Hasbro announced it is holding an election to oust one of Monopoly's existing game pieces and replacing it with a new one. The existing pieces are: race car, iron, Scottie dog, wheelbarrow, shoe, top hat, thimble, battleship. The new candidates are: cat, helicopter, diamond ring, guitar,robot.

A limited-run "Golden Token" Monopoly ($17.99) arrives in Target stores exclusively in mid-February, and it will be the last edition to have all of the classic tokens and the only set to have all five of the potential new pieces as well. The first Monopoly game to reflect the new token lineup will be released in late summer.

Token change for 'Monopoly' to replace an iconic piece (Via World's Best Ever)

Read more in Family at Boing Boing

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

TAGS: family Games

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daneyul

Who ever picks the thimble? I personally would love to have a robot wreaking havoc on the puny hotels of my opponents.
- Bersl
  
  I picked the thimble.
  
  I also usually got defrauded by a former friend who made up rules which I gullibly followed.
  - http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher
    
    It sounds like your friend understood the real life applications of Monopoly: if you have no scruples and can convince others to go along with you your ability to amass wealth is limitless.
    - TripleE78
      
      VERY true. I once sat witness to a game where someone opted to NOT collect all of another player’s loot if it got them out of the game, since it gave him more money to keep charging rents from the poorest players without taking them completely out of the game.
      
      Note that this was a tournament where you’d play in groups of 4 for a set period of time, and whoever had the most cash at the end of the period went to the next round. You could probably game it slightly for regular monopoly though too (squeeze cash out of the poorest longer so you can use it against the 2nd and 3rd richest).
      
      Again, real life parallels work well here. Keep the poor guy in the system, and make it look like you’re doing him a favor, so you make even more money.
      - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=762749420 Emily Collins
        
        I tend to let my friend give me IOU cards (piece of paper with what they owe me written down) so they don’t go bankrupt. Then, if they manage to land on free parking, I get most of their winnings and we continue playing :D
Sqube

You get rid of the racecar at your own peril, Hasbro.
- Donald Petersen
  
  Damn straight. If they do, they lose at least two players.
  
  That said… there’s a battleship?
http://2000ah.blogspot.com/ Edward

Let us add the robot.
http://twitter.com/austinburns Austin Burns

If mustache robot doesn’t win, there is no justice in this world.
Jorpho

Of course we all know this is just an excuse to give a big marketing push to said “‘Golden Token’ Monopoly ($17.99)”, right?

I can’t even remember when the battleship came in. That can go. (The version I am familiar with used the cannon. Too violent, I guess?)
- millie fink
  
  I was thinking that too. This choose-a-new-token thing is a great marketing strategy.
  - Petzl
    
    It also gives the opportunity for viral protests to retain the “classic” tokens.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  I’d completely forgotten about the cannon!
  
  I feel sorry for Monopoly these days with the likes of Catan becoming more mainstream – which is really a good thing, as it promotes strategy and trade, rather than greed and arguments – but at the same time it makes me sad that no one will play Monopoly with me…
  - http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher
    
    The only thing that prevents me from doing so is geography. Well, I guess really it’s the expense. I would love to go back to Britain, and a friendly game of Monopoly would be as good a reason as any. But it’s simply not possible because of my present budget.
    - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
      
      Monopoly certainly isn’t worth a trip across the Atlantic.
      - http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher
        
        I wasn’t thinking so much of Monopoly specifically as the simple pleasure of playing a game with another person. Since I also love to travel I’d consider the trip an added bonus.
      - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
        
        I’d say get yourself onto one of the money online variants, but unless you can fiddle with the pieces it’s just not the same…
      - IronEdithKidd
        
        Play it like long-distance chess, perhaps over Skype.
      - Tynam
        
        Then why not travel to a board game convention? You can do both, in spades, and get to play a variety of other (and better) games as a bonus.
      - http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers
        
        You might be able to squeeze in one game if you’re forced to drift across the Atlantic in a lifeboat and happen to have a board handy..
Mike Robinson

Let’s be honest, thimble is getting replaced by robot. They know it. We know it. The rest is just marketing fluff.
Shibi_SF

Cat. This is about the cat.
- DreamboatSkanky
  
  LOL.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  The age of dog is over. The time of the cat has come.
  - Shibi_SF
    
    Amen!
http://twitter.com/a_w_young a_w_young

The dog inevitably ends up being run over by a car driven by someone with a mean streak that lands on the same space anyway. Might as well get ahead of the curve and get rid of the guy for his own safety.
TheOven

In other news, checkers switching to a slightly different red. WGaF?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5LZRT6P3DZDXBE766NAUKUEGPM Stumpy

