For the first time ever, fans were given a chance to help toy maker Hasbro decide on the ultimate Monopoly decision – which token to drop and which token to add. A month-long online poll across 195 participating countries was put up via a Facebook app named, “Save Your Token”.
It included this picture of the (then) currently existing eight Monopoly tokens that some of us can closely link our childhood to:
At the end of the month, results showed that the Scottie dog was the clear favourite with fans from more than 120 countries securing 29% of the vote. The shoe, the iron, and the wheelbarrow were neck and neck right up until the final hours of voting. But alas, it was the iron that ended up being the least popular of the lot.
It raked in only 8% of the vote. It was then decided than the iron will now be retired from the game. The iron was one of the original Monopoly tokens introduced by the Parker Brothers in 1935, when the appliance was an important part of domestic life. Of course, hardly anyone’s excited about “being an iron” these days.
Then, there was that voting poll for the newer Monopoly tokens, as pictured:
One of the above new ones (whichever that ends up with the highest votes) will then step in to take the iron’s place. Or should we say, “claw” in?
A robot, diamond ring, cat, helicopter, and a guitar. And the one that had the most votes (all 31% of them) was:
Upon the announcement that the cat will now replace the iron, Hasbro’s Jonathan Berkowitz said, “Tokens are always a key part of the Monopoly game and our fans are very passionate about their tokens, about which token they use while they play. I think there were a lot of cat lovers in the world that reached out.”
Versions of Monopoly Meowopoly with the new token will come out sometime later this year.
(Source)