Forget the thimble, now it’s a duck and a dinosaur for Monopoly
THE boot has been booted, the wheelbarrow has been wheeled out, and the thimble got the thumbs down in the latest version of the board game Monopoly. In their place will be a Tyrannosaurus rex, a penguin and a toy duck.
More than 4.3 million people from 146 countries, including the UK, voted on which tokens they wanted to see in future versions of the property-acquisition game, the original edition of which is based on the real-life streets of Atlantic City. The game’s owners, Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, announced the winners yesterday.
Jonathan Berkowitz, Hasbro’s senior vice president of marketing, grew up playing the game with his family.
“While I’m sad to see the iconic thimble, boot, and wheelbarrow tokens go, it will be fun to have some new, fan-sourced tokens in the mix,” he said.
“Personally, I’ve always especially liked the boot token, but I’m excited to move on to the T rex.”
There were 64 contenders, including a winking emoji, a hashtag, a clunky Eighties-style cellphone and a pair of bunny slippers.
The existing Scottish Terrier, battleship, racing car, top hat and cat tokens will be maintained.
The Scottie was top dog in the competition, leading all contenders with 212,476 votes. The T rex was second with 207,954, and the hat was third with 167,582. The car was fourth with 165,083; the duck was fifth with 160,485; the cat was sixth with 154,165; the penguin waddled into seventh place with 146,661; and the battleship made the final cut with 134,704 votes.
The closest unsuccessful candidate was a tortoise, which fell nearly 5,700 votes short. A wellington boot got the least support, with 7,239 votes.
The next version will go on sale with the new tokens in the autumn.
The board game was launched on March 19 1935, subtitled “The fast-dealing property rights game”, when Parker Brothers acquired the rights.
In the decades since, an estimated one billion people around the world have played at buying up utilities and railway stations or going all out for hotels on the most expensive city streets.
The 10 original tokens on the Monopoly board were an iron, purse, lantern, racing car, thimble, shoe, top hat, battleship, cannon and a rocking horse.