Category: History (Page 1 of 2)

Other companies have tried to capitalise on the long success of the classic board game Monopoly with ‘promotional’ versions of Monopoly. Normally, Monopoly editions exist for general sale – whether its a standard Monopoly or even a Retro, City, Football Team, TV and Film themed edition. However, there have been a number of Monopoly games specifically produced to be distributed for free or low cost.

The following images are sliding galleries.

Employee Gifts / Company Exposure

Several company themed Monopoly sets have been produced which were given as gifts to employees or used generally to advertise the company rather than sold for profit.

Example: Virgin Money, Thomas Cook, DPD

Loyalty Promotions

Monopoly games have also been produced as ‘rewards for loyalty’. Morrisons produced a number of card games which were collected by spending a certain amount instore. News Corp Australia distributed tokens for travel sized versions of Hasbro Games which allowed the reader to purchase for $3. McDonald’s have frequently used Hasbro games as Happy Meal toys.

Example: Morrisons Promo (Monopoly Deal), News Corp Australia Promo (Monopoly), McDonald’s Happy Meal Promo

Competition / Prizes

Special Monopoly editions have also been produced and distributed as prizes. Ribena produced 10,000 travel Ribena-themed Monopoly sets as prizes for a 2022 competition. TCC Global distributed a TCC branded Monopoly (UK London board) as a prize for their stand at Retail Week Live 2017.

Example: Ribena, Monopoly (TCC Global)

Educational

Monopoly has also been created for educational purposes. The main example is The Materials Edition Monopoly which was produced by The University of Sheffield. It includes extra large title deeds which explain the different types of materials as well as what can be produced from them. It can be ordered for £5 direct through the University of Sheffield website, although it can only be bought by educational establishments.

Example: The Materials Edition

GlobeTrade

In recent years, promotional Monopoly sets are more likely to have been produced by GlobeTrade – a Belgian based marketing company. GlobeTrade has a license to produce Hasbro Games for promotional purchases. These games have been reduced-size travel games which come in a square box. Monopoly Ribena and News Corp Australia promo are examples of GlobeTrade manufactured products.

Globetrade is the specialist for companies wanting to promote their brands better and faster through promotional marketing programs. Globetrade has a unique experience and creative approach in developing and producing tailor-made promotional items.

Through their collaboration and partnership, Globetrade and Hasbro aim to develop a variety of promotional applications of several Hasbro toys and games, thus creating exciting possibilities for companies wanting to promote their brands through the awareness of well-known Hasbro brands.

Globe trade website

Previously, Monopoly editions for corporations were produced by WinningMoves and these were full sized games.

The largest collection of official Monopoly sets stands at over 3,500. That record is held by Neil Scallan. The full collection can be found on WorldOfMonopoly.

His collection was last counted by Guinness World Records in September 2018 during an episode of BBC’s Bargain Hunt. 2,249 was the official count, surpassing the previous record of 1,999 (also held by Neil Scallan).

His collection is currently kept in a storage facility through SafeStore – more information about the collection can be found on their website.

While an official number for the total of Monopoly sets is unknown, it has been estimated at over 10,000.

Guidelines:

Other Guinness World Records:

Largest Monopoly Token – 3m x 1.3m x 1m

Largest Monopoly Board – over 900m^2

Largest Monopoly Board (permanent) – 9.4m x 9.4m

Most expensive Monopoly – Over $2 million

Most people playing Monopoly – 733 people

Other ‘records’ which are commonly referenced such as longest game of Monopoly are not officially verified.

In 1932, The Fascinating Game of Finance (later named to just Finance) was released onto the market by Dan Layman, who had played a variant of The Landlord’s Game.

Finance was remarkably similar to Monopoly, despite being created three years prior to Parker Brother’s Monopoly hitting the shelves.

After being sold for a year in Indianapolis, Indiana through L.S. Ayres, the rights were purchased by Knapp Electric for $200 and would be purchased once again by Parker Brothers in 1935 for $10,000 – Parker Brothers required the rights of the game to strengthen their patent on Monopoly as the two games were very similar.

