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MonopolyWell this has got to be one of the all time great board games of all times. Monopoly is a very popular board game played all over the world. Its one that I and my family played for hours on end. Even though I might have played the banker every time :)-
It was 1934, when this game first started, first shown to the Parker Brothers but they rejected it !. But its inventor a Mr Darrow went on to make hand made sets of the game and sold 5000 copies. Here in the UK the international licensing rights were given to Waddington Games, both of which are now part of Hasbro. Waddington's version had locations from London and was first produced in 1936. Park lane, being one of the most expensive places on the board you could buy, along with Piccadilly, The Mall, Regent Street, Mayfair, Pall Mall, Old Kent Road (Cheap) and stations like Waterloo Before putting the Monopoly game into production, Waddingtons decided that the game would have more appeal in the UK. Victor Watson asked his secretary, Marjory Phillips, to make a final list of place names. The only pub on the board, The Angel, Islington, is reputedly where Marjory had lunch on the day of her Monopoly game tour. Apart from a brief halt in commercial production during
World War II. But the Monopoly game played its part then also, when the war
office commissioned Waddingtons to produce games which, 'if properly used",
would help prisoners of war. Waddingtons soon realised the significance of
the phrase "if properly used". A secret department was set up at the
company's headquarters, manned by a few of their most trusted staff. The job
was to make Monopoly game sets with silk maps inserted into the boards
showing escape routes from the prison to which each game was to be sent.
In 1999, a token representing a bag of money was added
following an online vote. The other two were a biplane and a piggy bank.
Unlike the tokens in special editions, this token was added to the base set. Do not pass go, do not collect ?200, go directly to jail :) Throw the dice and move around the board, buying property and avoid landing on other peoples property, the game is easy to play, but will last several hours. Your local city might have a special edition, with the street names around you. |
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