Monopoly sets with newest token, the cat, hit stores

PAWTUCKET, R.I., Aug. 28 (UPI) -- The newest Monopoly token, a cat, is in the copies of the game now hitting stores, U.S. toy manufacturer Hasbro announced Wednesday.

The token is a tiny feline about a half inch long and half inch high, Gizmodo.com said. It replaces the flatiron, which has been in the game since 1935, and joins the wheelbarrow, battleship, racecar, thimble, shoe, Scottie dog and the iconic top hat.

Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, R.I., announced in February the cat had won an online vote, defeating a robot, helicopter, guitar and diamond ring.

While some of the tokens date back to the early editions of Monopoly, then manufactured by Parker Brothers in Salem, Mass., there have been changes over the years. There are also differences in the many international editions of Monopoly, such as the koala in Australia and beaver in Canada.

Monopoly is based on The Landlord's Game, devised in 1906 by Elizabeth Magie Phillips as an entertaining way to explain the single-tax theories of economist Henry George. Parker Brothers began selling Monopoly sets in the 1930s, using street names from Atlantic City, N.J.