Before the granting of Monopoly’s patent – US2026082A, Parker Brothers created Fortune – a game very similar to Monopoly but without Charles Darrow’s contributions – using their rights to publish Finance. Apart from losing the traditional Atlantic City property names, Darrow’s illustrations were also dropped. Moreover, Hotels were also removed and instead players were allowed to build up to five houses. As well as spaces being coloured – groups were allocated symbols. Prices, rent values and house costs remain similar to Monopoly. Even Chance and Community Chest cards remain.

Only 10,000 editions were produced as the Monopoly patent was later granted and this ‘insurance policy’ of Fortune was no longer required. The game once reproduced later as Finance and Fortune to ensure the Fortune trademark remained value and later Finance once again as Parker Brothers used the Fortune name for their new Marble game. The game of Finance, Fortune or Finance and Fortune was discontinued after 1962.

Images of Fortune taken from BoardGameGeek

Monopoly CLASSIC

Monopoly Cats vs Dogs

Monopoly Cheaters Edition

Monopoly Crooked Cash / Cash Decoder

Monopoly Deal

Monopoly Empire

Monopoly For Millenials

Monopoly For Sore Losers

Monopoly Fortnite

Monopoly Games to Go

Monopoly Grab & Go

Monopoly Here and Now America Has Voted

Monopoly Here and Now The World Edition

Monopoly Junior (1991)

Monopoly Junior (Modern)

Monopoly Junior – Dig n Dinos

Monopoly Millenium Edition

Monopoly Revolution

Monopoly Speed

Monopoly Star Wars Saga

Monopoly Star Wars – The Child

Monopoly Super Electronic Banking

Monopoly Super Mario Celebration

Monopoly The Mandalorian

Monopoly Tropical Tycoon

Monopoly U-Build

Monopoly Ultimate Banking

Monopoly World Edition

Monopoly World Tour

The 1977 Monopoly World Championship occurred on Monday 24th October to Tuesday 25th October 1977. Hosted by the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, Monaco; it was the fourth tournament of the series and the first to take place outside of the United States of America. Over 5000 players contested the Championship from around the globe.

The final match lasted two hours and the $5,000 grand prize was ultimately won by Cheng Seng Kwa from Singapore. Cheng ultimately won due to a multi-person trade where he received the Yellow Set Monopoly. Ireland received the Dark Blue Monopoly; United Kingdom received the Green Monopoly and West Germany received the Orange Monopoly. Italy did not received a Monopoly through the trade and soon became bankrupt. The 1975 defending champion, Ireland’s John Mair, narrowly missed out on winning two championships in a row by finishing in second place.

United Kingdom’s Fred Brown came into the final as the reigning British Monopoly Champion – when he won the 1977 British tournament – held on the nuclear pile cap of the Central Electricity Generating Board’s power station at Oldbury-on-Severn (near Bristol). The previous tournament was held in 1975 and was hosted at Fenchurch Street Station.

Full rankings:

1. Cheng Seng Kwa (Singapore)
2. John Mair (Ireland)
3. Klaus Armbruster (West Germany)
4. Fred Brown (United Kingdom)
5. Antonio de Lucca (Italy)

See also:

Section from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune Oct 27, 1977

The following trophy was originally owned by Fred Brown – the United Kingdom’s representative in the 1977 World Final and 1977 British Monopoly Champion. It is unclear what this was awarded for, but it is speculated that very few were made for the event. The tokens are gold plated. If you have any information on this item – please contact callum@richunclepennybags.co.uk

Championnat du Monde de MONOPOLY Monte Carlo 1977

Application Form

1904 – The Landlord’s Game:

The Landlord’s Game was patented by Lizzie Magie in 1904. One of the first board games to use a ‘continuous path’, rather than the traditional linear board, it set out the foundations for the board game which would later become Monopoly.

The Landlord’s Game was designed to show that rent only makes property owners richer while leaving tenants worse off. 

This early board game has many similar features to Monopoly. It introduces the concept of ‘ownership’ of a space on the game board. A player who later lands on the same space performs a different action to that of the first player (ie paying rent rather than purchasing the property) despite the original player’s token no longer being on the same space.

