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Peter Upton's

Subbuteo Tribute Website.

Aquila. Barcelona Production in the 1960s.

Page 2: A Potential Team List.

These two pages are essentially a write-up of some excellent research by Spanish collector Jorge Vila.

Sadly, there is no catalogue for the Spanish production of this vintage (or at least, it has not been seen). The teams on this page are pictures sent to me by Jorge Vila of players/teams he owns, along with those seen on Spanish auction sites (and The Subbuteo Museum). This is the sum total of knowledge thus far. However, looking at the Spanish top flight in the period 1964-65 to 1966-67 does give a list of teams that ties into the figures picked up.

It should be noted that teams were available in both the old heavyweight and the original chunky rugby figure. The rugby figures seem to be the more common of the two, oddly. It is also worth noting that Aquila did not mix and match these figures (at least as far as have been seen). The teams were either all old heavyweight, or all rugby figure. This suggests a longer range of production than just a single year.

As the box set is clearly dated  to 1965, we can start by looking at the teams in the Spanish top flight of 1964-65. (16 teams)

At the end of the season, two relegation slots, and two play-offs resulted in relegation for Murcia, Levante, Oviedo and Deportivo. In their place were:

1966-67 saw two further new promotions:

Okay, lets look at the teams. Note that all these teams are on either all red bases or all white. This obviously creates a difficulty when playing the game (if you are a local Barcelona fan with an all red based team, you can at least play most of the others!). Jorge has teams where the top of the base in painted, or just the rim. However, we suspect this was done by the owners rather than Aquila (especially as it is often glossy paint).

This is where a caveat must be inserted. When trying to decide on whether to include non-catalogued teams on the website, I have various rules for teams painted long ago, and these teams frankly break several of my rules.

However, in their favour is the that the Athletic de Bilbao has been sighted in its original bag, and Las Palmas is a brown haired team on a flesh figure. The teams do at least look right for the vintage, and Jorge has been collecting them for a few years. The teams pictured are not all from the same batch.

Plus, of course, we have the use of the rugby figure.

If you disagree with our findings, then feel free to treat this like an art gallery page..... it was too good to miss either way.

FC Barcelona
Levante UD

Real Madrid
Valencia CF

Athletic de Bilbao Atlético de Madrid Córdoba CF

I've started with Barcelona and Real Madrid, who shared kits with Levante and Valencia at this time. Athletic de Bilbao is seen in the original bag at The Subbuteo Museum. Córdoba CF are essentially a reference 36 (albeit with black hair and boots). The ohw style Atlético de Madrid is  re-glued onto a different pair of boots. He also looks a bit black under the shorts, so could be a repainted Bilbao figure making up the numbers... but I didn't have a better picture. The rugby version is more convincing.

Elche CF

RCD Español
CD Málaga

UD Las Palmas

Real Betis

Real Oviedo
Lleida

In this batch, RCD Español and CD Málaga shared a blue and white striped kit, and Jorge has suggested that Real Oviedo shared with a lower league side that was nevertheless local to the Barcelona production (Lleida). Note that Las Palmas has blue socks with yellow tops, unlike reference 47 (and as produced in lightweight as ref 425 in the early 1980s). The ohw is on flesh plastic. Real Betis had all green socks, and they do not look amended. I'm not that convinced by the green colour of Elche here.

Real Zaragoza

Seville FC

Pontevedra CF

CD Sabadell

Granada CF?

In this final batch (for now perhaps), Real Zaragoza have reversed socks to a reference 18, and Seville have just a red sock hoop. CD Sabadell is one of the few players with brown hair and boots. The rugby version of Pontevedra CF has yellow trim to shirt and socks. The old heavyweight lacks this, and looks like he might have been painted over a Barcelona player. Likewise, the late arriving Granada looks like his white socks might be painted over the top of an Atlético de Madrid player (especially on the original blown-up photo I was sent). However, I've left these in, as we know very little about the range, and I'm hoping for some further feedback on it.

In the Spanish team list at the top of the page there are four teams that have yet to be sighted. All of these teams wore kits that are in the British Subbuteo range.

Something to look out for clearly.

It is possible that the usual Subbuteo colours did also get sold in Spain. Jorge has a ref 1 on painted base, and a nice ref 5 (albeit with black hair) on all white. Jorge thinks the ref. one was probably sold as Wales, although another small local team Tarragona, is a possibility (but this might be over thinking things). Although Celta Vigo play in sky blue, they were not top flight until 1969, and had sky socks (and by 1969 the ohws would have surely stopped production).

Repainting Evidence.

Jorge has also sent pictures of the stuff within his main batch of loose players that do show evidence of repainting. I've picked out a couple of representative photos. With the goalkeepers, it is very easy to pick out the glossy, badly painted stuff from the original Subbuteo colours. Very typical of "bedroom" painting, and clearly not done with the skill used on the team players.

It is perhaps less easy to detect the fakes on some of the reds, and the two mystery teams shown. The (rather lovely) ohw with the sash has telltale red paint on the base of one of the figures (Subbuteo painted teams before assembly). The red and black reflect back onto the goalkeepers (the crouching black keeper, and the socks of the glossy blue one). This matt red might also reflect back to Sevilla.

Another Spanish auction picture. The boxed set is cut from this reduced picture, but I left in the accessory bag (just visible to the left), and the teams. You can hopefully see the two box set teams (ohw Barcelona in red bases, and rugby Real Madrid, plus an ohw RCD Español. This page isn't constructed from just a single box of loose figures. These teams (or at least some of them) are out there.

And there we have it. Knowledge shared.

If collectors have thoughts about this team, and page then please contact the website, and I may add a few thoughts and feelings here at the end.   



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