Monopoly has eight new game pieces. Since eight new pieces are in, it means eight old pieces are out. Millions of people have played Monopoly over the years. Now they will see new pieces added to the Board Game while some familiar pieces are no longer there.
The board game was launched in the United States in 1935. Fans have seen many changes throughout the years, and now they are seeing more changes to keep up with modern times. The pieces voted on represent the interests of fans around the world.
Who voted?
Anyone could have voted in the "Monopoly Token Madness" campaign that was held online in January.
More than 4.3 million people voted from 146 countries. They chose from a list of 64 potential tokens in order to decide which eight would be selected. Some interesting pieces were on the list, but they were not selected. The tokens not selected included a television set, a flip-flop, a cellphone, a hashtag, smiley face emojis, aviator sunglasses, and a bunny slipper.
After all the votes were tallied, Hasbro announced on Friday, March 17 which pieces are in and which pieces are out. The announcement of the unveiling came just a couple of days before World Monopoly Day on March 19.
New tokens
According to Jonathan Berkowitz, senior vice president of marketing for Hasbro Gaming, the new tokens will be included in the Monopoly games that will be on the market in September 2017.
Monopoly players voted to keep the Scottie dog, top hat, car, battleship and cat. They also voted on three new pieces including the rubber ducky, a Tyrannosaurus Rex and penguin. It appears to have been emotional choices, according to Hasbro Australia’s Brand Manager of Games, Tiffany Vibert.
Boot, wheelbarrow, thimble ousted from Monopoly board game https://t.co/p2ypfquZsA pic.twitter.com/ix8gWIBKn5
— ABC News (@ABC) March 19, 2017
Boot, wheelbarrow, thimble ousted from Monopoly board game https://t.co/p2ypfquZsA pic.twitter.com/ix8gWIBKn5
— ABC News (@ABC) March 19, 2017
Pieces replaced
The thimble and the boot were available from 1937 until this year. The wheelbarrow was part of the game from 1942 until 2017. Today's fans didn't seem to like those pieces. It was probably because they had never used a thimble, and they didn't know what a wheelbarrow is. Those who voted seemed to have voted for pieces they could relate to.