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Number of versions: 9+2
Edition: June 29, 2008
Updated: September 9, 2012
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There are most probably no Parker Brothers
Monopoly games with streets from Indian cities, because this former English
colony remained gravitated towards England for a long period and therefore used
also Waddingtons games with streets of London.
 Edition:
Standard London edition, with separate board - black box
Trade Mark - Patent Nr. 453689
Publisher: United Agencies, Bombay 2 - ±1945
Dimensions of the box: 19.0 x 17.5 x 3.4 cm
The game:
 This very early India manufactured London edition is
owned by Harold Lee
- UK.
The small box has the red illustration
with “2 black engines, 2 houses and the £-sign
through the middle O, with the “precursor of Uncle Pennybags”
on top, exactly identical to the UK made London editions. The
label reads: Manufactured by United
Agencies, Bombay 2. Under Licence from: John Waddington Ltd. According
to Harold's observations
all lettering and images, including label, have
been hand drawn. While the label on the box and board outer label mention the Patent No., the game
board playside shows still the UK Patent appl. for No. 3796/36.
Although an accurate year of issue is hard to estimate it is to be expected to
be soon after WW II, that ended 1945. The stations on the game board are still
from L.N.E.R. although the
railways were nationalised in England in 1948 and from then on were called
British Railways. But it is not strange the most topical information from the UK
to be processed somewhat later by a game board manufacturer in India.
It is striking the wooden houses and hotels to be of
the same sizes, 13x 13 x 13 mm, an unusual shape for the
Waddingtons' buildings. So they must have come from an inland manufacturer.
Typical for this first Londons edition, made by United
Agencies, are:
 | the board is 49.0 x 49.0 cm, with a bright purple
covering with smooth finish on high quality cardboard, weight 515 g. |
| the Community Chest cards are numbered, yellow
and have rounded corners.
The Chance cards are also numbered and pink.
The sizes about 75x62 mm. They still have the original white wrapper. |
| the property deeds are numbered as well and have brown
rough backs. Their sizes are 83x67 mm. The outer border lines on all 4 sides on the deed cards are in the same color as the color bar
except for the 4 stations as well as Old Kent Road, Whitechapel Road, Park Lane and Mayfair where they are all black. |
| the banknotes are of soft, low quality paper, 95x50 mm. As the box
is still sealed, only some of the banknotes can be seen, 1
pink, 20 blue, 500
on white paper.They show Monopoly in the ellipse of the note with Patent
No.453689. |
| the tokens are very similar to UK wartime, cardboard figures on black
wooden bases, however the litho printing is very rough and slightly blurred,
and the wooden bases have squared cross section. |
| the Rules are very similar to the early UK layout but in different
type, size folded twice 14.7x12.8 cm, so unfolded would be 29.4x25.6 cm. |
| the dice are 2 small ivory or bone (?) pieces 9x11 mm, with black
pips. |
Comparison between the "red
label" of Waddington and the handmade version of both Bombay
companies.
(Click on the small image to get a larger and detailed one!)
Harold Lee's comments:
"As for why a printer would copy by hand the image/s, I can only think the
company/manufacturer do not have photocopy or camera facilities (although
photolithography was available in those days).
What is rather remarkable is the high standard of workmanship in the copying,
must have taken ages (many days or weeks).
I do not know how they managed to transfer the copied image to the printing
plate without a camera."
 Edition:
Standard London edition, with separate board - red box
Trade Mark - Patent Nr. 453689
Publisher: United Agencies, Bombay 2 - ±1950
Dimensions of the box: 19.0 x 16.7 cm
The game:
 Harold Lee
- UK discovered this version on the ebay auction site where US$ 115.- was paid
for the box with its contents, but without the game board.
Also in this edition all
lettering and images, including label, have
been hand drawn. The label on the box mention the Patent No.,as well
as the banknotes.
The lines on the deed cards of this version are all black.
The Community Chest cards are numbered, yellow
and have rounded corners. The Chance cards are also numbered and pink.
The tokens are flat cardboard figures on a foot of black
timber. The figures are:
hat - iron - car - boat - shoe and rocking-horse like in the UK editions of the wartime era.
The houses and hotels
are of dull wood and are of the
same length, which has never been the case in the UK.
Both dice are white and have black pips.
 Edition:
Standard London edition, with separate board - black box
Trade Mark - Patent Nr. 453689
Publisher: United
Importers Corp, Bombay 1 - ±1952
Dimensions of the box: 19.0 x 16.7 cm
The game:
This very early India manufactured London edition is also owned by Harold Lee
- UK.