Magie submitted a copy of the game to Parker Brothers in 1910, which George Parker decided against publishing.

The game did not have a huge uptake, primarily being played by Quakers, Georgists and university students.

1924 – The Landlord’s Game 2:

The original patent for The Landlord’s Game expired in 1921. This resulted in many handmade copies circulating, also known as Monopoly. Therefore, to regain control over these handmade games, a second version of the Landlord’s Game was patented in 1924, this time under her married name of Elizabeth Magie Phillips. This version of the game included named streets.

This 1924 edition has properties named after streets and locations in Chicago. It also introduced a new ‘Monopoly’ rule, that higher rents could be charged if all three railroads and utilities were owned. Also, properties could be improved, and rent increased, by adding ‘chips’ – similar to the modern-day Houses and Hotels.

Magie once again submitted The Landlord’s Game to Parker Brothers. Geroge Parker still declined, stating that the game was ‘too political’.

Finance – 1932:

Daniel Layman published a variant of The Landlord’s Game in 1932 called The Fascinating Game of Finance – later renamed to Finance.

This version featured four railroads (one on each side of the board), Chance and Community Chest cards and spaces and grouped properties together by symbol, instead of colour.

This version of the game was taken back to Atlantic City and the properties were renamed to that of streets from the city. This is the version of the game that credited Monopoly inventor, Charles Darrow learned. He began distributing handmade copies – named ‘Monopoly’. It included the original misspelling of Marvin Gardens and the renaming of the Shore Fast Line as the Short Line. Demand for the game soon increased and Darrow contacted a printing company. Darrow, his son and his wife created the designs commonly seen on boards today. Black locomotives on the railroad spaces, the car on Free Parking, the red arrow for Go, the tap on Water Works, the light bulb on Electric Company, the question mark on Chance spaces and the colours above the property name.

Darrow’s Monopoly – 1934:

After even bigger demand, Darrow attempted to sell Monopoly to a number of publishers. Firstly, to Milton Bradley, who rejected it. Then to Parker Brothers, who rejected the game as it was ‘too complicated, too technical, and it took too long to play’.

However, the game sold well during the Christmas season of 1934 in Philadelphia and the President of Parker Brothers contacted Darrow to schedule a meeting.

In the meeting, it was agreed that Parker Brothers would purchase Monopoly and the remaining inventory. However, Parker Brothers later learned that Darrow was not the sole inventor of the game. To ensure the company had the legitimate undisputed rights to the game, they brought out many patents and copyrights of similar or clone games. Primarily, Magie’s 1924 patent of The Landlord’s Game, along with Finance. After the initial publication, Parker reached a court settlement with Rudy Copeland’s Inflation, and agreements were made with Big Business and Easy Money (based on Finance).

In a second meeting, Darrow admitted he had copied the game, and he and Parker reached a new revised royalty agreement, which gave Parker Brothers the right for the rest of the world.

Monopoly in the UK:

Before being printed in the United States of America, Parker Brothers sent a copy of the game to John Waddingtons, a playing card producer who had previously sent Parker Brothers a copy of Lexicon. The managing director of Waddingtons, Victor Watson, asked his son Norman to play test the game over the weekend. Norman was very impressed by the game and persuaded his father to make one of the first transatlantic calls – this call resulted in Waddingtons obtaining a license to produce the game outside of the United States.

Watson believed that for the game to be a success in the UK, the Atlantic City property names should be switched for those of London. Watson, with his secretary Marjory Phillips, headed to London to look for locations. 21 locations were chosen with 4 stations as well. The 22^nd location, The Angel, Islington was chosen as it was the restaurant that Watson and Phillips later met in to discuss which properties should be chosen.

The $75 Luxury Tax was changed to £100 Super Tax, and the £200 or 15%-Income Tax was changed to a flat fee of £200 only.

The American style Car on Free Parking and term Community Chest remained.

