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Oh quick point as I mentioned them in a previous post, if you did want to follow me on Twitter or Instragram, it's @stewiebaby.

Getting the first set

First things first what a great view from where I'm writing this...

Anyway back to Subbuteo

I've made up my mind. I'm doing this I've told my girlfriend it's happening at some point. Finally I get a day off to myself. The night before I'm looking on every website possible to find out where I can buy the newest Subbuteo set. Tesco is cheapest

So, living near one of biggest Tesco's in England, having the day off work, and having to drive past it when taking the better half to work, I decide to get it on the way back. Can you believe it, they don't actually have any in store, whatever happened to the days when everywhere sold Subbuteo. The morning wasn't all lost... Cheeky fly up in the Tesco cafe which gave me time to hit the internet again and find out who sells them.

Looking on the internet and making calls to various independent and chain toy shops I couldn't believe how many people didn't sell Subbuteo nowadays. At least one guy told me the reason he didn't sell it, "it's was rubbish compared to the older ones". That didn't matter to me, it wasn't to play with. it was to build and admire, and maybe (most likely, as I'm a Twitter and Intragam hound) take some photos off.

After making all the calls I found the only places that sold it locally were Argos and Toys R Us. I'll be honest I really couldn't be brothered to drive anywhere else so I headed home, crashed on the sofa and spent the afternoon on every different website dedicated to Subbuteo.

I'd be up for going to go get up then I'd be ready to order it online. Problem with ordering online is I wanted now, now, on my day, I off didn't want to wait. 

The sofa was beginning to bore me so I popped for walk down my local boardway. There must be every charity shop possible down there, so I thought one of them must have something. None! In any of them! I put my name down in a few places and got talking about it to a few, shall we say, older, people who knew what I wanted, and was told said had never seen Subbuteo. It was clearly a collectable.

I got really frustrated not being able to get it, so while in Costa Coffee, sulking I couldn't get it from a charity shop, I went onto to my Argos app, reserved it and went home and headed to car. I drove to Argos like a child on Christmas Day.

In I go, I pay, I wait, I collect. I regret. Yes regret, this box doesn't feel like £39.97. It feels cheap and nasty, not even shirk wrapped, taped shut. Oh well it's what's in the box that's counts. Home I head.

As soon as I get in, out comes the ladder and up into the loft I go. The box gets opened and to be honest the packaging does feel really poor and cheap, even the part holding holding the players in. There's one ball (only one, shocking), a classic red team, a classic blue team, two goal frames, two pure white nets and the pitch. Oh the pitch, when I younger I was lucky to have the astropitch, nothing could top that but this new pitch felt so much better than the ones of the 80's / 90's. It felt great, really made up for the crappy box they had been using. The goals were a different matter, they looked great in the box, but how unpractical and fidderly to get the nets on. Took me about 15 minutes a goal. Once on however they did shine very white and stood very well at either end of the pitch

The teams felt ok different to the light weight (learnt this from the internet) teams I was used too, but it didn't matter I wasn't playing it, I was building it. I set it up and stood back at what I had started. It felt I had started a Sunday team with no stadium, and I was going to be the owner that took them to the top and built a stadium the fans would be proud off. It had to start somewhere and it was Sunday league, just a pitch, two teams, two goals and a goal.

Once I had climbed down from the loft and stop thinking of the Sunday league game on in my loft, Toy Story esque. I hit the Internet to beging building the rest of the stadium. This was happening. 

What I always wanted

So I've been doing this 'project' since around May, so have a bit to write until we are up to date. But hey ho, let's start at the beginning.

The beginning was around 5 years ago... kind of. I guess the real beginning was being a 7 year old boy watching Itaila '90 playing with my Subbuteo set. I don't know if it was a Christmas or birthday present but I remember it so well.

I had the Italia '90 set. The goals, the balls, the pitch, all with the Italia '90 logo on. I had Argentina, England (who also doubled as Tottenham), Italy, and Arsenal plus some others. I also had a one terrance, one corner stand, and one grandstand, along with referees, fences, scoreboard, the lot. All the accessories you could think off. But what I really wanted was the stadium, the full stadium you would see in the catalogues, floodlights, the lot (gutted I never owe ned floodlights. As a family we even had the Subbuteo computer game on either the Amiga 600 or the Commdore 64.

I used to set the whole thing up, all three stands, and play against myself, being an only child, it meant I always won. I would sometimes sneak into to mums room and borrow the old VHSmini camcorder and make stop motion videos with it, recording a second at a time then moving the players along. Used to get moaned at for not tidying it away too. Think I got the idea from Art Attack or Blue Peter, defiantly some children's TV program. They did it with something else but I used my Subbuteo.

That went for a good few years, but as many children do, I got rid of it, not realising one day I'd want it all back, or the vaule it could have. As kids, we just grow up too fast and suddenly the things we have, the toys we loved, are no longer cool and we want the newest computer game or money to go out. Althought I also remember after being rid of it, still going into Toy R Us and looking at the teams and accessories. 

Anyway I digress, move forward until around 5 years ago, living with friend we would talk about our future man caves. We would get geeky and nerdy and he would say "I'd love a train set in the loft when I'm really old" to which I would reply "a Subbuteo set up would be epic". That's was it I'd planted the seed in my head and being the rather obsessive person I am.

The seed stayed domant until last October when I moved into a beautiful flat with my girlfriend. On moving in I headed into the loft and could not believe the size of it, massive, the size of the whole flat, all boarded with room to fully stand up and walk around.

All the jokes went round, of what we could have up there a bar, a music room and such, it's was definalty going to be mine, my better half hates it up there. Around May, I decided I wanted to set up and collect what I always wanted years ago, my Subbuteo Stadium. So that is what I begun to plan and toy around with...