Monopoly’s losing more than a few tokens — it’s losing the plot

The results are in: Later this year, Monopoly’s losing three iconic tokens, and gaining some ... curious pieces in their place.

The next version of the board game will hit retail this fall without the boot and wheelbarrow tokens, which have been included in the game since 1937. These are departing alongside the thimble, a piece Hasbro retired last month to a mix of disappointment and confusion.

Hasbro

Those confused parties — namely younger players who have no clue what a thimble is used for — will probably be psyched about the new tokens coming to the game. In January, voters weighed in on the eight tokens they wanted to see included in Monopoly’s next iteration. The three winning tokens, which will replace the thimble, wheelbarrow and boot, are a T-Rex, rubber ducky and penguin.

These new pieces suggest a subtle change in direction for Monopoly, much like 2013’s new token, the cat, did. The board game has always been about strategic resource management and the fast-paced world of industry, but the new tokens move the game further away from that premise. It’s hard to explain how, or if, a dinosaur fits into the whole “buy a bunch of property for a ton of cash” concept.

Hasbro

The young people dig dinosaurs and penguins, though, and who even needs a wheelbarrow anymore? (We still wear boots on the regular, but they are way less exciting than rubber duckies.) With emoji among the other new token candidates, it could certainly be a lot worse, and we’re bigger fans of Nintendo-themed Monopoly, anyway. But it looks like Hasbro has moved three steps farther from Monopoly’s roots, for better or worse.