What would Star Wars: The Force Awakens be like without Rey? She and Finn have the biggest roles in the film, and yet Hasbro’s Star Wars Monopoly game was sold with only four tokens: Finn, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Kylo Ren. Hasbro released the game to coincide with the release of Force Awakens. (Was the Darth Vader piece just his melted helmet?)
In January of 2016, the hashtag #WheresRey gained traction after eight-year-old Annie Rose requested a Rey token for the game and the story went viral. At the time, Hasbro said Rey was left out because her presence would be a spoiler (how?), but they promised to add her to the game by Fall of 2016.
Fall of 2016 has come and gone, so the Associated Press reached out to Hasbro to see why Rey still isn’t in sets sold in the U.S. (she is in some of the sets sold in five other countries).
People who bought the all-male game can request a Rey from customer service, spokeswoman Julie Duffy said Wednesday.
“In early 2016, Hasbro updated the 2015 Star Wars: Monopoly game to add a Rey token,” Duffy said by email. “This product was sold to retailers in several markets around the world but is not available for sale in the U.S. due to insufficient interest.”
Duffy said the company offered the updated version of the game to U.S. retailers but “retailers had ample inventory so they did not choose to sell the new version.”
How many people knew they could get a Rey token by calling customer service? Probably not many, since the company has only sent out 99 Rey tokens in the U.S. and 10 in Canada, according to Duffy. This also won’t do much to dispel the rumor from a supposed insider who claimed Rey was left out because “No boy wants to be given a product with a female character on it.” (Masculinity is fragile.)
Annie Goldman and her mother Carrie were disappointed with Duffy’s explanation. They expected the set with Rey to be available in America. Annie told AP calling customer service was “an awful lot of trouble to go through” and most kids wouldn’t know it’s an option. She told AP, “They didn’t keep their word.”
(Via the Associated Press)