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Peter Upton's

Subbuteo Tribute Website.

I'm sure every football fan, at least in Britain, has owned a set of Subbuteo at one time. For those in the dark, Subbuteo is a fun and easy to play miniature football game, played by flicking small figures on hemispherical bases at an oversized ball. I received my first set for Christmas when I was about nine years old, and for the past twenty years my collection of teams and accessories has continued to grow.

This website was first set up in March 1999, because there seemed so little Subbuteo information available on the internet. Happily, the situation is now much better, but this hasn't stopped the steady expansion of my website. Thanks to the help of a flourishing group of Subbuteo devotees, this site is becoming a comprehensive list of all the Subbuteo items produced from 1947 to date. However, I've tried to keep the lists entertaining, so the site is still enjoyable to anyone who just fancies a quick wallow in Subbuteo nostalgia. 

Subbuteo is currently produced by Hasbro. Subbuteo is a registered trademark of Hasbro Inc. This is an unofficial tribute, and not connected with Hasbro in any way.


Contents

What's New for 2024 - All being well, another year of updates awaits.

What's New? for 2020, and 2021; 2022; and 2023 - A return to updates, and a surprising large number too. Lucky huh?

List of older updates - Updates 2000-2018 for interest and amusement (and maybe some form of index)

Thanks and Contributions plus Help Required - If you use the site regularly, please share any extra info you may have with other enthusiasts.

Modern Subbuteo Products - This page is designed to keep track of any new products produced of interest to Subbuteo players and collectors.

Longshore Products 2020 onwards - Details of the current Subbuteo range worldwide.

Netcam/Paul Lamond Subbuteo - Details of the Subbuteo range 2012-20.

The Subbuteo Library - Important reference books (and kid's storys) to add to your bookshelf.

The Basics. 

If you don't want to plunge into the minute details of Subbuteo's range, these are the pages to try. The history is a brief tour of the Subbuteo range from 1947 to date. In keeping with the tradition of men and lists, the page of "Top Tens" features exactly that.

A Short History of Subbuteo: 1947-1979; 1980-2020. Slightly expanded from my older versions.

Subbuteo Top Tens - Best/worst things about Subbuteo, and great things to try... and Liverpool away kits.

Player Types  - A very quick guide to heavyweights, lightweights, zombies and the rest.

Index and Glossary - An A-Z of all things Subbuteo.

Football Boxed Editions.

Were you one of those rich kids who had a Stadium Edition, or did you start with a Club Edition like the rest of us? The boxed editions page features all the standard box sets produced, and charts the changes in content. The five-a-side page shows the versions of this smaller game, plus the junior games - Targetman and Sport Billy. Finally, the international box sets page features a few other sets not usually sold in Britain.

Subbuteo Boxed Editions: Sets 1947-69, 1970-80, 1980-89, 1990-2000, Box sets in the 21st Century

The five-a-side Editions and junior versions.

The International Box Sets.

Focus On.... 60110 The 2003 Italian Edition of the game, featuring a new player type....

Focus On.... Hasbro's Photo-real Subbuteo The 2005 box set. (See also Photoreal Subbuteo 2005-07)

  Focus On.... Marks and Spencer Set 2009 - A new edition aimed at the "retro" adult market.

Focus On.... 2012 Team Edition - The latest Subbuteo box set from Netcam/Paul Lamond Games.

(see also rugby editions, cricket editions, other sports, and racing games)

Accessories.

Part of Subbuteo's appeal was the vast array of interesting accessories produced. Some were aids the gameplay (e.g. the corner kickers), while others were merely cosmetic, (e.g. the ball boys).
The full text listing tables all the accessories that have been produced, whilst the illustrated list breaks this down into more manageable sections.
The "Focus On" series will look at certain accessories in even more detail.

The text listing of the Subbuteo Table Football Accessories.  

The Early A-Z Range (Set A - Set M); (Set N - Set Z)

The illustrated Continental Range: (C100-C110); (C111-C120); (C121-C139); (C140-C169); (C170-C193).

The illustrated Waddingtons/Hasbro additions: (C200-61221), (61222-61240+reused numbers)

The Accessory Boxes: The Langton Green Years, and Tonbridge to Newport. A brief guide to dating Subbuteo by box type.

Focus On.... C174, The World Cup Winners Pack.

Focus On C131and C132 - A gallery of corner kickers and throw-in figures.

Parodi range and accessories. - Includes details of the new accessories produced by Edilio Parodi in 2003.

