Plus the pretty Ghana 2nd kit from
2010 forever associated with Luis Suarez's goal-line save....
A slight madness to have three white kits with blue trim in four references (60,
62 and 63)
As the partwork had covered a couple of 1930s sides, the 2019 recreation of a
historic Brazilian outfit might just as well have been the original...
The Ivory Coast (from the African Nations, not the World Cup) and the Saudi
Arabia are both very simple outfits.
Whereas the Great Britain Olympic kit was the complete opposite. Shame we only
qualified for the quarters (again....)
And that's your lot. Pick another destination.
[ Main Page ]