Monopoly Is Ditching Its Thimble For A T-Rex Token

In the most gripping display of democracy since the 2016 election, Monopoly fans have elected a T-Rex, a rubber ducky, and a penguin to the canon of the game's classic tokens.

Five of the old tokens — the top hat, the race car, the battleship, Scottie the terrier, and the cat — are staying. The thimble, the boot, and the wheelbarrow didn't make the cut, and a T-Rex, rubber ducky, and penguin will replace them in the version of Monopoly that will start hitting shelves in August 2017. The five returning tokens will maintain the same designs as before, and gameplay will not change.

Fans picked the eight pieces from 64 possible choices in an online poll run by Hasbro, which owns Monopoly. Options included digital symbols like a hashtag, a winking emoji, and a Facebook-esque thumbs up. Other tokens included old-school versions of current technology like a typewriter and rotary phone.

BuzzFeed News recently conducted its own informal poll of which millennial Monopoly piece people would choose from the 64 options: a Major Key, a #hashtag, a winky face emoji, a thumbs up/Like button, a computer, a kissy face emoji, a classic smiley face, or a Rich Uncle Pennybags emoji. The computer far outstripped any competitors, garnering above a million votes, far outpacing the number of votes that Scottie the dog received in Hasbro's poll. The next highest-voted token in BuzzFeed's poll, the Major Key, received about 140,000.

Hasbro previously told BuzzFeed News that it culled the options from pop culture, previous versions of Monopoly, and the fictional life of Mr. Monopoly (think luxury: a helicopter, a money clip, a fancy watch).

The penguin, newly elected to the canon, was revived as a choice after making an appearance in Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition in 2012 and 2013.

Here's a breakdown of the vote

The eight tokens highlighted in blue below are Monopoly's classic tokens. After nearly 60 years as part of the game, Scottie the dog is still king and received the most votes of any token. The T-Rex was the most popular new token, coming in with the second-highest number of votes. The poll ran from January 10 to 31, and Hasbro tallied 4.3 million votes in total.

Jonathan Berkowitz, senior vice president of marketing for Hasbro Gaming, told BuzzFeed News, "We didn't know what to expect. We were all happy that Scottie was saved, and the t-rex's popularity was surprising. My personal favorites were the rubber duck and the emojis." Berkowitz also said that when the poll began, he was looking forward to finding out which pieces did not resonate with fans.

In a similar Hasbro poll in 2013, fans voted the cat token (sixth most popular in the most recent poll) into the game and dumped the iron token. The company said it decided to open up a vote on all the tokens in 2017 because of the high number of fans who participated in previous polls.