Three years ago, we as a nation of board game players voted, and told Hasbro to ditch Monopoly’s classic iron token in favor of a cat. Now, with 50 new contenders — including a hashtag (what the heck?!), bunny slipper, and monster truck –bearing down on them, the fate of the eight current Monopoly tokens is once more hanging in the balance.
The Scottie dog, top hat, car, thimble, boot, wheelbarrow, battleship, and newcomer, the cat, are all up from elimination from the Big Brot--, er, Monopoly house, as it were.
Fans can vote online until Jan. 31 and choose up to eight tokens they’d like to see in the upcoming Monopoly update. The current eight figures are in silver on the first page of contenders, followed by pages filled with options in gold like sunglasses, a typewriter, the aforementioned hashtag, a computer, rubber ducky, and an array of other random household items.
Again, no token is safe, so if you also have strong, inexplicable feelings regarding the old shoe, or yes, even the Scottie dog, make yourself heard. Otherwise you may see your beloved childhood friend replaced by a hashtag.
Of course, if you’re like some of us, you haven’t had all eight Monopoly player pieces in decades, and have long resolved to playing with pennies, paperclips, shot glasses, and votive candles.
The results of the voting will be announced on March 19, and the newly-updated game will be sold in stores starting this August.
Monopoly was first introduced in 1935, with the car, thimble, boot, top hat and battleship among the original set of game tokens. The Scottie dog and wheelbarrow were added in the early 1950s, with no other changes taking place until 2013’s introduction of the cat.
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist