Production began at the end of the 1960s. The figure was created by Charles Stadden, the designer trusted by Subbuteo Ltd., and throughout the 1970s it ruled the scene unchallenged, made in 322 references plus countless variants. The figure was fixed to the base with the classic bar; the assembly, often done by housewives living around the factory at Tunbridge Wells in Kent, was not always the best, but the result was always the same: a charm that still drives hundreds of collectors around the world wild, as they compete in online auctions, at crazy prices, for the rarest teams. Buying a team did not mean owning just one. The same shirt, for example, could be used for several teams, even from different countries. The catalogue made thousands of boys dream: walking into a toy shop meant facing a green wall there was no escaping. With this type of player came the legend of the so-called "dux" bases, a particular kind of base slightly wider than the originals, usually white. You would find one, two, sometimes three in a single team, and many players at the time took these hard-to-find bases off five or six different teams to make up a full side of these rarities. This model of player left the scene in the early 1980s, replaced by the new LightWeights, but for competitive players it is still the best today, copied many times by imitations that do not even come close to its unrivalled beauty.
In the early 1980s the LightWeights, so called because the figure was lighter, began to appear in the catalogue alongside the HeavyWeights. The aim was to improve the look and modernise the earlier figures, which felt too 1970s. At first hand-painted, later also printed with the various sponsors on the shirts, they covered a much wider range than the previous catalogue, but with less success: at first snubbed by competitive players because they were too light, they did not win the public over either, as the unrealistic pose and the awkward figure hardly thrilled the purists of the game. This figure, however, brought with it the future development of modern Subbuteo: the peg fixing to the base is still used in today's figures. Many players use LightWeights on modern bases, since the peg replaced the bar, which broke far more easily, and also gives the figure a better balance. There are still collectors who love this type of figure and, in some cases, certain much sought-after references fetch very high prices. Among the famous collectors is Gianluigi Buffon, whose collection is said to exceed 600 pieces.
Scarecrow, Winged Shorts, Walkers, HeavyLight: what are they? With these figures the three-dimensional era began: no longer celluloid figures, but three-dimensional plastic ones! A remarkable step forward: the figure is lower and so is its centre of gravity, and the base is no longer the size of a small button but wider. Spin shots remain fairly easy, but this important change allows tackles from quite a distance. But why those names? What sets them apart is that the inner (a small disc under the feet) is attached to the figure and fits into the base as a single piece, rather than with the bar like the Flats. The Scarecrows, certainly the least attractive, have a figure with arms and legs spread wide; they were made in few colours and dropped almost at once, replaced by the Winged Shorts, named after their seagull-wing shorts: the figure is taller and better centred, a much improved design. They were made in greater numbers than the earlier ones, and there are even teams such as Celtic and England. The Walkers, so called because one foot is ahead of the other, giving the impression of a man out for a stroll, chest out and imposing posture, are the reincarnation of the players of the 1950s and '60s, and are still much appreciated today by competitive players in Subbuteo tournaments. Finally, the figure that would define an era, the queen of figures, was born as a Moulded figure and then turned into a figure with the bar, known as the HeavyWeight, made in more than three hundred references of teams from all over the world!