On Feb. 6, Monopoly announced on their Facebook page the winner and loser of an online contest. Monopoly fans began voting in early January for their favorite game board token.
Monopoly announced at the beginning of the contest that the token with the fewest votes would be replaced with a new token. Fans also voted for their top choice for the new token.
As over 10 million Facebook fans voted and waited, Hasbro Inc. tallied the votes each day. The losing Monopoly token is the classic iron. The winning new token is a cat.
Other tokens in the running with the cat included a robot, diamond ring, helicopter and guitar.
Many Facebook fans shared their disappointment that the robot didn't win the contest.
Featured on the Monopoly Facebook page today is a photo of the iron sitting behind jail bars. The caption says, "Day 1 of the rest of its life."
For most families, Monopoly is one of the classic board games played on game nights. Since the game was created in 1935, more than one billion people have played the game.
Monopoly is sold in 111 countries in 43 languages, according to the Monopoly website. This isn't the first time a token has been changed.
Over the years, over 20 tokens have been used in the game. My favorite, the dog, was added with the horse and rider and the wheelbarrow in the '50s. At the same time, the lantern, purse and rocking horse were removed.
Facebook fan reactions to the new cat vary from those who are excited to those who aren't cat lovers. One fan wrote, "A cat? Why would you dishonor this game with such a horrible animal?"
Most families probably won't rush right out to buy a new Monopoly game when there's nothing wrong with the old one.
However, those who don't have a game will have to decide between buying Monopoly now to own a little piece of history or waiting and buying a game with the new cat.
You can see all of the tokens, including the winning cat and the losing iron, on Monopoly's Facebook page.
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