The Italian Subbuteo Fans were far from satisfied with the Results of the new Zombie Figure The introduction of the Zombie figure was met with dissatisfaction among Italian customers, prompting Edilio Parodi to take matters into his own hands. Parodi, recognizing the need for improvement, decided to create his own figures. However, as the bases were likely sourced from England with disc fittings, Parodi had to design his figures to accommodate peg fittings.

The result was the creation of a hybrid figure – a heavyweight footballer styled akin to the work of Charles Stadden’s Heavyweight Figure but it was mounted on a peg. These figures, sometimes referred to as HW Hybrids, seemed promising in theory, combining the style and class of the heavyweight figures with the convenience of peg fittings. However, the casting results were less than satisfactory and the Hw Hybrids were only sold for a few years

This Figure/figures time frame is a bit convoluted and so I have dated it as the same as the Zombie but more likely to be shorter as Arturo Parodi said in a Subbuteoworld interview “We had a figure made in Portugal by a company called Juao Ruano…. They were only done for Parodi just for a short period, maybe one year. I did not like this figure and it didn’t sell well”.

Due to the poor castings the figures look was very hit and miss there are two clear variationand have the Nicknames Micro for the small head, and Hydra for the big one.

The Italian Range Stuck with the Numbered Range that we all know unlike the Portuguese Hybrid/Royals Range… So In Theory all 1-322 may have appeared in this era… on either the Hydra or Micro or prehaps both???

As well as the Main Range The Italian 500’s Range saw a second outing with new teams… such as Roma 2nd etc.. As Well as this the Popular Speciali teams in coloured boxes made an outing too in Hybrid Form…