Last month, Hasbro announced plans to release a new edition of the perennial favorite board game, Monopoly. As part of the re-release, they wanted to overhaul the tokens used by players — as they’ve done several times in the past — as well as engage customers in the decision making process. The new version of the game, which will be released in August, contains a total of eight player tokens. For the first time in the long history of Monopoly, the thimble will not be one of them.
Originally released in 1933 during the Great Depression, Monopoly started with four tokens: the thimble, top hat, race car, and boot. All of these tokens made sense in the 30’s, though several make less sense in present times. The thimble may be a casualty of misunderstanding, as most likely have never even seen a thimble outside of Monopoly (it’s a sewing implement worn on your thumb or finger to keep the needle from stabbing you while sewing, btw).
The game has had a total of 20 different player tokens in its history and has periodically updated the available tokens to modernize the game, though those original four have endured for over 80 years. This isn’t the first time that Hasbro has put the token decision to a vote either. Just a few years ago the iron token was voted out in favor of a cat charm. Over 4 million people voted in this most recent “Monopoly Token Madness campaign” and the thimble was voted off.
Hasbro has not divulged what the new player token for Monopoly will be, though they intend to unveil all eight tokens on March 19th, a date they refer to as World Monopoly Day. Some of the available choices were a T-Rex, rubber duck, and an emoji. Out of those three, I’m hoping for the emoji T-Rex.
Board games have absolutely been making a comeback in recent years, with events like GenCon highlighting the newest trends in tabletop gaming. Monopoly continues to be popular, so it makes sense that Hasbro would be interested in keeping the game relevant.
Are you sad to see the thimble go? Did you even know what the thimble was? Tell us what you think in the comment section below or on Google+, Facebook, or Twitter.
[button link=”http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/16/monopoly-says-goodbye-to-iconic-thimble-token.html” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: CNBC[/button]
