| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? 17:56 - Jun 21 with 7560 views | DylanP |
So I am reading a book at the moment called "Growing Up With Subbuteo" written by the son of the bloke who invented Subbuteo. Its a pretty crazy story of how subbuteo got off the ground.
Anyhow, the interesting fact is that the bloke who invented Subbuteo (Peter Adolph) was a QPR fan. The book itself shows a couple of Subbuteo men on the front in QPR colours! |  |
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| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 08:11 - Jun 22 with 1092 views | Toast_R |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 00:28 - Jun 22 by carlosthebulb |
Great thread. Im sad enough to remember that around 1978 our numbers in the subbuteo catalogue were 85 (listed as feyernoord) and 215
I collected many accessories and probably loved building random stadiums than actually playing the game.
Could never forget my mate throwing a bucket of water over the pitch to replicate it being waterlogged |
Throwing a bucket of water of the pitch 
Things kids do.
Slightly different but I remember my brother covering his matchbox cars with blue-tac after watching an episode of Blake's 7 years ago where the Liberator was finally destroyed by flying through some metal eating matter.
Crazy but now I can see the logic. |  | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 08:18 - Jun 22 with 1087 views | Kingy27 |
Great topic.
My West spam supporting mate and I would play for hours. He drew up league tables and we played FA cup and league cup competitions.
When it was time for the Hammers to play Rangers you could cut the atmostphere with a knife. We both hated losing those games. It would take a while for one of us to get over losing.
God knows how many I stepped on and broke.
Grt memories. |  | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 08:28 - Jun 22 with 1075 views | Writtler |
Tesco at Home (should also be available from Tesco direct) have the all new singing and dancing Subbutteo for a tenner off at £29 - new flexible bendy figures mean better swerve and less breakable - they had a set on display at Chelsmford the other day and I must have looked a right sad 47 old git drooling over it and telling my 19 month old to hurry up and grow up a bit.
Mind you in the loft are:-
Various football sets
Rugby
Cricket
Hockey
Angling
Speedway has always eluded me....
As for even merely suggesting FIFA et al are better - pah! | | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 08:38 - Jun 22 with 1066 views | ElHoop |
God yeah Subbuteo was a fantastic part of my childhood. If I couldn't find a friend to play against then I'd play games against myself. Was a Liverpool fan as a kid so had the all red strip. Think I had the Club version with just the pitch and goals and Man Utd and Everton and the stupid big ball. Small ball was miles better. I never had an orange ball and always liked going round to friends' houses and playing with the orange ball. I Had Leeds which was just all white and I remember having a Palace team with maroon and light blue stripes I think it was. My cousin had Celtic and Brazil and Scum, as he was a scummer. I remember a full 90 minute Celtic v Leeds match we had over at his place in Hendon. It ended up 20-20 but he cheated as I was 20-17 up with about 3 minutes left and he started shuffling them along.
I never had any stands or anything - surely they got in the way? I would break players with my knees and had a tube of Airfix glue by the side of the pitch. If you broke a player you weren't allowed a sub and you had to wait for the glue to set before he could come back on. If you brought him on and used him too soon then he'd flop over and be useless and you'd have to glue him again. Some players ended up with a pile of glue at the bottom.
I had loads of Lego bricks and would use them as the crowd behind the goals.Liverpool or Man Utd would have red bricks and Leeds would have white and they'd do Knees Up Mother Brown behind the goal when they scored or even when they didn't score. Sometimes I'd push them round the wrong end and the Lego bricks would have a right old bundle. Happy days! |  | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 08:51 - Jun 22 with 1062 views | Stanisgod |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 20:23 - Jun 21 by loftboy |
Had mine on mdf with the green fencing a grandstand which I filled with spectators the brown scoreboard and the goals with the u shaped stantion at the top. Had the players that could take corners, similar to a super striker player and the springy men for throwins, had the referre and linesman and the ballboys, tv gantry and replicas of all the trophies. |
Still got all that and more in the original box in my loft. Pitch has been ironed so many times the lines need re-doing. It's the floodlight edition. Played a few games with Stan Jnr when he was smaller but he lost interest.
Four of us in our road used to have a competition twice a season, think we were about 15. Can't see many 15 year olds doing that these days ! |  |
| It's being so happy that keeps me going. |
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| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 08:53 - Jun 22 with 1056 views | ElHoop |
There were diving goalkeepers weren't there, which were an 'extra'?