What is it that makes this set so interesting? Is it the different
Indian publisher in another district of Bombay? Maybe United Importers
is a kind of subcontractor of United Agencies?
The small box has the red illustration
with “2 black engines, 2 houses and the £-sign
through the middle O, with the “precursor of Uncle Pennybags”
on top, exactly identical to the UK made London editions. The
label reads: Manufactured by United
Importers Corp, Bombay 1. Under Licence from: John Waddington Ltd. According
to Harold's observations
all lettering and images, including label, have
been hand drawn. While the label on the box mention the Patent No., the game
board shows still the UK Patent appl. for No. 3796/36.
Although an accurate year of issue is hard to estimate it is to be expected to
be soon after WW II, that ended 1945. The stations on the game board are still
from L.N.E.R. although the
railways were nationalised in England in 1948 and from then on were called
British Railways. But it is not strange the most topical information from the UK
to be processed somewhat later by a game board manufacturer in India. On the
other hand the houses and hotels
are already of plastic, whereas they were of wood in the UK in that
time.
It is striking these houses and hotels to be of the same sizes 13x11x10
mm, an unusual shape for the Waddingtons' buildings. So they must have come from
an inland manufacturer.
 Typical
for this first London edition made by United Importers Corp. are:
| the board is 49.5 x 49.5 cm, with a black covering with raised impressions of spiders
web, made of low quality cardboard. |
| the printer did not know English places and have misspelt one of the
stations: Fenchurch Station as French St. Station.
Also the board of this set
has The Angel Islington colored olive green instead of pale blue. |
| the Chance card that should
read "Drunk in charge" Fine £20 says
however "Drink in charge". |
| the Community Chest cards are numbered, yellow
and have rounded corners. The Chance cards are also numbered
and pink.
The sizes are 87x53 mm. |
| the property deeds are numbered as well and have brown
rough backs. Their sizes are 83x67 mm. The outer border lines
on all 4 sides on the deed cards are in the same color as the color bar
except for the 4 stations as well as Old Kent Road,
Whitechapel Road, Park Lane and Mayfair where they are all black. |
| the banknotes are of soft, low quality paper, 100x55 mm, all,
except for the 500 note, printed in black on colored paper.
The 500 note is in red
ink on white paper. They only show "Monopoly" in the ellipse of
the note. The 7 denominations are: 1 - 5
- 10 - 20
- 50 - 100 and 500. |
Unfortunately there are no tokens, nor dice and Rules with this set, so
nothing can be said about them.
 Edition: Game of English
Trade - Bank Game
Publisher: Durga Gajra & Co - Princess Str. - Bombay - 2 - ±1960
Sharma House, Khotwadi - S.V. Road, opp. Khira Nagar
Santa cruz (West), Bombay-400 054
Dimensions of the little box: ±17 x 14.5
cm
of the game board: ±36 x 36 cm
The game:
This game is owned by Steve Amato - N.Y. Unfortunately the game board
and the "Chance" and "Community Chest" cards are missing.
But because the fact this game is very similar to the Pakinstan edition The
Bank Game of "New Paktrade"
of the same era it is very interesting to compare them.
This edition is in English only, like it is to be expected!
From the Rules we learn:
1. The object of this game is to develope the instinct of trade together with
intellectual progress and to derive pleasure.
This pastime will also push the
sentiment of a Trade prince.
2. Under no circumstance partiality is allowed since it mars the interest and beauty of the game.
The players should be
guided by their own judgement with an ambition to become a Trade
Prince.
Like the British Waddington editions of that era this game exsist of a small box
for all its accessories and a rather small separate, folded game board of hard
cardboard.
There are 4 color groups of 5
properties each, being scattered over all 4 sides
of the board. And there are 6 Companies, among which an two utility
companies and 4 transport companies.
The handling of buying and mortgaging of properties and buildings is the same as
we know it from the Waddington and Hasbro editions, except for the fact that
the meaning of the builing differs per each color
group. On the property deed is said what
the building means for the propertiy, i.a. either a house, hotel, theatre,
godown or a mill.
The "green house" represents 1
building, a "red hotel"
represents 2 buildings.
One must own at least 3 properties of the same color to effect an erection. It
is not compulsory to erect on all 3 properties simultaneously. The ownership
of 3 properties is not compulsory after an erection on any one of the 3
properties, that is say, you can erect even when you are the owner of 1 or 2
properties of that color, as you had been once the owner of the 3 properties of
that color. This differs substantially from the Rules of Parker Bros./Hasbro!
