**[ Subbuteo Menu ][ Teams ][ Accessories ][ Index ][ Links ][ Mail Me ]**

Peter Upton's

Subbuteo Tribute Website.

Catalogues and Price Lists

Subbuteo's European Catalogues.

Subbuteo Main page.
The full text listing of Subbuteo football accessories.
The Illustrated Accessories List - (Page 1).
The Team Colours Project (Ongoing illustrated team lists).
Subbuteo Football boxed editions, Five-a-side and junior versions.
Subbuteo Catalogues: 1947-1970, 1971-1996 and misc flyers. Catalogues - Japan & NZ

Inventor Peter Adolph made an early attempt at an overseas expansion for Subbuteo, by producing box sets for the Belgian market in the late 1940s. Adolph visited Belgium to promote the game, and one of his more amusing stories relates to this experience. He apparently drank too much, flirted with a dignitary's wife, and ended up being challenged to a duel - or at least having to pay compensation for the experience. Perhaps this adventure discouraged Adolph from further overseas expansion, as Subbuteo under his ownership remained a mostly British affair. That said, further 1950s flat sets have been sighted from Holland and Germany, as well as a Swedish rule book, so there was a little activity in northern Europe. In the early 1960s, Adolph had opened further factories in Gibraltar and Spain, and although these were generally used for production for the British market, it is known that products were sold in Spain (although possibly restricted to areas around the factory in Barcelona). This range does not seem to have been catalogued at the time.

Things changed when Waddingtons acquired the company in 1967. Waddingtons could obviously see the potential market for Subbuteo wherever football was played, which was (and is) basically everywhere. Their strategy was to find partners in other territories, usually established toy/game companies, who could provide marketing and distribution for the game.

Usually with Subbuteo, the game continued to be manufactured in the UK, but the paperwork was produced by the local distributor. Obviously the rule book needed producing in the correct language, and price lists would need to be issued in the local currency. As printing technology improved, many of the later distributors saw the benefit of a colour catalogue showing the teams and accessories that were available locally, and this page aims to list as many of these catalogues as collectors are aware of.

Many of the catalogues on this page are shown in more detail elsewhere on this website, especially when the local production had interesting quirks. However, the aim of this page is to provide more of a "tick list" of European paperwork. The known distributors are listed here.

Belgium - Continental Trading Agency 1950s-1960s. Unica, a company based in Kortrijk in the 1970s-80s
France - Delacoste. Responsible for constant French team changes in the 1970s. See the French Production pages. MAKO SA took over in the 1980s.
Germany - Schnipp and Schuss in the 1970s. Jumbo in the 1980s. Jumbo produced their own box sets.
Holland - Es-Es-Es, based in Voorburg in the 1950s. Clipper Games in the late 1970s/early 1980s. They also licensed Monopoly from Waddingons.
Italy - Edilio Parodi. From the early 1970s to the 1990s. The Italian Production page shows some of their unique products.
Spain - Juguetes Borras around the 1982 World Cup. Had their own boxes, team production and a different World Cup set. See Spanish Borras Editions

Belgium.

This one is a Belgian catalogue from original distributors Continental Trading Agency (who also produced the weird Ice Hockey set). The pictures suggest this one is late 1960s, predating the illustrated team lists. This catalogue has a bit of a mystery at the end of the team list. The teams run to reference 55, then jump to ref 64 (which was introduced as Belgian team Ostende). However, after that are three mystery sides SP 1, 3 and 4. Alas, the borrowed pictures do not give enough resolution to make out who they are. SP4 looks like it could be the know Crossing Schaerbeek team (green and white hoops, green shorts) Details awaited. And who was SP. 2?

France.


circa 1972	1975-76	1977	1978	1979-80	1981

The French catalogues are described and illustrated in detail in the Delacoste and French Production pages of this website.

