The display set was introduced in the 1966 / 67 season as Subbuteo moved to plastic 00 scale figures.
Introduced alongside the Club edition, the Display set provided a cheaper alternative by not including a playing pitch. Personally it’s actually my favourite set because its such a prefect size compared to the bulkier boxes containing pitches. The cellophane display panel is often missing on sets sold nowadays, but you can still find it.
The set also featured the new solid ball, wicket bases, plastic 00 scale figures and fielders with catching bases, meaning a change of rules from the Card and Celluloid set games.
The one paying piece to survive the change was the bowler figure, which is a straight lift from the Celluloid set. A slightly unfathomable decision by Subbuteo, considering how easily these could be broken.
The game also now came with a 00 scale bowler that could have sat very well in the bowler’s base – in fact many players, once their original figure had broken, replaced it with the 00 scale bowler themselves. You can see plenty of these in sets being sold on eBay and elsewhere.
Some Display sets featured players with smaller catching cups in the bases than in other 00 sets, although this isn’t universal. I’ve never seen an explanation of why the variation existed. Most sets have fielders wearing light blue caps and batters (a striker and a non-striking figure) in red caps, but again this can be reversed. Those sets are less common though.
As with all the 00 scale versions, the set didn’t include fencing either. The middle image below shows the set with the separate accessory white fence of the time. The full contents of the set can also be seen below right.
The Display edition had a limited shelf life and was withdrawn in the 1971/2 season.
Subbuteo Cricket 