 
All properties are streets or areas of Bombay (today Mumbai). The 4 color
groups are respectively:
| Blue: Parel Rs.1500 - Kalbadevi Rs.3200 - Worli
Rs.1450 - Dhobitalao - Rs.1750
and Girgaum Rs.1450. |
| Green: Fort - Rs.3200 - Charni Road -
Rs.1850 - Grant Road Rs.2500 - Bori Bunder
Rs.3500 and Rs.Shivri (Cotton godown). |
| Red: Marine Drive - Rs.4500 - Varsova
- Rs.2250 - Santa-Cruz Rs.850 - Dadar Rs.950
and Rs.Juhu 3750. |
| Yellow: Zaveribazar
- (Market) - Pydhoni Rs.1550 - Malbar Hill - Rs.4200 - Chowpaty
Rs.4550 and
Bhulweshar Rs.1750.
|
 
The 2 utilities Water Works and Electric
form a group
together.
So do theTram Way and Motor Bus, as well
as Railway
and Motor Boat.
 |
The money is managed by the Bank of Almighty. This bank does not distribute banknotes but
promissary notes. The text on these notes says: "The Bank of
Almighty promise to pay on demand of the bearer to pay (in this
case) 5000, Kuber Bhandals." The currency is Rupees.
The denominations of the 7 notes are respectively 10
- 50 - 100
- 500 (White) - 1000 - 5000
and 10000.
There are no houses not hotels but instead there are, poor quality, plastic
Green Buildings (looking like "houses") and Red
Buildings
(looking like "hotels")
.
The "tokens" are colored discs: red,
green, blue,
pink and
yellow.
The dice. are white with black pips and of poor quality.
 Edition: Standard,
without ref.nr.
Publisher: Parker Bros./United Importers Corp. Bombay - 1986
Dimensions of the box: 26.0 x 51.0 cm
The game:
This game is composed of a strange mixture of influences of as well (the English
manufacturer) Waddingtons as (the American publisher) Parker Brothers of
different periods. Despite the cover talks of "Importers … " a small
sticker on the bottom of the box tells it is manufactured
by Pleasantime Products in Bombay, so it is of inland make.
What are the Parker Brothers features?
| Only the Rules of 'United' toys mention "Copyright © 1935,
1946, 1961, 1986 by Parker Brothers". |
| The red (instead of white) lid shows
the game board in 2 squares who are however in blue
and yellow, instead of green and
blue
(sixties). |
| The bottom of the box shows a black and white picture of the board
and the accessories as usual in the eighties with the
European sets made in
France. |
| The front side of the banknotes says "Copyright Parker
Brothers". |
| The property deeds of the stations show the black Parker
Brothers' locomotive (the game board the green
one in accordance with Waddington). |
What are the Waddington features?
| The streets and stations of this set are those of London. |
| The lid shows the "engines-picture-with-precursor-of-Uncle Pennybags"
as it was pursued by Waddingtons together with "pat.nr. 453689"
from end thirties to early sixties. However it is hardly recognizable
because the word Monopoly is removed what makes Uncle Pennybags floating
"loose" above the now remarkably large £-sign. |
| The green engines of the board
point to the right, whereas the black locomotives on the property
cards go to the left. |
| The back side of the thin banknotes is printed with the "engines-pattern-with
Uncle Pennybags". |
| The back of the property cards is red,
as usual with the sets manufactured in England around 1970. |
Typical for this set is:
| The board is folded with the playfield outwards. It's back is red. |
| The box is about 2 cm too long for the board and the white plastic
insert with 10 holes. |
| The pink through Chance
and yellowCommunity Chest cards are numbered. |
| The Community Chest cards do have a black edge around the text. |
| The property cards also have a black edge around the text. |
| The 6 tokens of grey
plastic have abnormal sizes: the dog is smaller than the iron who on its
turn is as large as the
(submarine?) boat and the racing-car-with-driver. |
| The dice are white and have black pips. |
| The green plastic houses and red
hotels do have all sided overhanging roofs and a chimney. |
The Rules are in English only.
 Edition: Business
Delux
Publisher: Speed Age - Bombay - 1994?
Brought to you by: Shadilal and Sons - Bombay
Dimensions of the box: 22.5 x 43.8 cm
The game:
This is a monopoly-like game that however differs importantly in many ways.
The glossy, multi-colored lid shows a man, plane, car, train, apartment
building and banknotes, obviously as a symbol of a "trade game".
