[Football] Subbuteo, What team you have in the opening box ?

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

I went on to T.A.F 4-2-4

 

[zefarelly]

I have a 1980s version with generic blue and red teams.

However, following that, I met the absolute artistic genius that is @Comrade Sam who had many many many subbuteo teams, all beautifully painted as different era Albion teams as well as a 'Classic' Palace team. I think he had about 100 different teams, domestic and international.

Some of my fondest memories as a teen ager were spent with Sam and @zefarelly amongst other, in Shoreham.

Anyhow, Sam used to run at Subbuteo World Cup every summer and I recall winning the tournament twice with Holland.

I spent many nights at Sam's playing Subbuteo, drinking Gin and of course becoming World Champion. Plus of course we played Brighton v Palace.

Just thinking about Subbuteo bring back sooooo many associated memories from those days back in Shoreham, from playing football every day during the summer, Nov 5th bonfires, Subbuteo and that crop circle we created in the Downs.

Thank you @Comrade Sam

Ahem . . . I painted Nor'n Ireland, the adidas kit with shadow stripes, took, bloody ages . . . .won the world cup in '86 . . .15 games undefeated.

we played a lot of football, and subbuteo. And Kent soul albums. I still have a few BHA teams.

I think by '86 we'd pooled all teams, raided a fridge in a garden up a hill at Dacre gardens for more teams . . . We played the whole of the world cup finals ? And we had pretty much every team.
Asides BHA, England, generic red/blue, I remember Celtic, Ajax, Liverpool ( cousin Ben) PNE and painting Sampdoria for some reason.
I also remember winning a free team in a design a kit competition via Beatties . . . Which was loosely based around a cycling top and Escape to Victory!

 

[Comrade Sam]

Ahem . . . I painted Nor'n Ireland, the adidas kit with shadow stripes, took, bloody ages . . . .won the world cup in '86 . . .15 games undefeated.

we played a lot of football, and subbuteo. And Kent soul albums. I still have a few BHA teams.

I believe that was the first final ever. I still have the trophy with N. Ireland, Holland, Holland etc. painted on the base. Pinched all of the Subbuteo from a shed in Dacre Gardens with Tallulah - it was justified because the guy that owned it was northern. My action movement USSR disappeared when Hippy was mum's lodger.
I now have far more Kent LPs than Subbuteo teams and my astro pitch stinks of must.

 

[anygivensunday]

Randomly Sampdoria v Leeds set for Christmas sometime in the early/mid 90s.
Beginning of a love affair with Italian 90s shirts like Samp, Parma, Fiorentina, Inter

Not so much of a love affair with Leeds....

 

[ElectricNaz]

Defo had a blue and white striped team. Not sure if it was technically Brighton. I did have the stands, and also a scoreboard with cardboard name tags for loads of top teams. Spent hours just playing around with that tbf

I eventually moved onto a different game - I think it was called pro action soccer. Not sure why but I defo got on with that more! They broke just as easily though as you had to tap them on the head to kick the ball!!!

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

I didn’t have all the accessories required for the big match atmosphere, (the crowd, the floodlights or the dugout too)
My father attached the cloth to a board and it had an inch high surround which I glued advertising logos cut from my mothers magazines, although Rizla packets were the perfect size and gave it a late 70s Wembley feel, unaware of what they were it was heavy with Tampax or Dr Whites adverts

 

[Comrade Sam]

At one point we created a whole stadium, a mixture of official Subbuteo stands - always looked like something from Loftus Road, and painted cardboard constructions. Filled them with thousands of toy soldiers and stuck in dozens of flags. It looked the bollox, but was completely impractical to play a match. Eventually had the pitch on a jumble sale pool table, on top of a pile of speakers and encyclopedias. My bedroom was in the loft and a wayward shot could bounce down three stair cases to the kitchen - then my mum would shout 'If you're going to the kitchen can I have a cup of coffee?' - that was annoying.

 

[GJN1]

You’re not the only one that couldn’t get the pitch flat.

Did the ball bounce really high on it?

 

[GJN1]

One of the happiest days of my life was when I upgraded the standard goals to the continental ones that went back a mile.

Actually, it remains the happiest day of my life.

 

[KZNSeagull]

My older brother had a set originally which I added to massively. When players snapped, instead of gluing them back together, my brother decided to "melt" then back together which resulted in several players having little or no legs! In the Leeds side that we had it was therefore very easy to identify Billy Bremner.

 

[Fourteenth Eye]

The Subbuteo section in Gamleys was an absolute treasure trove

They had all the different goals, balls, stands, replica trophies as well a huge range of teams.

When it became the norm to change kits every year, Subbuteo tried to keep up.

Happy days indeed

 

[PeterT]

The Subbuteo section in Gamleys was an absolute treasure trove

They had all the different goals, balls, stands, replica trophies as well a huge range of teams.

When it became the norm to change kits every year, Subbuteo tried to keep up.

Happy days indeed

I remember buying those sock tags that Leeds wore from Gamleys, was very tempted by a random Bournemouth shirt also on sale but my pocket money wouldn’t stretch that far.

 

[Is it PotG?]

My Mum's sister's boy, who was faultless, always used to beat me at Subbuteo because he flicked to kick, and I didn't know.

 

[scooter1]

Years ago when temping for a letting agent, I was asked to check out a student house and create an inventory. In one cupboard was a huge box of old Subbuteo, that for some reason got missed off the inventory. Amongst the teams in boxes, Cowdenbeath were there and are still my go to team when playing

 

[Fourteenth Eye]

I remember when you could collect the tokens in Match Weekly & send them off & they used to send a random team back.

I got sent a team called Frigg which i was convinced was a rude wind up.

The internet didn't exist back then but i have subsequently found out that it is a team just outside Oslo !!

 

[PeterT]

My Mum's sister's boy, who was faultless, always used to beat me at Subbuteo because he flicked to kick, and I didn't know.

Didn’t he go on to get a degree in Economics, Maths, Physics and Bionics?

 

[Jesus Gul]

I saved up tokens in Shoot magazine in the 80s to claim two lucky dip teams. I got Watford and Boavista/Charleroi (ie black and white checks)

Also had Cov (Talbot kit)

 

[BN9 BHA]

I honestly can’t remember the first team I had, probably what came in the box with my first set. I did have a pitch on hardboard and had a fence. The large CO-OP department store in London Road had lots of Subbuteo in the toys/games section.
The only team I can remember buying is West Ham, not sure why as I don’t really like them, maybe because I liked Admiral kits and this stood out at the time.

 

[redoubtable seagull]

Didn’t he go on to get a degree in Economics, Maths, Physics and Bionics?

But after that, I’d heard his mother bought him a synthesiser and got the human league in to advise her

 

[el punal]

I adapted! I can’t remember the original colours of my Subbuteo teams but I gave them a makeover. So team no.1 was repainted with blue shirts, white sleeves, white shorts and white socks. Yep! Albion c.1966. The other team became Man Utd. I had a magnificent stand made out of Lego which ran the length of the pitch, and the floodlights were two torches suspended over the ‘stadium’. Brighton finished the season unbeaten that year!