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Little did seven-year-old me know, but the history of
Subbuteo stretched back almost 40 years at the point, the first sets having
been produced in 1947. Those early sets would have seemed unbelievably primitive,
even to me in the 1980s, featuring cardboard figures attached to weighted
buttons playing on a blanket with chalk markings and wire goals. As for the
colours, you could choose to be red or blue! Quickly it became obvious that
small boys would yearn to play as their own favourite teams, and other colours
were introduced.
You didn’t buy your team per se, just the colour/style that
most closely matched who you wanted to be. Hence, early catalogues would have seen
you buy a set that would cover Manchester United & Liverpool, Everton &
Chelsea, Manchester City & Ballymena United or (Northern) Ireland &
Eire/Republic of Ireland. It was only with a hard-to-get set of gummed badges
that you could convert your generic blue, red, white or green teams into
Scotland, Wales, England or Ireland.
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Production methods continued to evolve, the flat celluloid supplanting
the card used for the players before the first plastic 3D figures, as we would
recognise today, were released for Christmas 1961. The designs further evolved,
through “heavyweight”, “zombie” and “lightweight” though the look was largely
retained and it was a matter of player preference and feel as to which you preferred to use
for competitive play.
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| Late-1970s Home Internationals Box Set |
The details of the teams designated as “Northern Ireland” were debatable. In the 1960s the available team wore white socks, as opposed to the green worn by the actual players. Then, in the late-1970s all-green, generally only used in “real life” for away games against Scotland was the Subbuteo default. It was only in the 1980s that Subbuteo players were painted in a way that more closely represented what was happening with their fleshy counterparts.
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| 1982 World Cup Editions |
Whether a reflection of ever-improving manufacturing techniques or the success Northern Ireland had enjoyed in qualifying for the World Cup in 1982 the team now came with Adidas trim and a pin-striped away shirt. Further, a special edition set saw the opportunity to pit them against Spain for a miniature World Cup trophy (this wasn’t necessarily to reflect the real-life match, as both England and Scotland had their own sets alongside the Spanish).
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| 1982 Northern Ireland vs Spain World Cup Edition |
For the 1986 World Cup a “squad box” edition set was introduced featuring
substitutes which were useful given the number of injuries the wee fellas
collected due to dangerously high tackles by my mum! Also in these sets were squad
numbers that could be affixed to the players’ backs.
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| 1986 World Cup Squad Edition |
A non-pinstriped away kit became available in 1986 and both Umbro shirts of the early-90s were faithfully reproduced, giving Northern Ireland their own unique sets for the first time. The 1990s saw a marked decline in the popularity of Subbuteo and attempts were made to break intoother markets. Hasbro essentially halted production in the early-2000s. Since then, there have been a number of special editions and short-lived re-launches with most business centred around Spain and Italy. One such special was a 2016 “British Edition” which brought together the home nations once again.
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| 2016 British Edition |
There is an extensive market in hand-painted bespoke Subbuteo sets which can be purchased from eBay or Etsy at eye-watering prices. Another modern twist sees Subbuteo style figures posed in famous footballing moments.
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| Subbuteo Art |
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| Modern hand painted sets |
Official Subbuteo Issues (UK only) [All Images from Peter Upton]
|
# |
H/A |
Card/ Celluloid (1947-72) |
Original Heavyweight (1962-67) |
Classic Heavyweight (1967-80) |
The Zombie (1977-80) |
Lightweight (1980-2002) |
|
015 |
H |
|
|
|
||
|
157 |
H |
|
|
|
|
|
|
320 |
H |
|
|
|
|
|
|
393 |
H |
|
|
|
|
|
|
459 |
A |
|
|
|
|
|
|
477 |
A |
|
|
|
|
|
|
725 |
H |
|
|
|
|
|
|
780 |
H |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| 1990 Umbro Kit Issue |
 |
| 1958 Legends Edition |
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