The blue back of the soft, plasticizied game
board says "A trade game BUSINESS". On the yellow
midfield of the play side is a map of India with the name of the game, BUSINESS,
across.
There are 36 spaces on the board instead of the usual 40.
The properties
are divided into groups of 2 or 3 spaces and are resp. the cities Bombay -
Ahmedabad - Indore - Jaipur - Delhi - Chandigadh -
Simla - Amritsar - Srinagar - Agra - Kanpur -
Patna - Darjeeling - Calcutta - Hyderabad - Madras -
Bangalore - Ootacamund - Cochin and Margoa.
There are no stations but at other places
you'll meet a train - bus - airplane and a speedboat.
Instead of "Free Parking" you may go to the Club. At the fourth
corner is a Rest House, but there is however a Jail.
There are 2 Chance- and 2 Community Chest spaces on the midfield:
1 for unequal numbers and 1 for equal numbers. The number of pips namely is
decisive for the instruction, not a text on a card!
The currency is Rupee = Rs. At/over Start you receive Rs 1500. The money
do not consist of banknotes but of round and square counters:
RS 10 = white, round
Rs 50 = red, round
Rs 100 = yellow, round
Rs 500 = brown, square
Rs 5000 = green, square
Rs 1000 = white, square
Rs 10.000 = blue, square
The colorfull property deeds do mention the revenue per house and hotel.
However, now you can build a hotel after having 3 houses. Indeed there are 2
kinds of houses: green (= 1 house)
and red (= 2 houses!). The hotels are
yellow and blue!
The tokens are 5 thick pawns.
The instructions are bilingual: English and Hindi.
 Edition: Monopoly,
ref. 7405 (2)
Publisher: "Made in India" - 1994?
Dimensions of the box: 25.0 x 49.0 cm
The game:
Although this set was bought in Saudi Arabia it will be described here also
because it is "made in India".
This issue is a bad copy of the bilingual original game of
Waddingtons with ref.nr. 46021 with the streets of London. On each space
the text is written both in English and Arabic. For the rest is striking that:
| The game board is of soft carton. Its back is silver
grey. The word Monopoly (in open characters) on the midfield of
the board is parallel to the first side. There is no mention of any
copyright year and no Uncle Pennybags is coming out the O. |
| The inner box contains but a few carton stripes to shape trays for
the equipment. |
| The banknotes are of translucent paper! The front is in accordance
with Parker Brothers, with engine and house. The backside is like that of
Waddingtons, i.e. with "engines-pattern-with Uncle Pennybags and £-sign". |
| The green houses and red
brown hotels are made of plastic and have no roof edges. |
| The 6 tokens are the well-known car, hat, boat, shoe, iron and dog,
but badly cast of grey
plastic. |
| There are 2 redbrown dice with black
pips. |
| The yellow Chance and pink
Community Chest cards have rounded corners and are numbered. |
| Both instructions have been printed on thin paper, without mention
of "Registered Trade Mark", as it is on the OMAN sets. |
Of the three different editions (as far as known) issued under ref. nr. 7405
this is the medium one in quality.
 Edition: Monopoly,
ref. 7405 (3)
Publisher: "Made in Taiwan" - 1994?
Dimensions of the box: 25.8 x 50.0 cm
The game:
It is unknown in which country this set has been bought but since these games
occur in the Middle East and India this set is described here as well.
It's a mystery as yet why this bilingual Waddingtons' issue with ref.
nr. 46021 with the streets of London is also copied in Taiwan!? On
each space the text is written both in English and Arabic. The mention
"Made in Taiwan" is on both long rims of the cover, while the number
7405 is only on the right small rim. The differences with other editions (see
also Yemen) are but small:
| The game board is of strong carton. Its back is red.
The word Monopoly (open characters) on the midfield of
the board is parallel to the 2nd and 4th side. There is
no mention of any copyright year and no Uncle Pennybags is comping out the O. |
| In the inner box is a white plastic insert with 8 holes. |
| The banknotes are printed on solid paper but there is no
mention of "Registered Trade Mark". The front is in accordance
with Parker Brothers (with engine and house), the back with Waddingtons. |
| The plastic houses are green
and the hotels red. They all do
have a chimney as well as a roof edge. |
| The 6 tokens (car, hat, boat, iron and dog) are ugly and coarse
made of a heavy metal. |
| There are 2 tiny white dice with black pips. |
| The yellow Chance and pink
Community Chest cards have rounded corners. |
| The instructions are in Arabic only. They are printed on solid
paper. |
Of the three different editions under the same ref. nr. 7405 this issue is the
best in quality, because it has a sound game board, a decent tray for the
equipment, solid tokens and well to use dice.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
 Versie: Monopoly
De Luxe, rectangular box, ref. nr. ????
