Editing Subbuteo (section)

== History ==
[[file:Peter Adolph plaque Tunbridge Wells.jpg|thumb|left|Heritage plaque commemorating Peter Adolph's Subbuteo factory in [[Royal Tunbridge Wells]]]]

Subbuteo was invented by Peter Adolph (1916–1994), who was [[Demobilization|demobbed]] from the [[Royal Air Force]] after the end of [[World War II]]. Searching for a new business opportunity he turned his attention to creating a new table-top football game. He adapted his game from [[Newfooty]], a table football game that had been invented in 1929 by William Lane Keeling of Liverpool. He made numerous improvements, including changing the heavy [[lead]] bases under the model players to lighter materials, using for his prototype a button from his mother's coat and a [[Washer (hardware)|washer]].<ref name="martin">{{cite book |last=Martin |first=Kathy |title=Famous Brand Names and Their Origins |date=19 February 2017 |publisher=Pen and Sword |isbn=9781781590157 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=c76wDQAAQBAJ&dq=peter%20adolph%20subbuteo%20tunbridge%20wells&pg=PA146 |access-date=1 February 2017}}</ref>

In August 1946 Peter Adolph filed an outline [[patent application]] for the game, which was not finalised until May 1947. The August 1946 edition of ''The [[Boy's Own Paper]]'' first announced Subbuteo's availability and offered to send details, but sets were not available until March 1947. According to rumours, after the early adverts, orders started to pour in as Adolph set about converting his patent idea into a deliverable product.<ref name="martin"/>

[[file:Subbuteo HeavyWeightPlayers1.jpg|thumb|Heavy weight players from the 1970s. The one on the left is a customised figurine representing an [[AS Monaco FC|AS Monaco]] player. The other two are as originally painted, reference 6 in yellow and ref 65 in white, representing England]]

The first Subbuteo sets, known as the Assembly Outfits, consisted of goals made of wire with paper nets, a [[cellulose]] [[acetate]] ball, cardboard playing figures in two basic kits (red shirts with white shorts, and blue shirts with white shorts) and bases made from buttons weighed down with lead washers. The story is that Peter found one of his mother's coat buttons and used [[Woolworths (United Kingdom)|Woolworth]] buttons for the early set bases. No pitch was provided: instead, the purchaser was given instructions on how to mark out (with chalk, provided) a playing area on to a blanket (an old army blanket was recommended). The first sets were eventually available in March 1947, several months after the original advertisement appeared. The first figures were made of flat cardboard cut out of a long strip. Later these card players came in press-out strips before being replaced with two-dimensional celluloid figures, known to collectors as "flats".

Early production of Subbuteo was centred in [[Langton Green]], near [[Royal Tunbridge Wells]] in Kent. Following the advent of the [[OO gauge|OO scale]] players the player figures were individually hand painted by local outworkers in their own homes.

[[file:Subbuteo-80s.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Players in national team colours from the late 1980s. The main figure is in the colours of the reference 457 Argentina team, while the figure in the foreground is in the colours of the reference 410 Brazil team]]

In its early years, Subbuteo had a fierce rivalry with Newfooty. In the run-up to Christmas 1961, Adolph introduced a three-dimensional handpainted plastic figure into the range. After several design modifications, this figure evolved by 1967 into the classic "heavyweight" figure pictured. Newfooty ceased trading in 1961 after a failed television advertising campaign but its demise is thought to be linked to the launch of the moulded Subbuteo players. There were several further evolutions of figure design. In 1978 the "zombie" figure was introduced to facilitate the machine painting of figures. After much negative feedback, the zombie figure was replaced in 1980 by the "lightweight" figure that continued until the 1990s when Hasbro acquired Waddingtons Games, which owned Subbuteo.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/subbuteo-wayne-rooney-as-you-ve-never-seen-him-before-5349959.html |title=Subbuteo: Wayne Rooney, as you've never seen him before |date=15 March 2005 |work=The Independent |access-date=1 December 2020 |archive-date=30 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030184733/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/subbuteo-wayne-rooney-as-you-ve-never-seen-him-before-5349959.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

After Hasbro bought Waddington Games in 1994, Subbuteo sales declined from about 150,000 sets per year to 3,000 in 2002 and just 500 sets in 2003, when production was stopped.<ref name="auto1" />

[[Hasbro]] relaunched Subbuteo in 2005 with flat photorealistic card-style figures on bases, rather than three-dimensional figures. The relaunch was not a success and was again discontinued.

In 2012, Hasbro licensed Subbuteo to [[Eleven Force]] and it returned to the shops with a new style of three-dimensional rubber figures, launching Subbuteo into its eighth decade of production. Subbuteo also made other things for the collector, such as stands to create a stadium, cups, crowds, policemen and much more.

In 2020, Hasbro awarded the licence to [[Longshore (company)|Longshore]], although Eleven Force remained Subbuteo's Spanish distributor. It was reported that Hasbro had been unhappy with Elevenforce's lack of interest in markets outside Spain.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://subbuteo.online/why-hasbro-chose-a-little-known-hong-kong-company-for-subbuteo |title=Why Hasbro chose a little-known Hong Kong company for Subbuteo |work=Subbuteo.onlin |date=10 June 2020 |access-date=1 December 2020 |archive-date=16 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116174732/https://subbuteo.online/why-hasbro-chose-a-little-known-hong-kong-company-for-subbuteo |url-status=live }}</ref> In May 2020, Subbuteo World, a long-term UK seller of Subbuteo, announced it was advising Longshore, and that there would be new teams, a Subbuteo VAR set, and new fences.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://subbuteo.online/new-subbuteo-owner-reveals-exciting-plans-for-the-brand |title=New Subbuteo owner reveals exciting plans for the brand |date=1 June 2020 |access-date=1 December 2020 |archive-date=18 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218123523/http://subbuteo.online/new-subbuteo-owner-reveals-exciting-plans-for-the-brand |url-status=live }}</ref>

Subbuteo is a registered trademark of Hasbro Inc.