There are at least two "blue" catalogues. The one shown is circa 1972 and the pages I have scanned don't mention a distributor. The numbers have a 57xx code that doesn't match the later catalogues.
However, there is also a similar "blue" Delacoste catalogue using their 656.xxx codes rather than the 57xx ones.
The Delacoste catalogues run from the mid 1970s until 1981.
The French catalogues are renowned for the badly painted "glossy" teams showing variation with their UK counterparts. Some of these teams are unique to French production. That said, French teams in collecting circles do not seem to be glossy, so these may have been painted solely for the catalogues. It is possible that all retail teams in France were still painted in the UK.

MAKO catalogue 1982-83

The French had a change of distributor to MAKO S.A. A catalogue from 1982-83 has been spotted. It has the same cover as the 1981 French catalogue, but everything is re-numbered. This range has unique French Language box lids on the full editions, but otherwise seems to be a standard stuff.

Details of some of the MAKO box sets are on the International box sets page.

Germany.

German distribution seems to move between companies. The early flat sets were distributed by Gunter Czarkowski, who remained head of the German Table Football Federation in the 1970s, and his son won the first Subbuteo "World Cup". I await details of the 1950s price lists from this distributor.


1973	Mid 1970s colour leaflet	1978 colour leaflet.

However, by the 1970s heavyweight distribution had changed to a company named Schnipp & Schuss. They produced a green and white catalogue/promotional leaflet in 1973. The booklet actually combined details of the player's federation and German table soccer clubs, with the training details from the Spin! leaflet and the all important catalogue.

The 1973 catalogue lists the six editions up to the Munich set (although that set isn't illustrated at this point). The catalogue does suggest the range is "new".
Only the Club Edition was produced in a German language version. The others just got stickers on the boxes.
The accessories in 1973 ran to C132, alongside old references F,FF, M, N, NN, Q1-3, and Z.
The team list runs as 1-76 and then refs 127-134, which were an expanded range of German club sides. The list was not illustrated, but has shirt and shorts colours stated.
The list puts German teams in bold print, and usually at the top. So reference 1 is FC Koln first, ref 2 is FC Schalke 04, ref 3 is Arminia Bielefeld and so on.
Some teams repeat in the list. Werder Bremen are on reference 4 and 45. Bayern Munchen are on 19 and 52. And so on.
Two later colour brochures are shown above. As with the British advertising leaflets, only a selection of items were shown on these items.
In my old files I have a picture of the mid 1970s leaflet stapled into a bag with a player and a ball (shown). Was this supplied as a promotional item?
The 1978 brochure lists the colours for the Bundesliga sides for the 1978-79 season (Darmstadt 98, Arminia Bielefeld and FC Nurnberg are at the end of the list. All three were promoted that season, and then relegated at the end of it.

1983

In the 1980s production was taken over by Germany toy company Jumbo. There is one full colour catalogue that I am currently aware of. This is dated to 1983.

Jumbo produced two lightweight sets - Europa Cup and World Cup. These had unique interiors, and are shown on the International box sets page.
Jumbo renumbered both the team and accessory ranges that they issued.
The small Jumbo team range is shown on the International Team Production page This included Bundesliga colours for the 1982-83season.

Italy.


1973	1974	1975	1976-77	Team Sheet 1976

Italian distributor Edilio Parodi was one of the strongest supporters of the game, and this reflects in the number of catalogues produced, and the specials and extra products that emanate from Italy.

The Italian Production page runs through all the unusual aspects of Italian production - the specials, the hybrids, the named teams.
A separate sheet of teams on unique reference numbers in the 500s was released in 1976.
The 1976-77 catalogue has teams introduced as 191-195 on the team poster which were not added to the UK lists (and subsequently were renumbered).
The covers of these catalogues show a couple of un-numbered releases. The 1974 catalogue shows a Subbuteo t-shirt that features through the period.
Meanwhile, 1976-77 illustrated the "1975 - Alphabetical Team Reference Chart" in its green plastic cover, which was never officially listed in the UK (although it is English language).


1978	1981	1982/83 (2nd edition)	1985-86	1994

From 1978 the catalogues are bigger and stapled, mimicking the British "Subbuteoworld" versions. However, the Italian ones are expanded to contain pages of club news, and tournaments.

