The Route 66 town of Kingman, Arizona, now has a Monopoly-inspired board game that’s being sold online and in local stores. It’s called Kingman-Opoly.
According to an article in the Kingman Daily Miner, the Kingman-Opoly game started to show up in Walmart stores in Kingman in mid-September.
The board game includes these local stops on Route 66 or near it:
- “Welcome to Kingman” water tower
- Giganticus Headicus
- Locomotive Park
- The Powerhouse
- Oatman Ghost Town
- Historic Route 66
- Grand Canyon Skywalk
- Rutherford’s 66 Family Diner
- Colorado River
- Beale Street
- Mohave Museum of History and Arts
- Kingman Railroad Museum
The newspaper brought forth information about the company that produced Kingman-Opoly:
The creators of the game are Late for the Sky Production Company from Cincinnati, Ohio. They decided to create the game as they branched into Arizona and find towns where people like to be.
In order for the board game to have the personalized locations, the company has a research team look at each city’s online reviews, visitor’s guides, chamber of commerce, and local blogs to find places locals and visitors know and love.
The game has only been out for about 12 days and they have been flying off the shelves.
“The feedback has been great, we heard that the first shipment of 102 games sold out immediately,” said Jessica Staub, marketing manager for Late for the Sky Production Company.
The Kingman-Opoly game can be purchased for $24.95 here. Similar games also are available for Albuquerque, Amarillo, Chicago, Edmond, Oklahoma City, Santa Fe, Springfield (MIssouri), St. Louis, Tulsa and Yukon here.
(Image of the Kingman-Opoly board game via Late for the Sky)
Is there a Route 66 Monopoly? If not, why not? What would occupy the squares? I’d say Coral Court gets one of Boardwalk/Park Place. What gets the other? Or maybe the two Cozy Cones get them? Surely there must be a Route 66 Monopoly. What year would it be set in? If too far back, it wouldn’t be relatable. If too new, it would have squares with stuff nobody cares about. I think maybe 1987 would be a good cutoff year. Will Rogers Motel, Coral Court, and many other important attractions were still standing.
That’s actually not a bad idea. Maybe the folks at the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership could work with the company on the idea.
This needs to happen. There is no question about it.
Knowing how litigious the USA is, how is it that any new -opoly game is not infringing the rights of the owner of the Monopoly trademark? Here in the UK the BBC (that is the British Broadcasting Corporation, not Bournemouth Borough Council) has lent on the woman who dared call her new dance business for very large women (and presumably very large men) “Strictly Curved” because the BBC’s lawyers thought the customers might believe it was commercially connected with the BBC TV show “Strictly Come Dancing”. As if….
It’s not infringing on trademark rights. You can read about why in this article here:
https://www.americanbar.org/publications/landslide/2014-15/march-april/not_playing_around_board_games_and_intellectual_property_law.html
The company that makes Kingman-opoly has been in business for almost 35 years. I suspect it has its ducks in a row legally.
Thanks, Ron. Of course different copyright laws apply in different countries, and some apply transnationally. As for “Monopoly” becoming a generic term – solely because of the popularity of the game – thus leaving its inventors with little recourse to copyright infringements to similarly based games, how is that justice? For many decades in the UK, “hoovering” has been a synonym for vacuum cleaning, a “thermos” for a vacuum flask. The road surface of tar (or often petroleum based bitumen) mixed with crushed stone is generically called tarmac – short for tarmacadam – the short name patented in 1902. Today there is a British engineering company called Tarmac – with a road construction history. For some reason, the road surface is still supposed to be spelled with a capital T.
Then there was the alleged demand by Warner Brothers that the Marx Brothers change the name of “A Night in Casablanca” because of their film “Casablanca”. That spat was – or was not – played out in America. And how does one country out of so many in the North and South Americas lay claim to being called America, and its citizens Americans?