The dog can stand on his nose. Everything else is just some weird game about property and abusing the role of the banker.
- Wreckrob8
  
  My family used to play a version in which the role of a single, authoritarian banker was abolished. The money was placed in reach of everybody and we would all take on the role of banker as and when required.
naufragio

Why not Zoidberg?
- Felton / Moderator
  
  Hurray for Zoidberg!
- http://twitter.com/EleOcho L8
  
  Strange enough, the official Futurama Monopoly doesn’t include Zoidberg as a token: http://www.usaopolygames.com/futurama/
  - Felton / Moderator
    
    Or any other major character besides Bender. And even the Bender piece is missing his shiny metal ass.
James Turner

I’m going to wait for the new boardgame where you have to keep coming up with desperate new marketing strategies in a transparent attempt to keep people interested in a tired old game that should have been retired years ago. Hours of fun for all the family!
- Jorpho
  
  “The object of Monopoly is to fully explore the sensations of boredom, sorrow and rage. In this sense, EVERYONE’s a winner, as it’ll become clear in the first 30 minutes that you’ve lost, yet the game will grind on for hours and hours after that. It is during this time that you will explore these emotions. It is during this time that you will wonder what you did to deserve this. It is is during this time that you will begin to despise the Brothers Parker.”
  
  http://www.qwantz.com/comics/comic2-1955.png
  - Tynam
    
    …you used to play with the money-on-free-parking house rule, right?
  - Paul Renault
    
    Gave you a ‘Liked’. Both thumbs up!
    
    Really, I’ve never understood why anyone would want to play Monopoly more than twice.
Timothy Krause

Those seem like sweeping changes, not token ones at all.
Jack Daniel

“End of Line.” -Thimble
peregrinus

Don’t all be so sure on the thimble. It’s the only piece you can comfortably stick up your nose to disgust your opponents while you steal money from the bank.
RedShirt77

What is an Iron?
- Shibi_SF
  
  Iron: Not for use on a hoodie. No longer needed for jeans, either.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Useful for sheets and handkerchiefs though.
PathosBill

Ok, so here’s one argument for having (access to) a 3D printer :)
bzishi

Both the cat and the robot would look good wearing the top hat.
http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

Don’t troll me, hasBro!
CLamb

Why does one of the existing pieces have to go if a new piece is added? Is the profit margin on the game that tight?
http://celesteagnes.blogspot.com/ Sekino

I like the thimble! I think the battleship should go. Battleships have a game of their own anyway ;) The robot or the cat should be in.
Souse

You peasants like the shoe?!?
- IronEdithKidd
  
  Inorite? Ditch it for the cat. That way the cat and the dog can battle it out for rentier supremacy.
C.J. Hayes

Awww, that was the only pet dog I ever had. The sad.
dave3

“Monopoly to lose one of its classic tokens”
No surprise, I’ve lost most of them already.
http://twitter.com/JennyWeen Jenny

Once up on a time my nephews got in a fight over who got to be the battleship. The fight ended on my 5 year old nephew swallowing the battleship and having to go to the emergency room for x-rays. In the x-ray you can see the little battleship floating perfectly in his stomach. So due to that incident I think the battleship should go. I’m very fond of the iron, the top hat and the shoe, but I guess the wheelbarrow can go, too. I think they should just add all the new ones and keep the old one. The robot is pretty kick ass and the cat is adorable.
- Bevatron Repairman
  
  You really must post that image to this thread!
- franko
  
  the wheelbarrow always tips over. i agree. wheelbarrow can go.
Tostie14

The current MONOPOLY World Champion used the iron at the 2009 World Championships. You can learn more about it in my film, “Under the Boardwalk: The MONOPOLY Story,” available on Netflix, iTunes, and Amazon. MonopolyDVD.com
Heather Booth

My kids found an old book on Monopoly strategy at their grandmother’s house and read it until it fell apart. The deal-making strategies it recommended were truly Machiavellian. They *loved* it. I learned not to accept any deal they offered. I wish I could find a copy of that book!
Karl S.

This has 4chan written all over it.
- Ashen Victor
  
  God help us!!!
- rrh
  
  Sure, if they could have write-in votes for pedobear or something.
  
  Limited to five corporate-approved choices, this is like the M&M vote for favourite colour or the Frankenberry vs. Count Chocola fake rivalry.
http://twitter.com/TimmoWarner Timmo Warner

Did I read that correctly? The horse and rider isn’t a Monopoly piece anymore?