Publisher: Funskool
(India) Ltd. - Chennai -Tamil Nadu, India - ca.2003
Dimensions of the box: 27.0 x 40.0 x 5.5 cm
The game
This game is owned by Steve Amato - N.Y.
 Edition: Monopoly India, rectangular box, ref.9527000 -
060800009
Publisher: Funskool
(India) Ltd. - Chennai -Tamil Nadu, India - June 2008
Dimensions of the box: 27.0 x 40.0 x 5.5 cm
The game
This game is owned by Steve Amato - N.Y.
Funskool presents itself on its website as follows:
"Funskool
India Ltd, is a joint venture between Indian tyre giant MRF, and Hasbro,
Inc., the worldwide leader
in children's
and family leisure time products. Operations were started way back in 1987.
Since then, with our
contribution
to the Indian toy industry and a vision to help every child grow into a
successful human being, we
have emerged
as the largest toy company in India."
That is why from 1987 onwards all Parker/Hasbro products, and so all Monopoly
editions are in the official Parker/Hasbro designs and manufactured by Funskool
in India. The reference number 00009 of this edition comes from
the original Parker Brothers classification of the various versions of the
American Monopoly editions (see: USA
- Classic Editions). Although this game is released in a series of
"Country editions", with properties of cities from all over the
country, it in the same time is considered to be a "standard edition",
because that is what the number 00009 stands for. Those four digits preceding
the refence numer (here 0608) tell when the game was designed (so
this edition was designed in June 2008)
Here is the information on the Monopoly India. There are 2 small white dice
and 1 large red speed die. There are 8 gold plastic tokens (shoe, auto-trishaw,
peacock, tiger, elephant, boat, ? and ?) I am not sure what the last 2 tokens
are. One could be some sort of pipe and the other could be a bowl or an oil
lamp with a flame at one end. The back of the board is black and folds in 4.
The box is standard size. And it is made by Funschool. The number on the box
is 9527000. There is a number on the back of the rules booklet, 060800009.
H
T
All properties are from Go onwards:
Guwahati -
Community Chest -
Bhubaneshwar -
Income Tax - Chennia Central Railway Station - Panaji
(Goa) -,Chance
- Agra - Vadodara,-
Jail - Ludhiana
- Electric Company - Patna
- Bhopal - Howrah
Railway Station - Indore
-,Community Chest -
Nagpur, Kochi -
Free Parking -
Lucknow - Chance
- Chandigarh
- Jaipur - New
Delhi Railway Station - Pune
- Hyderabad
- Water Works -
Ahmedabad
- Go To Jail
-Kolkata
-
Chennai -
Community Chest
-
Bengaluru -
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
(Victoria terminus) - Chance -
Delhi -
Super Tax
and
Mumbai.
The 7 banknotes are printed in black on
colored paper in the denominations: 1 (black on white) -
5 -
10 -
20 -
50 -
100 and
500.
There are 8 gold plastic tokens: shoe -
auto-trishaw - peacock - tiger - elephant - boat - pipe ? and oil lamp?.
This version of Hasbro's
standard edition has been extended by a 3rd die,
the red Speed Die, to speed up your
game. However, the game can still played the "old fashioned" way,
without this additional die.
This die shows the figures 1 - 2 and 3, a bus and Mr.Monopoly
(2x). The influence of this Lucky Die is, in conjunction with the
white dice:
|
1, 2 of 3: Add this to the roll of the
two white dice.
|
|
Bus:You can choose to move the value
of one or both of the white dice. So if you rolled a 1 and a 5, you could
move 1 space, 5 spaces or 6 spaces.
|
|
Mr.Monopoly: Move the sum of the white
dice as normal and take the action for the space you land on. Then advance
to the next unowned property and either buy it or put it up for auction. If
there are no unowned properties left, advance to the next property owned by
another player and pay rent.
|
|
Only the white dice are counted when rolling
doubles.
|
|
If you roll three-of-a-kind (each die shows
the same number), you can move your token to any space on the board.
|
|
If you are sent to Jail during your move,
your turn ends and you do not use the result of the Lucky Die .
|
Other differences of this
version compared to the "old standard" are:
|
,
,
,
,
)