Back in April, Hasbro announced the Monopoly Throwback Token Vote. This was a worldwide vote to bring back a classic game piece from the 1990s printing of the ubiquitous board game back for a new modern release. Well, the results are in, players and fans have spoken, and it appears that the Monopoly thimble will be returning. The downside is that this means one of the more recent pieces will be retired: the T-Rex.
The results of the vote were confirmed by an official press release by Hasbro. According to the release, "the all-time favorite Thimble consistently was the leader among competitors, eventually securing 30% of the votes." Because of this, the Monopoly thimble will be included as a game piece in all future printings of the classic board game. This new printing will be coming in Fall 2022 to the United States, with a global release date set for Spring 2023. This new printing of the game will include the following six player pieces: the Thimble, Scottie, Battleship, Racecar, Top Hat, Penguin, Hazel, and Rubber Ducky.
Unfortunately, with the return of the Monopoly thimble, it means a different game piece is being retired. Specifically, the T-Rex game piece will not be included in printings starting with the next refresh. This means if you're a fan of this particular game piece, or are an avid collector, you have a limited amount of time to pick up this particular run of the board game before it goes out of print later this Summer.
What is fascinating about the vote was not just how quickly the Monopoly thimble returned, but how short-lived the T-Rex piece was. As mentioned before, the thimble was one of six game pieces that were iconic to Monopoly during its 1990s printing. But in 2017, three of those pieces, the Wheelbarrow, Thimble, and Boot, were replaced by the Rubber Duck, T-Rex, and Penguin respectively. This means that the T-Rex was only a part of Monopoly for about five years total before being voted out by fans.