The 1978 catalogue has the zombie illustrations from the British catalogue.
1981 is all change, and this era is renowned for the distinct team charts. While the British catalogues turned to drawings of zombie and then lightweight figures, the Italian catalogues persevered with photographs of the teams. These were either taken from stock, or possibly specifically painted for the catalogues, and feature a weird selection of heavyweights, and hybrids among the lightweights - long past the era where these items were sold in the UK. Whilst the British catalogues are quite ruthless in culling out-of-date (or out of favour) teams, if Parodi still had the team in stock, they were clearly happy to keep the team in the catalogue.
These unique photographed team charts still feature in the 1992 catalogue.
The 1994 catalogue finally has the normal team illustrations from the UK catalogue for the official reduced range of that time. However, it has a second team list that still included all the references held in stock by Parodi.
The 1994 catalogue also had pictures for a couple of accessories long departed from the British range.

Netherlands.


1954	1972	Late 1970s Clipper leaflet.

This was another country where the distribution changed hands a couple of times. In the 1950s, a company called Es-Es-Es were handling distribution of the flat sets and accessories. A simple white price-list/order form was provided in the early sets, covering teams and accessories.

The early 1970s saw Waddingtons organising a more professional distribution network. A red catalogue from 1972 has the early run of Dutch teams in the heavyweight range, numbered 82 to 89. As with the German catalogue of similar vintage, this is not illustrated. Here, the descriptions of team colours do differ from the British counterpart, but I've not seen teams to match. My copy of this list seems to lack the name of a distributor.

The next era of Dutch production was overseen by Clipper Games, who also produced many other Waddingtons products such as Monopoly. Clipper produced their own box sets, but the teams and accessories appear to be standard issue. I've seen a single catalogue/leaflet of the period, dated to the late 1970s. This still appears in later lightweight Clipper sets.

The early 1970s Dutch catalogue gives team details that seem to contradict some of the Dutch teams issued on refs 82-89.
International Team Production page has the details. However, no pictures matching these descriptions have ever been sent to me, so it might be the catalogue that is wrong.
The Clipper Box Sets are shown on the International box sets page.
The Clipper catalogue is very similar to the German leaflet of the same vintage, showing the illustration from the British catalogue of 1978. You can compare them on this page.

Spain.

There was an early Spanish range produced by Peter Adolph's Barcelona factory in the 1960s. I've yet to see a catalogue from this output though, and Waddingtons seem to have closed down Spanish production once they took over from Peter Adolph.

Spain 1983

Spanish company Borras produced their own unique range circa 1980-82, to coincide with the 1982 World Cup. This saw unique boxes produced across the range, a revamped World Cup 1982 Edition, and a much expanded Spanish club team range. This team range was not fed back into the standard numbered range (although possibly numbers were assigned in the 500s). Spanish Borras Editions 1982 is the page to visit for this range.

Luckily for us, Borras did produce a small leaflet to show all these products, and this is shown here.

There is also a catalogue dated 1980 produced featuring this Spanish team range.

The "Waddingtons International Limited" Brochure.

This brouchure from 1981 is also shown on the British flyers page. The leaflet explains that it was designed by Waddingtons International Ltd. As such, the blurb was written in five languages (including English). Here, the cover from the British 1981 catalogue is part of the design, but instead of the full catalogue, the two sides show a random (and unnumbered) page of teams, simply to show the selection of colours on offer, plus a selection of the more common accessories. The Club Edition, and the licensed FIFA World Cup Edition are the box sets to feature, perhaps indicating where the range was going in the 1980s. I assume this one was designed for any distributors who did not want to produce their own versions (the Greek language is very noticeable among the options).

Subbuteo Main page.

The full text listing of Subbuteo football accessories.

The Illustrated Accessories List - (Page 1).

The Team Colours Project (Ongoing illustrated team lists).

Subbuteo Football boxed editions, Five-a-side and junior versions.

Subbuteo Catalogues: 1947-1970, 1971-1996 and misc flyers. Catalogues - Japan & NZ

[ Main Page | Previous Page ]