Monopoly with all the magic of Disney. (Monopoly Disney Edition)

Member Name: Donnabroom

Product:	Monopoly Disney Edition
Date:	07/03/06 (1563 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful playing pieces and good family fun.

Disadvantages: Not everyone likes Disney, no special rules.

I got my Mum this version of Monopoly for Christmas a few years ago. She loves Monopoly and Disney so I thought “I can’t go wrong”. My Mum did love it and as she already had the original version it started a collection.

I think they, (Hasbro), have recently changed the Disney edition so it now includes a fold out Disney castle in the centre of the board but the version I have does not include this so I will be not be commenting on that.

--£-- Monopoly --£--

I also won’t go into the ins and outs of Monopoly: Briefly it is a board game for 2-8 players of ages 8+. It has been a popular game for decades and now comes in many editions. The basis premise of the game is that you are a property tycoon and you try to get the most money and the most property. You are represented by a small metal playing piece. You roll 2 dice, add the totals and move that many squares around the playing board. Most of the squares are property which you may purchase if you land on them. Each property has a card which contains all the information you need. The properties are in sets and if you own all the properties in that set you may, (except for certain property types like utilities and train stations), buy property to increase the price of rent if another player lands on that square. There are 2 types of property in the game, houses and hotels. You need to have 4 houses, (or at least of paid the price for 4 houses), on each property before you can upgrade to a hotel. If you land on a square that is owned by another player you must pay them rent. There are also squares which require you to pay “tax” as well as a “Go” square and a “Go to Jail” square. If you land on a square and cannot pay the rent or tax, either in cash or by mortgaging your properties you are bankrupt and out of the game.

The rules are more complex than that and I am sure I have missed some out but that covers the basics and you get an instructions leaflet in all Monopoly games that cover the rules more fully.

For the purposes of this review I am going to have to assume you know at least a little about the traditional Monopoly game. If you don’t I am sorry but I can’t think of how to do it without effectively review the standard Monopoly game as well.

--£-- The Box --£--

Now normal Monopoly comes in a red and white box. The Disney edition comes in a metallic box that is mainly blue and purple. It still bears the familiar red Monopoly logo but the majority of the box is taken up by a picture of lot’s of Disney characters and of course the Disney castle. I won’t list all the characters but they include, Bambi, Scrooge McDuck, (who takes centre stage – well it is a game about money after all), Alice, Simba and Cinderella so there is a good mix of characters there.

The picture is lovely, (especially with the metallic effect), you can see how the style of illustration/animation has changed over time from Snow White to Moulan.

On the front of the box is a picture of the 8 metal playing pieces and the back displays the blurb and a picture of the board, money, playing pieces, dice, cards and houses and hotels.

The plastic tray inside the box is deep blue and has plenty of compartments to keep all the pieces safe.

--£-- The Board --£--

The board is metallic and it folds into four sections so that it will fit in the box. The centre of the board has the same picture as the front of the box except that the “Show Time” and “Magic Moments” are marked on. (Show Time and Magic Moments replace the Chance and Community Chest cards).

There is the same amount of properties as there is on the normal Monopoly board.

--£-- The Properties --£--

Instead of buying properties such as Pall Mall and Euston Road in Disney Monopoly you buy properties with film themes such as Neverland from Peter Pan and The Circus Tent from Dumbo. The cards look the same on the back with all the mortgage details.

The top of each card is colour coded to the street just as in the normal version but it has the name of the film at the top in the style used for the film. Below this is the name of the property and the rent details. The cost of houses and hotels for that property is listed at the bottom.

Instead of the stations there are modes of transport from Disney films. The four modes of transport are:

Captain Hook’s Ship
Cruella De Vil’s Car
Aladdin’s Flying Carpet
Cinderella’s Coach

They are the same on the back as normal Monopoly cards and have black and white pictures of the named transport on the front. I think it is a shame that these pictures are in black and white as they would look lovely in colour.

Instead of the utilities there is a Magic Wand and Pixie Dust. The abilities of the “utilities” are the same as standard Monopoly. Once again the back is the same and there are black and white pictures on the front.

--£-- The Money --£--

The money is from the bank of Scrooge McDuck. They are the same colour as normal Monopoly money and the same values but they have a picture of Mr McDuck on the front. The money feels a little thin and is white on the back.

--£-- The Houses and Hotels --£--

The houses and hotels are really lovely. The houses are white rabbit cottages, (green), and the hotels are sleeping beauty castles, (Blue). They are still made of plastic but they seem sturdier and have a lot more detail than the normal houses and hotels.

--£-- Show Time and Magic Moments Cards --£--

These replace the Chance and Community Chest cards. They are very similar and include cards such as, “It’s your unbirthday, collect 10 from each player” and “you lose your way in the Queen of Heart’s maze, move back 3 spaces”.

The magic moments have pictures of Whinne-the-Pooh and his friends and the Show Time show Micky Mouse and friends.

These are nice as it gets you talking about what films they are from and what they were in the original game.

--£-- The Playing Pieces --£--

There are 8 metal playing pieces, to me it looks like they are made out of pewter but I cannot confirm this.

The playing pieces are:

Alice, (from Alice’s adventure in Wonderland)
Lady and Tramp, (from the Lady and the Tramp)
Snow White, (from Snow White)
Cinderella, (from Cinderella)
Mooglie, (from Jungle Book)
Peter Pan, (from Peter Pan)
Dumbo, (from Dumbo) and
Pinocchio, (from Pinocchio)

The pieces are really lovely and very detailed and each piece had Disney stamped into the base. I would guestimate, (I cannot find my ruler), that each piece is about an inch tall. Some are taller than others however so this is just a rough estimate.

--£-- The Dice --£--

Well there really isn’t a lot to say about the dice except they are slightly larger than the standard dice and are clear with specks of glitter in them. I don’t know if they are same colour in all the sets but the ones in my set are deep blue and gold.

--£-- The Rule Book --£--

The rule book features the same picture as the box and the board as well as the red Monopoly logo.

Inside it says, “Game Rules plus Special Rules for this Edition”. The basic rules are in here as well as descriptions of the changes to the board etc but no actual different rules. I don’t know if they were meant to be included or if they were referring to the descriptions of the differences.

Starting on page 4 of the booklet are film synopsis of all the films featured on the board; there are 22 in total. It is a really nice touch to have included this and they are quite interesting and include facts like Pocahontas was the first Disney film to be based on historical fact.

At the end of the booklet there are 2 different rules variations, one for a short game and one for a time limit game. This is a good idea as sometimes you just want a quick game of Monopoly and not a long drawn out battle for world domination.

--£-- Price and Availability --£--

I paid £24.99 for this in 2002 in Debenhams and they are same price brand newt o this day. You can get this at Toys R Us for the above price and www.farscapegames.co.uk for £29.99. www.toyopia.co.uk is the cheapest I have found at £23.74.

You can often pick these up in eBay from as little as £6.00, (including postage), up to over £40.00 so make sure you shop around a bit.

--£-- Conclusion --£--

I think this is a brilliant version of a great game. I really enjoy the nostalgia of all the old Disney classics and children love learning about the characters from the older films and filling us grown ups in on the newer ones.

I would defiantly recommend this to anyone who likes Monopoly or Disney.

Thanks for reading.

Summary: A Disney version of the classic boardgame Monopoly.