Hasbro Monopoly:

For Monopoly editions made by Hasbro, the easiest method is to check the production code. The first four digits identify the month and year the edition was created (MM/YY). This includes Monopoly sets released under the Waddingtons or Parker brand after Hasbro acquired the company

Non-Hasbro Modern Monopoly

For non-Hasbro releases (e.g. Winning Moves), the best estimate of date will be the copyright year on the side of the box. Usually this will be the year that the edition was released. However, if the edition was released early in the year, the copyright may be from the previous year

Older Classic Monopoly

For older classic Monopoly sets, an estimate can be identified by looking at the copyright year. This may be on the box, board, or instructions. Use the latest year as pieces were made in bulk and reused in later editions – therefore a set may have many years. To make this year more accurate, look at minor changes to the box within that period. In Europe and USA, through the 1960s, many boxes are dated ©1961 despite slight differences.

Despite both being ©1985, the change from Parker Kenner to Tonka means this edition is more likely from 1987.

Within the UK (and some international releases), Monopoly was released under Waddingtons until the Hasbro acquisition in 1994. The Waddingtons and Parker brand continued to be used until the Hasbro brand became permanent in 2009

Branding for USA and many international releases:

1935	Parker Brothers
1968	General Mills
1985	Kenner Parker Toys
1987	Tonka
1991	Hasbro

Within Spain, classic editions of Monopoly were released by ‘Borras’ until Hasbro took over production permanently in 1996. Variants such as Junior, European & Playmaster were released during this period without Borras involvement.

1935 to 1950s (including World War II)

Finally, many different variations were released within the UK and USA during the 1930s to 1950s – especially due to shortages during the war. The best method of identification is comparing the boards, pieces and box to that of already dated sets (many examples within this website).

Examples of:

• 1936 First Edition
• 1930s Monopoly
• 1940s to 1950s Monopoly

In 2021, Hasbro announced that they would be changing the message on all 16 Community Chest cards included within a classic release of Monopoly – the amount gained/loss would remain the same. An online poll was held where voters could choose between two messages. These were the final results:

This was not the first time the Chance & Community Chest cards have been altered. Several cards have been previous retired and replaced – although this is the first time a whole deck has changed. From 2018, the controversial ‘Money Grab’ was introduced to the Chance deck – a foreshadow to the later release of ‘Cash Grab’

In 2017, after the success of the Save Your Token Event, Monopoly attempted to freshen up the line-up of Monopoly tokens again with the 2017 Token Madness vote. This time, no token was safe, with it being possible that a completely new line-up of eight tokens would be chosen.

Each token was put into a category, and 7 tokens were designed for each category bringing the total choice up to 64 different tokens! Voters were asked to pick which eight they would most like to see in future releases.

Betting odds offered by PaddyPower on which token(s) would be voted out

Ultimately, the T-Rex, Rubber Duck and Penguin finished in the Top 8, with the Thimble, Wheelbarrow and Boot dropping out from new editions. These changes mean that there are now 5 Animal related tokens in new Monopoly sets, with the Battleship, Top Hat and Racecar surviving.

Two special editions were released. Token Madness features eight of the 56 addition tokens – this had a worldwide release.

Signature Token was released in USA and Germany only, and features all 64 tokens

Token Re-appearances

Many of the 56 Token Concepts have been re-appeared in other Monopoly sets. So far I have spotted three different editions to have gained tokens from this vote.

Purple – Longest Game Ever (external link)

Green – For Millenials

Blue – Cheaters Edition [USA Bonus]

In addition to Red – T-Rex, Penguin & Rubber Duck in Monopoly (2017 + )

2015 marked the 80^th anniversary of the introduction of Monopoly

Many special editions were released to celebrate the occasion

As has become standard in recent decades, a new Anniversary Edition was published. The board and cards were given a ‘retro’ design. Eight tokens were included to represent the past eight decades: lantern, bathtub, cannon, horse, car on podium, train, sack of money and cat

Moreover, three reprints of current classic Monopoly games were released: Monopoly, Monopoly Junior & Monopoly: Electronic Banking.

These editions remain unchanged from their previous release, except with the addition of another ‘special’ token – Mr Monopoly (see above)