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STAR WARS MONOPOLY Finally Adds a Rey Piece!

UPDATE, 7/20: Good news for all you budding capitalists with an affinity for Jakku’s favorite Force-sensitive orphan! Only one week after the upswing in hullabaloo surrounding Hasbro’s insistence that no one in America actually wanted a Rey piece for their Star Wars Monopoly sets, the company has submitted to adding the character’s likeness to the game. Per The Hollywood Reporter, as of July 25, fans will be able to purchase Star Wars Monopoly games complete with a Rey token, joining the ranks of her fellow The Force Awakens inductees Finn and Kylo Ren.

It may have taken an inordinate amount of time to hammer home the point that Rey was the star of, and, for our money, the most culturally impactful character to hail from The Force Awakens. But at long last, we’ll be able to partner up with the gutsy young heroine for the exact sort of adventure she was thrust into this galaxy for: real estate haggling!

7/13: Remember back in 2015 when The Force Awakens was about to come out and Rey toys were few and far between? Though things have improved slightly since then, it’s still a hassle to improve the merch you may already have. Such is the case with the most recent version of Star Wars Monopoly, which included Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Finn, and Kylo Ren game pieces. As you may notice from that list, a Rey token is conspicuously absent.

Many fans weren’t thrilled, especially when Hasbro’s official response was that, while a Rey token had been created, it hadn’t appeared in U.S. markets “due to insufficient interest.”

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When the outcry surfaced, Hasbro explained that customers who wanted the Rey game piece could directly contact their customer service line and request a Rey free of charge. An insignificant number of customers followed through with this, but the news didn’t receive much publicity, and as anyone with a cable bill or faulty earbuds knows, calling a customer service line can be a fool’s errand. Still, the deed has worked out for ambitious users.

The consolation Hasbro spokesperson Julia Duffy gave the Associated Press—that Rey pieces can be found in Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, Operation, and Trouble—isn’t the most effective PR strategy we’ve ever seen. Iconic as Trivial Pursuit may be, it’s not a ubiquitous property like Monopoly in all its fandom-connected iterations. Rey deserves a place on that board, and Hasbro is hardly acknowledging that by providing a call-and-receive-your-Rey offer.

If you’d rather support the Rey edition of the game than get the free Rey, you can search within one of the markets that did stock that version. But be forewarned that even if you’re getting a U.K.- or France-distributed edition, it still may not include Rey, as some customers disclosed to the AP. In the meantime, watch store shelves for Last Jedi merch; Rey will be more of a fixture this time around, and that’s as it should be.

Which Monopoly piece do you prefer: Rey or a clothes iron? Let us know in the comments!

Images: The Verge and Disney

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