I’m ALWAYS the horse and rider!
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  The helm and the hauberk and the bright hair flowing are gone, too.
Tribune

On sale for Christmas 2013 “Classic Monopoly” with all original pieces? or maybe 2014.
And lets face it someone will promote the cat on 4chan and the race to replace will be done.
Milo

Monopoly has been missing the single most important piece since its inception: the thief.
Finnagain

The tokens were the best thing about Monopoly. Wait, they were the ONLY good thing about Monopoly.
Finnagain

My random etymology widget just gave me this:

monopoly
“exclusive control of a commodity or trade,” 1534, from L. monopolium, from Gk. monopolion “right of exclusive sale,” from mono- (q.v.) polein “to sell,” from PIE base *pel- “to sell, purchase, barter, gain” (cf. Skt. panate “barters, purchases,” Lith. pelnas “gain,” O.C.S. splenu, Rus. polon “prey, booty,” O.N. falr, Du. veil, Ger. feil “for sale, venal”). The popular board game, invented by Charles Darrow, is from 1935. Monopoly money “unreal currency” is attested from 1972, in ref. to the game. Monopolize first recorded 1611; monopolistic is from 1883.
Talia

Growing up, I ‘d always insist on playing the dog. It would be evil to destroy my childhood by getting rid of it. DON’T BE EVIL, Hasbro!
Urbane_Gorilla

Lose the flat iron….Add the robot…What’s more appropriate for Monopoly than a robot banker after all the robo-signing they were involved in.
- http://www.facebook.com/heather.cristofaro Heather Cristofaro
  
  You play with the iron if you were the person that took a bathroom break or went to the kitchen while the game was being setup. It’s the worst.
  - Urbane_Gorilla
    
    And such a sexist icon too! ;=)
    - http://supercarrot.com/ supercarrot
      
      how’s that?
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Well, Queen Mab can’t touch it.
      - Urbane_Gorilla
        
        Boys toys : Top hats, race cars…. Women’s work ; Thimbles and flat irons…
      - Finnagain
        
        Pretend it’s not a flat iron, but a very manly man’s man sort of bricklayer’s trowel.
      - http://supercarrot.com/ supercarrot
        
        i’m sure there are plenty of tailors that can prove you wrong.
    - Donald Petersen
      
      FWIW, I entered my second marriage as the only party possessing an iron and the skillset to use it. And a handsome, hardly-scorched ironing board as well. But then, my wife came from a famous family of godless Communists, and was the second generation to keep her “maiden” name.
      
      As it happens, I enjoy my biannual ironing sessions. As for the game of Monotony, however, I won’t play it anymore. She and I played on our honeymoon, and I miraculously managed to squeak out a win. I absolutely refuse to grant a rematch. She can kick my ass at Bananagrams, Scrabble, poker, Boggle, and pretty much any board or card game in creation, and a spelling bee between us would probably end in a tie after 72 hours or so, but dammit, I believe I’ve won the right to never, ever have to play another goddamned game of Monopoly in my life.
      
      The rest of the honeymoon was excellent.
      - Urbane_Gorilla
        
        My wife stopped playing Monopoly with me because ‘I was a mean player’…Oddly, she continued to play and consistently beat me at backgammon…. Odd huh.
Finnagain

Is it too late to ask Hasbro to add the guillotine? I’d play again, if I got to be the guillotine.
Halloween_Jack

Iron for robot. That type of iron hasn’t been used for anything but a decorative antique for nearly a century. (I don’t get the thimble hate; I still use one occasionally myself, for mending clothes in spots where the fabric is thick or folded-over (such as a belt loop) and I really have to push the needle in hard.)
foxtails

I have a deluxe edition of Monopoly from 1988 with a steam locomotive token. That has always been my favorite piece.
DevinC

I’d like to see the cat, if only because it would accidentally commemorate, in some small way, the time my brother and I played against our cat and lost: http://merelyabandoned.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/random-memories-of-shannon-1-monopoly-vs-cat/
- Shibi_SF
  
  I’m so sorry that your brother is no longer with us. Also, that Simon is gone as well.
  
  (Bonus: Nicely told!)
  - DevinC
    
    Thank you.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/5OQFBZ26C3VQ5ONGZGDBDY4BUU Mark A

Guitar is the one that best fits the theme of making no sense at all.
http://www.facebook.com/eileen.stone3 Eileen Stone

ROBOT! ROBOT! ROBOT! I WANT ROBOT!!!
http://www.facebook.com/greg.husband Greg Husband

the iron, a bit sexist
TonganJedi

Who cares what tokens they use? It’s Monopoly. It’s one of the worst games ever created. Roll and move…roll and move… It’s 95% luck and 5% screwdrivers in the eye because it just won’t end!

Monopoly to lose one of its classic tokens

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