While assembling this past year’s holiday gift guide, I learned about USAopoly’s Doctor Who Monopoly and it jumped right to the top of my list of Whovian presents (for the record, I love the Yahtzee TARDIS dice cup). USAolpoly was kind enough to send me a sample of Doctor Who Monopoly, and while this won’t be a formal review (you’ve played Monopoly, right?) I do want to focus on the Doctor Who elements of this version of everyone’s favorite real estate game.
Packaging: USAopoly gets things off to a great start with the packaging featuring 3 Daleks – one classic Dalek (Remembrance of the Daleks, I think), one Russel T. Davies Dalek and one Paradigm Dalek. The inclusion of a classic Dalek really sets the tone of the game – there’s a great balance of modern and classic Who, which is appropriate since the game is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the show.
Game Board, Cards, Money: All these game elements got a Doctor Who make over. The Community Chest / Chance cards are now U.N.I.T. and Gallifrey cards. I particularly love the U.N.I.T. cards as each gives you a reward or charge for an event…where each event is lifted from an episode of Doctor Who, such as ‘Pay Repair Fees to San Francisco Hospital, After They Save Your Life” (the Doctor Who TV movie). Each one of these serves as a little trivia question, an added bonus for any Whovian. Likewise, each one of the property tiles on the board has been replaced by a Doctor Who story, representing the entire history of the show.
Game Pieces: This is my favorite element of Doctor Who Monopoly – the game pieces are all iconic Doctor Who symbols; the 2nd Doctor’s recorder, the 4th Doctor’s scarf, the 5th Doctor’s piece of celery, the 7th Doctor’s umbrella, a modern Sonic Screwdriver and the 11th Doctor’s bow tie. Anytime I play I can guarantee that I’ll be using the 7th Doctor’s umbrella. Or maybe the 4th Doctor’s scarf. Decisions!
I’m really pleased with the job USAopoly did with this version of Monopoly, they put some time into it and it shows. If you haven’t gotten it yet and you’re a Who fan, you should grab it – you won’t be disappointed. Below I’ve got quite a few pics from this set – enjoy!
