Subbuteo is Back

Subbuteo is Back: Alive and Kicking!

Andy Greeves reports on the return of the much-loved table football game Subbuteo

The evolution of table-top football game Subbuteo, named after the neo-Latin word for 'hobby', has in many ways reflected the changing nature of football over the decades.

Created by Peter Adolph in the mid-1940's and first sold in 1947, the early Subbuteo sets - known then as 'Assembly Outfits' consisted of buttons for the player bases and didn't come with a pitch.

The purchaser was instead given a piece of chalk and instructions on how to mark out a playing area, with an old army blanket recommended as the surface.

At this time, footballers will still playing with heavy leather balls with laces in them with boots coming up as high as the ankle and rattles were all the range in the crowd!

In 1961, a three-dimensional, hand-painted plastic figure took to the 'field' of Subbuteo surfaces up and down the UK for the first time, eventually evolving into the classic 'heavyweight' design of 1967, the 'zombie' in 1978 and the 'lightweight' of 1980.

The game enjoyed something of a heyday during the 1970's and early 1980's - since then it has appeared, disappeared and reappeared on the shelves of toy shops in the UK and beyond with great regularity.

Just twelve months ago the game returned after a noticeable absence stretching back to the early 2000s. With new rubber players, the manufactures Paul Lamond Games had created figures that were unbreakable.

That innovation would have been much to the delight of Subbuteo enthusiasts that not only suffered the disappointment of treading on and breaking a member of their favourite club but that also experienced the physical pain of doing!

The level of detail on the new figures is quite incredible, with fully licensed team sets for the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool sporting sponsors logo, the club crest and squad numbers on their kits, not to mention different hair styles.

Celebrity hairdresser and footy fanatic Nicky Clarke would approve!

The player bases are designed to make sure the 'flicked' figure travels in a straight line, or indeed it can be curled around an opponent depending on your dexterity.

The pitch meanwhile is as far removed from the army blanket of the 1940's - a lush, green playing area awaits you as you open the box with figures able glide across it with ease.

Twelve months on from Subbuteo's re-release, Paul Lamond Games' Sales Director Richard Wells says he is amazed at the reception its return has generated.

"So far, it's fair to say that the reaction to Subbuteo's return to the shelves has been amazing," he smiles.

"It's great to see that as many people are as pleased to see Subbuteo back as I am. The sheer weight of publicity and interest has taken us all by surprise but it's very gratifying all the same.

"Subbuteo had been off the market for a number of years prior to us (Paul Lamond Games) re-launching it. The general feeling at the time was that Subbuteo had largely had its day and as a result we thought there was no point in bringing it back unless it could be improved significantly in terms of what had been on offer in the past. It took a while for technology and production techniques to catch-up. We felt we got to a point prior to the re-launch that we could add a level of detail to the players that has never been seen before, make the pitch better and introduce innovations like non-breakable players."

Subbuteo's return has ensured that the game has now lived on as a commercial product into an eighth decade. While its legion of cult fans never went away, indeed formed associations and fan clubs for the game such as the Federation of International Sports Table Football (FISTF) - which organised international tournaments - interest in Subbuteo from the masses has exploded then waned in equally rapid amounts of time.

Cynics will see this as an increasingly difficult market to re-introduce Subbuteo back into, with the mass popularity of computer football games knowing no bounds, although Wells doesn't see it that way.

"It would be naive to imagine that Subbuteo is going to be able to knock the many excellent computer football games off the market but that isn't the aim," he says. "Subbuteo offers a different playing mechanism to computer games and a different way to interact. It's probably dad's that will be the first port of call to buying and introducing Subbuteo to the family. We really hope kids will then get involved and discover a great game like the previous generation did."

Keeping the game fresh and exciting will be the main challenge for Subbuteo this time around. Signs and sales figures look good currently and indications are a new generation of Subbuteo fanatics may have been found.

There are more club sets, including Arsenal FC, being released this month and there is even talk of the iconic floodlights and scoreboards possibly being given a modern twist a brought back into this re-energised cult classic.

"Certainly we're looking to bring items out for Subbuteo that will capture the imagination and that will appeal to dads and kids alike," commented Wells.

"The referee's set currently comes with a Fourth Official who is holding up a board, which is a nice modern twist on an old classic. We'd love to re-invent lots of the original features of the old Subbuteo sets such as the stadiums, floodlights and scoreboard etc, but of course we have to launch things steadily and also make sure we're significantly improved the product so that it will have same feedback as the main game itself has been receiving."

Subbuteo table football sets are available from amazon.co.uk. Team figure sets can be purchased individually from various Barclays Premier League club shops.

© Andy Greeves & Soccerphile.com

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