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Peter Upton's

Subbuteo Tribute Website.

The Team Colours Project.

Introduction and Index.

Part of the major attraction of Subbuteo was always the range of teams produced. Whether you wanted to play as Real Madrid, or Rochdale, the team was there for you to buy. Other football games have dallied with small ranges of teams featuring a few top club sides, or famous national teams, but only Subbuteo went for a full range. At its peak in the late 1970s, there were 300+ teams available to buy.

Originally the aim of the team colours project was to list and illustrate all the separate teams that had appeared down the years. Peter Adolph started the whole thing off with simple reference numbers for each team. The 1949-50 range had teams 1-24, and advertised that this covered the whole English and Scottish leagues. As new kits appeared, so these were added to the range, but luckily the numbering system was kept the same right through until 1996, by which time the references had reached 830. 

As with all things Subbuteo, things are not as straight-forward as that. If a number was being used by a single team and they changed kit, the usual response prior to 1980 was to leave the team blank, and after 1980 the reference number was dropped. But this is not always the case. Sometimes the new kit was introduced on the old number. This happens occasionally in the 1960s and 1970s with no real rhyme or reason. In the 1990s it became the norm. 

This is the first of many problems that start to appear when such a list of teams is attempted. 

Figure Types. 

As has been mentioned elsewhere on this site, Subbuteo changed the playing figure used a number of times. In my original team project, I decided that I would not worry about these changes too much except where the new figure had a very different kit to the old. However, as more and more variations come to light, so this original format is in danger of choking under too many sides. It is also true that Subbuteo collectors are becoming more sophisticated, and more specialized. Many only collect one figure type, either because that is the figure they used in their youth or simply because they don't have room in their house anymore!

So the old list has been split into different figure types

Card and Celluloid Teams (1947-72): 
References: 1-55
The Original Heavyweight (1962-67):
References: 1-54 and the 1966 World Cup.
The Classic Heavyweight (1967-80):
Introduction.
References: 1-100; 101-200; 201-300; 301-322+ other catalogued released.
Un-catalogued teams - Details of the named box teams not featured in the catalogues (many are local shop requests).
The Zombie (1977-80):
References: 1-322
A full illustrated list would just repeat the heavyweight one, so this page is just a tick list of zombie production. If you have a zombie not on the list, then please let me know.
The Lightweight (1980-2002):
Introduction.
References 1-100; 101-200; 201-300; 301-400
References 401-500; 501-600; 601-700; 701-800; 801+Hasbro
This list uses mostly the catalogue illustrations rather than the real teams.
The Italian hand-painted teams (2002-05):
Introduction and 2002 
2003 Part 1 AEK - Parma

2003 Part 2 Perugia - West Ham (plus Specials and Scottish teams)
Parodi late arrivals
The Italian Partwork Teams (2009-2020):
La Leggenda Partwork
La Leggenda vintage edition
La Leggenda platinum edition
The Netcam Teams (2012-20):
Netcam Subbuteo 2012 onwards - Looks at teams, accessories and box sets.

Others.

 
Rugby Teams (1969-82):
R1-R37 plus Parodi's Italian teams.
Zëugo (Parodi's unofficial table soccer range)
1-54 

Appendices. 

These appendices simply list the teams that have appeared in Subbuteo catalogues (and on boxes) down the years - and the numbers of kits they used.

English League sides An impressive array of teams past and present.
Scottish League sides Celtic, Rangers, Third Lanark, and everyone in between.
National Sides Albania to Zaire.
France Almost a history of French football (by Bernard Cros)
Italy  
Germany  
Belgium/Holland Featuring lots of team mergers.
Spain/Portugal  
Scandinavia Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden
Rest of Europe A further eighteen countries.
America and South Africa Teams from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the NASL, Uruguay, and South Africa.
 
Team boxes Shows the different box types down the years. Simple.
World Cup - 1966 and all that. Lists the teams released for the 1966 World Cup, and then looks at the teams for other World Cups. 
Super teams  Teams that were available in video case boxes in 1990.
The Italian Production Appendix Illustrates the heavyweights released in Italy in the 500+ range in the mid 1970s, and also looks at the Italian hybrid figure, and C100s range.
International Team Production Looks at the teams issued in Spain and Portugal, plus the Pelebol sides and other international anomalies not covered elsewhere.
Team odds and ends A few odd items I couldn't fit in anywhere else.... 

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