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| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 09:04 - Jun 22 with 1050 views | boobishabang |
What a topic this is! who remembers the Artificial pitch you could buy? was too expensive for me as a lad but i remember flicking through the catalogues admiring it, I had some of the Italia 90 goal post, they were awesome, those flood lights never did give off enough light thou!  |  | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 09:23 - Jun 22 with 1028 views | thame_hoops |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 09:04 - Jun 22 by boobishabang |
What a topic this is! who remembers the Artificial pitch you could buy? was too expensive for me as a lad but i remember flicking through the catalogues admiring it, I had some of the Italia 90 goal post, they were awesome, those flood lights never did give off enough light thou! |
didnt the artificial pitch come in a cardboard tube that you rolled out? Never forget my mum burning my pictch with the iron and made a mess of the goal line, supposed to iron it upside down |  | | |
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| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 09:26 - Jun 22 with 1028 views | headhoops |
great thread.
we used to hold all day tournaments - usually 9-10 of us playing each other in 15 minute games - usual standard teams, blue red & white, Liverpool and our token scot had Celtic. My hoops were obviously the mutts nuts.
Bendy keepers were fun and we even had the little plastic flap the fitted over the goal with holes in it to practice shooting.
One birthday I got bought Peru at a time when there was literally one black person in Surrey - cue amazement at the next tournament - all except the boy known as JT who played as chelsea, he just stamped on the box. |  |
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| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 09:29 - Jun 22 with 1023 views | boobishabang |
Didn't they make a TV series based around a Subutteo club in Falkirk if my memory serves me correctly? remember seeing a few episodes back in the late 80's i think | | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 09:36 - Jun 22 with 1014 views | simmo |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 07:38 - Jun 22 by ballbag |
Subbuteo cufflinks. Ridiculous, but I still want them.
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I've got these, they dont actually go through the shirt holes properly as they are huge |  |
| ask Beavis I get nothing Butthead |
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| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 09:51 - Jun 22 with 1000 views | nadera78 |
I had the artificial pitch, and kept the tube it came in for as long as I could. The pitch is still carefully rolled up in the cupboard. I got it because we'd had our own plastic pitch of course and because I never actually bought a box set, I got the pitch and QPR / Liverpool teams. I had the QPR kit with a thin red line amongst the hoops and I chose Liverpool because I disliked being surrounded by glory hunting 'fans' at school so I wanted to exact revenge on a regular basis.
Went on to collect a second QPR, Everton, Chelsea, Watford, West Ham, England, Holland, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, as well as the throw-in and free kick takers, the ball boys, ref and linesmen, manager and physio, photographers, policemen, camera crew and gantry, and the scoreboard.
Last time I checked the only still-complete teams were QPR and Holland, although most of the accessories are still good to go.
And this thread has made me wonder if my nephews would fancy a game or two. | | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 09:53 - Jun 22 with 997 views | nadera78 |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 09:29 - Jun 22 by boobishabang |
Didn't they make a TV series based around a Subutteo club in Falkirk if my memory serves me correctly? remember seeing a few episodes back in the late 80's i think |
Yep, I remember wanting a wooden case for my PR team like the old guy in that show did. Didn't he die or something and leave the team to his daughter to compete in the local league? | | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 10:56 - Jun 22 with 971 views | westolian |
I have died and gone to heaven with this thread.
Could never come to terms with us and Morton being the same. Think my favourite kit / colour was Equador.
We spent hours lying on the lounge floor but had to progress to the chipboard behind the sofa as our dog used to trample all over the figures.
He snapped Ian Gillard once and i cried ! |  |
| I've found a team sheet for the weekend - anyone interested ? |
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| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 11:14 - Jun 22 with 947 views | NorthLondonR |
I read another book about subbuteo once, which featured Stan Bowles - quite an amusing read |  | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 11:50 - Jun 22 with 928 views | jonno |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 08:53 - Jun 22 by ElHoop |
There were diving goalkeepers weren't there, which were an 'extra'?
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Yeah, the original keepers were crouching, and you could get the diving keeper as an extra. I think eventually they came as standard. Originally, the players were actually flat, then they brought out the fully formed ones. I had the floodlights as well, I seem to remember they weren't that bright and the batteries in them didn't last too long! What about the "ball raising chute" that you could use for corners to get the ball up in the air? I had that as well! |  | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 12:19 - Jun 22 with 909 views | ElHoop |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 11:50 - Jun 22 by jonno |
Yeah, the original keepers were crouching, and you could get the diving keeper as an extra. I think eventually they came as standard. Originally, the players were actually flat, then they brought out the fully formed ones. I had the floodlights as well, I seem to remember they weren't that bright and the batteries in them didn't last too long! What about the "ball raising chute" that you could use for corners to get the ball up in the air? I had that as well! |
Yeah I had the ball-rasing chute, but it was pretty rubbish really. The diving keepers were worth having as you had more keeper with which to save the ball. I remember seeing one of the flat sets somewhere too. It looked pretty prehistoric at the time.
