As stated elsewhere on this site, Edilio Parodi, both as an individual and through his company, played a crucial role in introducing Subbuteo to Italy during the 1970s to the 1990s, thereby contributing significantly to its popularity in the country. When Hasbro bought Waddingtons and Gained Subbuteo in the process they took all the importing and distribution side of things over removing the need for per country Distibution that Parodi provided… When faced with difficulties in obtaining new Subbuteo products, they created a replica of the game known as Zëugo. This alternative maintained the classic hand-painted aesthetic and featured figures reminiscent of Subbuteo’s golden era in the 1970s.

With Hasbro packed up making Subbuteo in 2000/2001 it left a gap in the market… Parodi in 2002, obtained a licence from Hasbro to make new Subbuteo items for the Italian market specifically but was also sold in the Uk (A lot of the time Exclusive to SubbuteoWorld) and other markets via different websites… To start with Parodi sold off old Stock mostly from last big update of the official range of which was 1996 (Over 80 teams) basically what ever was left over. I suspect it was what ever was left from Hasbro’s Italian operations but no doubt from elsewhere too.

Then in the summer of 2002 new hand-painted teams started to appear. These were mainly versions of existing 1996 kits as shown in the 2002 catalogue, and were probably a way of fulfilling demand for teams whose stock had been exhausted as the finished selling of the Old Stock. The Painting style on these was the thick paint associated with Zëugo. These were painted on old Lw/Hasbro Figures left over and of course sold on old Hasbro bases of which they were still using up…

2003 range Slowly introduced the New figure and base commonly associated to the Black box range designed by Enrico Tecchiati although not all of the the first range had them as they still was using up Lw figures… So it was hit or miss whether or not you’d get the new figures… Commonly the Older Teams still used the Green boxes of which the early teams in the Range was sold in… BUT once the new figures and bases turned up the boxes also changed to the Black Box and the unofficial name for the range was born…

Peter Upton Has the range Better laid out with per years updates to the range etc… http://www.peter-upton.co.uk/parodi2.htm I am however will divide them into Green Box and Black Box page Although it has been seen a New figures and in old boxes it will generally keep the old figures and bases separated from the new figures and bases that the Black box range are known for…