Hasbro's Monopoly boardgame to replace iron with new cat token

Pawtucket - The polls are closed and Monopoly players have spoken: the boardgame will no longer have the iron token. Instead, it will be replaced by a cat. The feline design defeated four other contenders in the voting process.

Digital Journal reported last month that toymaker Hasbro held a month-long poll on Facebook. The campaign was called “Save the Token,” which gave players the option to get rid of the shoe, top hat, wheelbarrow, clothes iron, battleship, race car, thimble and Scottie dog and replace it with a robot, helicopter, diamond ring or a guitar. Hasbro made the announcement in a YouTube video that saw the iron get locked up in a jail cell. The voting process closed shortly before midnight Tuesday. Fans of the decades-old board game from more than 120 countries took part in the vote. The Scottie dog token was the most popular and received 29 percent. The iron got the least amount of votes. The nameless cat token received 31 percent of the vote. “We put five new tokens out for our fans to vote on and there were a lot of fans of the many different tokens, but I think there were a lot of cat lovers in the world that reached out and voted for the cat to be the new token for Monopoly,” said Jonathan Berkowitz, vice president for Hasbro gaming marketing, in an interview with the Associated Press. “Tokens are always a key part of the Monopoly game and our fans are very passionate about their tokens, about which token they use while they play.” After the campaign was initiated, it garnered social media attention and companies even provided their two cents. Businesses tried to protect tokens that reflected their products. For instance, Ames True Temper Inc. published a series of online videos that supported the wheelbarrow. “I'm sad to see the iron go,” added Berkowitz. “Personally, I'm a big fan of the racecar so I'm very relieved it was saved but it is sad to see the iron go.” The new boardgame will make its debut sometime this year.