UPDATE – 6:53PM PST: I just heard from my friend Carrie Goldman who’s eight-year-old daughter Annie Rose wrote the original letter to Hasbro about Rey being missing from the Star Wars Monopoly game. Hasbro’s official Twitter account just tweeted at her saying this: “We love your passion for Rey, and are happy to share that we will be including her in the Monopoly: Star Wars game, available later this year.” You can check out Carrie’s post here.
Huh. I guess talking about things works! Sometimes, anyway.
ORIGINAL POST
Earlier today, our writer Katherine Sangiorgio wrote an article about the fact that Rey wasn’t included in the Star Wars Monopoly set from Hasbro. You have the option to play as Finn, Kylo Ren, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, but not Rey. In fact, the number of pieces are smaller than most other Monopoly games. Since then, the article has been making its way around the Internet, drawing the ire of fans who are tired of seeing a lack of Rey toys and the constant feeling that toy companies don’t care about female fans. It’s egregious because Rey is the star of the film.
I emailed Hasbro as well as tweeting at them for a statement. Well, they gave me one. Apparently they left Rey out because it spoils a plot point in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Yeah, the thing is, that’s not how Monopoly works. The top hat and the thimble weren’t plot points either. For the record, that plot point they didn’t want to spoil? It’s in the statement below. Be warned.
Hasbro, thanks for thinking of female fans … eventually. Nice to know we’re getting more Rey toys from your statement, but you may notice how many more male character Star Wars toys there are out there. Oh, and then there was leaving Rey out of the Target set that lead me to start the #WheresRey hashtag to begin with.
Nice try, though.
What bothers me is there is still plenty of Rey merchandise out there but this whole #wheresrey trend makes it seem like it’s nonexistent. I bought my little cousin a Rey action figure for Christmas (the one with the jet pack) and I was delighted last month to see right after film release to find for sale “Rey’s Lightsaber.” Not Finn’s, not Luke’s. Rey’s. Wandering the Disney Store, every figurine pack of Force Awakens characters has included her and she’s been on clothing, book covers, posters, action figures, dress up costumes, etc. There’s certainly more of her than Finn and Poe, the film’s other two protagonists. I’d say only Ren and BB-8 have more stuff than her and those two were expected to be the merchandise workhorses.
Where do you shop? I’ve not seen a single thing with Rey specifically, beyond just prints of the movie’s poster on stuff.
Disney Store’s had the Rey stuff since at least september.
The Disney Store stuff is mostly fine, it’s the Hasbro stuff that’s very light on Rey.
somehow Finn isnt a spoiler though…
That’s a pathetically lame response. How does featuring the main character-the Luke of this new series-give away the plot? Traditionally Monopoly has ten pieces to play with. Hasbro needs to stop being such cheap bastards and include Luke, Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren, Vader, Leia, Captain Phasma (or Boba Fett) BB-8, R2-D2 and C-3PO. Cast them in metal and leave the paint off to keep the price point down if need be, but this is ridiculous.
The game isn’t straight Monopoly. The Light Side and the Dark Side play in tandem, and even use the cards differently.
The game seems familiar as Monopoly at a glance, but there are significant differences, and you can’t make the assumptions you are making.
(Not excusing Hasbro here, so no flaming for that… just saying that anyone who wants to criticize the game needs to know more about it.)
Rey is the bastard child of Palpatine.
I call shinanigans. I know it is probably Monday morning quarterbacking to say that. Maybe I don’t know the full story, but come on! They didn’t want to spoil the film??? How does a game piece spoil a movie?
At best, this is mysogonist irresponsibility. At worst, it’s a ploy by marketing to drum up a twisted publicity gimmick. Strictly my opinion, I am probably wrong. I don’t know how toy companies work. But I would hope they will correct it by maybe selling an updated version of the game (Unless, of course, that was their scheme all along)
Vader isn’t even IN this movie
Ok, so having young Luke and his deceased father is ok, having Finn in that jacket is ok as well, but having Rey, the scavenger, is plot revealing and can’t be used? What a lame, lame officially response. I wonder if they will launch new figures in a few months so people can upgrade their Monopolys.
Just a week before the movie opened, Disney set off a bizarre chain of C&D orders against Star Wars Action News, for posting a picture of a new Rey figure that had just been purchased at a Walmart in Iowa. The figure featured her in her “Resistance” outfit… and included a lightsaber. They were THAT adamant about keeping Rey’s true nature a secret, and it was reported by several news sites, including Forbes:
http://fortune.com/2015/12/11/walmart-star-wars-action-figure-disney/
And yes, Rey figures ARE out there, but they sell out the moment they hit the shelves. If you see 6″ Black Series Finn, TIE Pilot, Resistance Soldier, Stormtrooper, or Chewbacca figures in a store, that means Rey (who has now shipped in two separate case assortments,) was also there, and was already sold.
Incidentally, that 6″ Rey comes with a scale BB-8 figure, which instantly made her a must-have back in September when the line launched. Should you alter your hashtag to include #where’sbb-8?
Finally, speaking of #where’s… where the hell is the Han Solo merchandise? You know, the character who owns the freighter that Rey ends up piloting? The one who’s arguably the co-star of the movie? The one portrayed by an actor who received top billing on the movie poster?
#Where’sHan?
[…] Their answer: they didn’t want her inclusion to be a spoiler. […]
Another thing: If Hasbro is supposedly slighting female fans because you can’t find a Rey figure, I’d suggest you walk one aisle over in your local store to the Marvel figures section. There, you’ll find 3-6 different female characters in the 6″ Avengers, Ant-Man, and Spider-Man Legends lines. You’ll most likely find multiples of each, which begs the question: Is the issue a lack of female action figures, or is it the perceived lack of the specific female action figure that you want?
This response makes no sense. Nothing about the figure’s existence would reveal anything about the plot. You know what DOES make sense though? That they never saw the movie and ASSUMED Finn was the protagonist, based on how he appeared in the trailer.
Otherwise, that means they KNEW and CHOSE to do nothing.
Why not add Rey, R2-D2, BB-8, and C-3PO in an expansion pack? Maybe with unique expansion cards included. I wouldn’t be hard and everyone’s already used to in-app purchases and video game upgrades. Why wouldn’t board games do something similar?
What about Han Solo? He was pretty close to being the main supporting actor, if not right at the top – and certainly in the film more than Luke (no spoiler).
Since both Rey and Finn were prominently featured in the trailer (as was Han), it would not have been a spoiler to include her in the game, any more than it would be Finn. Darth Vader isn’t even IN this movie.