You used to get arguments about whether the ball was over the line or not - I wonder if they'd have developed goal line technology had it kept going?
I had the cricket too but it wasn't as good as the footie. | | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 12:48 - Jun 22 with 893 views | MrSheen |
I spent hours poring over the poster that would come out each year with all the available versions. No doubt someone at Subbuteo House had to decide if Birmingham's new away strip was close enough to Ecuador or North Korea to be added to an existing number, or whether they would have to add another line.
I thought the cricket was hopeless, but I had fun with the rugby. The scrum was a lump of plastic where you dropped the ball in a hole in the top and depending on how it landed it came out of one of the six chutes around the side. We used to use it for board games when we lost all our dice. There were also place kickers where you put the ball in a little notch and flipped his head back to pivot his kicking leg into the ball. We were able to kick goals from behind our own posts. The best thing like that in football were the twangy throw-in men who could get the ball over the other side of the pitch and have it back-spin back towards them. |  | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 13:06 - Jun 22 with 874 views | DWQPR |
Subbuteo, many a sore knee when kneeling on a player by accident! And many a Sunday spent with my brother and a couple of friends playing game after game. We had a rule that if you broke an opposition player then one of your own would suffer the same fate, and out would come the airfix glue! My brother's favourite team was Bishop Auckland as one of the players did not have his boots painted. Given the number 10 shirt (you could get little plastic numbering sets), he was christened 'Neville Flashboots', and was always the player I picked out for retribution!
My brother was also bought for his birthday a Subbuteo 5-a-side game. The pitch was built into the bottom half of the box with the goals (half height) built into each end with plastic curves around the corners and like real 5-a-sides you could play off the side boards! Remember playing that the afternoon when the mighty R's team of 75-76 thrashed Derby 5-1 at the Baseball Ground, was probably brand new as my brothers birthday was around that time. Happy days | |
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| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 13:30 - Jun 22 with 859 views | freddieeddie |
I had most of the teams, stands, the lot. Had it all on the floor one night when I went to bed. My grandad lived with me at the time and he came in to say goodnight. As he walked over all I could hear was the crushing of the players under his feet. He was old and I never had the heart to say what he had done. Woke up in the morning and about 15 players were crushed to deaf and a floodlight no longer had any lights :)
RIP Grandad | |
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| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 13:43 - Jun 22 with 842 views | CroydonCaptJack |
I didn't think the cricket was that bad. You had this little bat on the end of a red bit of plastic. You were meant to just twiddle it as the ball came and stay in your crease but invariably we would sweep our arm towards the bowler and literally smash it out of his hands over the boundary. There was so much arguing about this it was hilarious |  | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 13:45 - Jun 22 with 840 views | loftboy |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 08:53 - Jun 22 by ElHoop |
There were diving goalkeepers weren't there, which were an 'extra'?
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You could buy a box of six keepers which were intercangeable on the stick provided, one had a white shirt which was novel at the time and one had a cap on. |  |
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| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 13:50 - Jun 22 with 834 views | nadera78 |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 12:48 - Jun 22 by MrSheen |
I spent hours poring over the poster that would come out each year with all the available versions. No doubt someone at Subbuteo House had to decide if Birmingham's new away strip was close enough to Ecuador or North Korea to be added to an existing number, or whether they would have to add another line.
I thought the cricket was hopeless, but I had fun with the rugby. The scrum was a lump of plastic where you dropped the ball in a hole in the top and depending on how it landed it came out of one of the six chutes around the side. We used to use it for board games when we lost all our dice. There were also place kickers where you put the ball in a little notch and flipped his head back to pivot his kicking leg into the ball. We were able to kick goals from behind our own posts. The best thing like that in football were the twangy throw-in men who could get the ball over the other side of the pitch and have it back-spin back towards them. |
Did you have to set and re-set the scrum five times before the ref gave up and awarded a penalty?
Interesting that the rugby game came with teams from both league and union. Surprised the RFU didn't try and ban it! | | | |
| Subbuteo and QPR -- who remembers Subbuteo? on 13:50 - Jun 22 with 833 views | Match82 |
I had this passed down to me from my dad, although if I recall correctly I was a right little cheat - I "extended" the lever on the back of the keeper with a coat hanger, so he could get all the way out to the edge of the area 
It was the '78 set posted originally, with a big book of all the games my dad and his friends had meticulously kept score in over the years. Not much in the way of added extras, but I did find the astroturf years later at a car boot sale for a fiver - bargain!
I think we still have the original Wembley board game somewhere too, although if I recall correctly several of the cards were replaced as part of an update, which I think included putting QPR in the top division... |  | | |
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