The days of passing "Go," collecting "$200" and hop, skipping and jumping on down to "free parking" may soon be over for one of the iconic icons of Hasbro's signature game, Monopoly.
According to Hasbro, "In an unlucky roll of the dice, every Monopoly token has landed in jail. One will be locked up forever and replaced with a new piece. Luckily, you have the chance to vote to save your favorite token every day."
So, Hasbro has launched a "Save Your Token" campaign to retire an icon: the race car, iron, Scottie dog, wheelbarrow, shoe, top hat, thimble or battleship.
To take the losing icon's place Hasbro is offering fans five choices: cat, diamond ring, helicopter, guitar, or toy robot.
Fans have until Feb. 5 to vote on the company's Facebook page for the icon they want to ship off and the one they want to add. Fans can vote every day. The icon with the lowest total goes directly — and permanently — to jail. The icon with the highest vote total will be added.
To further the promotion, Hasbro will release a limited-run "Golden Token" Monopoly for $17.99 that will be sold exclusively in Target stores. That game is scheduled to hit store sheves in mid-February. The new Monopoly with the new icon should be available by late summer.
"There's a love affair with the token that each player has settled on over time. It's very seldom that you see a player not care about what token represents them on the game board," Philip Orbanes, a Monopoly expert who's written three books on the game, including, "Monopoly, Money, and You: How to Profit from the Game’s Secrets of Success", told USA Today.
More than 275 million copies have been produced since the first edition in 1935. Six of the current pieces were in that first set; the Scottie dog and wheelbarrow came along in the early 1950s. In the late 1990s, fans voted for a money bag that was added as a bonus. Soon after, the cannon and horse tokens were removed, shrinking the token total to eight from 10.
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