(See also - rugby accessories, cricket accessories, five-a-side accessories, miscellaneous accessories, NASL accessories)

Teams.

Being able to buy your favourite team was another one of Subbuteo's big strengths. Using the illustrated catalogues from 1973 to 1996, (and scans of Subbuteo figures where catalogues don't exist), the team colours project currently illustrates over 900 kits, and is updated as often as possible. The list is now split into player types, and attempts to show which kits were produced in which figures.
The appendices attempt to make the lists more useable by charting the numbers used by individual clubs. 

The Team Colours Project: Introduction and Index.

Card and Celluloid Figures 1-55 - The early years of Subbuteo teams.

Old heavyweights 1-54 and the 1966 World Cup - The short sleeved figures of the 1960s.

Classic Heavyweights 1970s: Intro, 1-100, 101-200, 201-300, 301-322+, Un-catalogued teams . - The much loved figure.

The Zombie Page - Looks at which kits have been seen in this generally unloved 1970s figure.

Lightweights 1980s-90s: Intro, 1-100, 101-200, 201-300, 301-400

Lightweights 1980s-90s: 401-500, 501-600, 601-700, 701-800, 801+Hasbro

Parodi Production - Intro+2002, 2003-04 Part 1, 2003-04 Part 2, 2004-05

La Leggenda Partwork (lightweight)la leggenda vintage edition, la leggenda platinum edition - Teams produced for Italian partworks (2009-20).

Team Box Appendix - A guide to forty years of box styles.

The Team Colours Project Appendices:  English League sides, Scottish League sides, National Sides

Team Colours International Appendices: France, Italy, Germany, Belgium/Holland, Spain/Portugal, Scandinavia, Rest of Europe, and Rest of World.

World Cup 1966 Appendix: Details of "named" World Cup teams, and other World Cup issues.

Super Team Appendix: Details of the teams available in the Super Teams range of 1990.

Squad boxes Appendix - A look at P100 International Team Squad, and 63000 World Cup Squad teams (1983-90).

The Italian Production Appendix:  Details of Edilio Parodi's specials, and anomalies.

International Team Production - Overseas team production including Brazil, Spain and Portugal.

Team odds and ends - Unidentified teams, and things that don't really fit in anywhere else.

(See also the Rugby Team Colours page, the Zëugo colours page, and the Delacoste teams page).

Other Sports.

Filling out the range were attempts at several other sports. The most well known are rugby and cricket, which also had ranges of accessories and teams. Less well known are the "one-off" box sets of speedway, snooker, and hockey etc.

Subbuteo Cricket - Box Sets, Flat era accessories, Standard accessories

Subbuteo Rugby - Box sets, Accessory range, Team colours.

Racing Games - Speedway, Motor Racing, Horse Racing, and Cycle Speedway.

Other Sports - Hockey, Snooker, Angling.

Rules.

This section gives details of the playing instructions for various Subbuteo games, and also shows off the different rule books that were produced. 

Football 1947-1975; 1976-2002 - A look at the rules and rule books. International Rule Books - Details for collectors.

Cricket Rules. 1950s rules(OO scale) 1960s-80s - Pages for both flat and OO scale versions

Rugby Rules. 1950s rules(OO scale) 1960s-80s - Rules for two completely different rugby games.

Hockey rules 1980-82 - The rules for the final game produced by Subbuteo Sports Games.

(See also Newfooty Rules 1930s and Newfooty Handbooks 1950s )

International Production.

Some of these pages are in other indices on this page, but I thought it would help to make a new category for them as the miscellaneous section was getting bigger and bigger.

The Italian Production Appendix:  Details of Edilio Parodi's specials, and anomalies.

Delacoste Introduction, Accessories, French teams, Other teams - Details of the 1970s French range. 

Spainish production 1960s, Spanish teams 1960s Details of Aquila production.

Spanish Borras Editions 1982 - A newer range of Spanish stuff for the 1982 World Cup. Great team range.

The North American Experience - Details of the range of 1982-87 supporting the NASL set.

Pelebol 1979 - Subbuteo's brief foray into South America.

International box sets, International Team Production, and International Rule Books - Round up pages for collectors.

(see also Subbuteo's Far Reaches - Subbuteo catalogues from Japan and New Zealand. and European Catalogues)

Miscellaneous.

All the Subbuteo stuff which doesn't fit into the other categories.

Subbuteo Assns intro; The ETSA in the 1970s; The FISA and FISTF - A three page history of Subbuteo playing (mainly) in the UK.

