Moulded Heavyweight - Walkers

Another day another moulded team. This is a generic Blue Walker team from the 1960's box sets. These come in long sleeve and short sleeve versions.

Blue Walkers

I'm going to go into more detail on box sets in an upcoming post, in the meantime, this is a typical set where you would find the walker figure.

Display Edition containing Walkers

Moulded Heavyweight - The Scarecrow

Continuing with the moulded heavyweight theme - here are the figure type commonly know as 'scarecrows'. I think they look like George Best or maybe Charlie George.

As in the last 'classic heavyweight' post, the sock variation is evident.

As far as I can work out these figure types were present in the late 60's early 70's and were therefore available side by side with the other moulded styles. Often box sets would include different figure types in the same box, usually full teams, but occasionally just the odd figure.

Generic Red Moulded Scarecrow

Generic Red Moulded Scarecrow (with sock top)

(The Goalkeeper is a Santiago Replica I painted up to accompany the team.)

If you have any extra information about these figures I'd be delighted to here from you.

Moulded Classic Heavyweight - Generic Red

Moulded figures from the sixties and seventies took a variety of forms, as I have discussed on the blog already. Today's post shows the moulded classic heavyweight figure. It's the same as a regular HW but the feet are attached to the disc (so it is one piece...moulded in fact).

This figure type usually turns up as the generic red and blue teams, but England, reference 154 is fairly common too. The Football Express boxes also contain them, and there again they turn up in a variety of other kits (see my earlier post on this).

I've photographed two of the generic red teams I own. First up you can see the difference in the shades of red. Secondly the team on the left has white socks and the other is basically a reference 161.

Generic Red Classic Moulded Heavyweight

Sport Billy

With a massive head and incredibly ugly visage, Sport Billy came onto the Subbuteo scene in 1981. Aimed at the younger player it was a flop and sold badly. It didn't last long, only until 1982.

I was desperate for a Sport Billy Football box set as a kid, even though I was probably too old at the time. I had a paper round and cash to burn (that's not true actually, but I'm building this up a little), I remember gazing at the catalogue wishing I had one. The strange thing is I never, 'NEVER' saw it in a shop.

I imagine the 12 year old me would have been very disappointed had he managed to get his hands on a set. The reason being, the players are garbage - they are top heavy and impossible to flick more than a few centimetres. They will not be swerved, under any circumstances, believe me I've tried.

You only appreciate their size, they are four inches high, when compared with a regular HW. Most striking though is how ugly they are - they are hideous, they shock me and are enough to put off any kid. They are nice to hold though, weighty, sturdy, very satisfying. If only their faces weren't so very, very ugly.

...did I mention they are really ugly?

Sport Billy - ugly bleeders

Sport Behemoth (Billy)

Moulded Heavyweights - The Scarecrow

Moulded heavyweight players came in box sets during the 60's and 70's. There were four distinct types of figure - these have been named by collectors, walker, winged short, scarecrow and moulded heavyweight. Figures usually came in ref 1 & ref 2 (standard club edition fare), but are also fairly common in ref 154.

The moulded figures came in Football Express boxes too, and here we find them in a variety of different kits, namely 1, 2, 5, 7, 10, 16, 21, 25, 41, 42.

I intend to post up examples of each of the four figure types this month to run alongside the accessories. Today we look at my favourite. the 'scarecrow'. The figure has a typical 70's haircut and he looks a little on the scruffy side, he reminds me of George Best. These figures usually come in red/white & blue/white kits but I've also seen an all white and an England 154.

The two ref 1 examples here show that they can come with painted sock tops - which actually makes them a 161 - from experience I believe the 'all white' sock is the more common variation.

Generic Red Scarecrow

Generic Red Scarecrow with sock tops