It goes without saying that we are living in crazy times and no one is safe. Not even Monopoly pieces. ESPECIALLY Monopoly pieces. Hasbro just announced a huge shakeup in the classic boardgame’s iconic avatar lineup. Gone are the boot, wheelbarrow, and thimble tokens. Which is devastating. I mean: how you gonna get rid of the THIMBLE? The patron game piece of spinsters and maiden aunts everywhere! I LOVED THE THIMBLE. It just might be the biggest mistake in THE HISTORY of boardgames. Maybe the history of mankind.
Via CNN:
The ouster of the classic trio is the result of an online vote Monopoly parent Hasbro (HAS) held in January at VoteMonopoly.com, marking the first time in Monopoly’s 82-year history that Hasbro crowdsourced the future of the game.
Voters were faced with a choice: Should Hasbro replace some — or all — of the traditional game pieces like the top hat and boot with more culturally relevant items like a hashtag, emoji or computer?
Monopoly fans were asked to select their favorite eight tokens from 64 possible options. A total of 56 were entirely new, while the other eight were the classics. The new options included a Major Key, a #hashtag, a winky face emoji, a thumbs up/Like button, a computer, a kissy face emoji, a classic smiley face, or a Rich Uncle Pennybags emoji (see below, below)
More than 4.3 million votes decided the new lineup, which now includes: a T-Rex, a rubber ducky, and a penguin who will join the five classic tokens Scottie the dog, hat, car, cat and battleship. The boot, wheelbarrow and thimble won’t appear in the game starting this fall.
The new games pieces, above. The classic eight, below.