The Subbuteo Catalogues - 1947-70, 1971-96, and additional flyers. European Catalogues and Catalogues - Japan & NZ

Subbuteo in the 1940s - A look at the early days.

Peter Adolph's space games - Journey into Space, and By Spacecraft to the Moon.

Miscellaneous Items 1940s-60s - The Beatles, the U-Paint set, awards for club players and more.

Football Rosettes Gallery - A look at the little rosette in a range of colours.

Miscellaneous Items 1970s-2001 - The World of Sport set, lots of team wraps, the 1990s Chocolate Editions and more.

Promotional and cross-selling - Items given away by SSG. Roy of the Rovers and other licensed teams. The computer games and more.

Players Association products - A numbered range from the UKSA from 1990, including clothes, a watch, a pen, and the usual club tat.

21st century branded products - An explosion of T-Shirts, toiletries and mugs. Plus a slot machine, a bottle opener, and all sorts....

Shop Displays - Trade display systems produced by Subbuteo, and obviously desired by collectors.

Trade Items - Details of trade catalogues, leaflets and items produced for trade customers, plus Subbuteo stationery.

Photoreal Subbuteo 2005-07 Hasbro's attempt at a new Subbuteo for a new century. Didn't last....

Card Games and Collectables - Soccer Market, famous footballers, and Squads.

Jokari Products 1982 - A selection of sporting equipment from US game company Jokari that became part of the Subbuteo range briefly in 1982.

  The story of black players in Subbuteo - How the changing face of modern Britain (finally) reflected in our favourite game.

Charles Stadden and the Lost Range - Legendary model maker Charles Stadden designed many of the classic Subbuteo figures. His paperwork also reveals a lost range of items that he was asked to design, but which never made it into production. 

Subbuteo magazine adverts - A history of Subbuteo advertising, and the magazines and comics in which it featured.

Not Quite Subbuteo - The Aquila prototype, a Peter Adolph related baseball game, and the mystery of the Belgian Subbuteo Ice Hockey.

Miscellaneous Unofficial items. - Things that are not really Subbuteo, but would like to be.... or maybe just random stuff I like.

The Art Galleries.

If Subbuteo didn't cover your favourite team, why not paint your own? These superb painters show you how it's done.

The Art Galleries - Page1 - Joe and Stefano, Page 2: Wayne Smith and friends. Page 3: Art through the Ages and Trevor Arthur.

The Rival Games and Table Soccer Clones.

Not Subbuteo pages at all, but a look at the games that were Subbuteo's rivals. First produced in 1929. Newfooty was both the precursor to Subbuteo and a bitter rival in the 1950s. The inventor, Will Keeling produced other games as well, which are also listed in this section. Striker is regarded as Subbuteo's main rival of the 1970s. 
2020: Added to this section, all the unofficial clones of Subbuteo - whether football, cricket or rugby. Plus a look at the cricket board games that borrowed the Subbuteo figures.

Newfooty History 1929-52; 1953-60s; Accessory lists; Newfooty team lists; Keeling Games, Newfooty Rules 1930s, Newfooty Handbooks 1950s

Striker/Super Striker: Page 1: Parker SetsPage 2 Palitoy and Peter Pan; Page 3: International Editions- Box sets, accessories and team lists all in one :-)

T.A.F. 4-2-4/Grandslam/Premier Table Soccer: History 1960s-2000s

Other Tabletop football Games: Page 1: 1950s-70s; Page2: 1980s-90s Magnetic soccer, Big League, Pro-Action Football and others.

Subbuteo Clones Introduction - Has all the historic 20th century stuff, plus Topspin Rugby....

Subbuteo clones in the 21st Century, Zeugo by Edilio Parodi, Zeugo teams 1-54, Total Soccer 2009-12 - All the modern alternatives.

Cricket Clones - Anchorman Cricket - Tom Taylor's great clone, plus the Subbuteo figures in Wicketz, and Capri Knockout Cricket.

Table Soccer Arts and Crafts Movement - A round up showing innovative products from the Table Soccer cottage industry.


Regrettably, The Thanks and Contributions list has had to move from this front page, simply due to the size of both the contents list above, and the thanks list itself. You can now find it on the combined Thanks and Help Required.

Visits to the old Subbuteo Tribute Website March 1999 - May 2002 - 30147. Thanks people :-)

Text and Site Design - Copyright (c) 1999-2022 Peter Upton.


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