Home / Start


 

 


India

 

 

Presentation:
version 2000

Presentatie:
versie 2000

 

 

 Number of versions: 9+2

 Edition:  June 29, 2008
 Updated: September 9, 2012

Map of India.

 


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.

 

 

 

 

Still sealed 1945 India made  box.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:
Made by United Agencies, Bombay 2.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.

 

Vergelijk Bombay met Waddington's rode etiket.

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."


 

 


Red box edition from 1950.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:
All accessories of the Red Box-±1950.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.

 

 

First London box made in Bombay-1.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.

Board with attributes.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.

 

 

English Trade - Bank Game, ±1957.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! 

Zaveribazar.Shivri.



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 Bank of Almighty.|IND-Game-of-English-Trade-Tokens, dice and agreen building.
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.

 

 

India mede edition of 1986.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.

Grey, plastic tokens.

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.

 

 

 

Indian edition Business Deluxe-1994?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.

 

 

Arab/English edition, made in India.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.

 

 

Taiwan made bilingual edition, ref.7405 (3).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.

 

 

 

 




Country version India Monopoly from 2008.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:

 

 

albert c. veldhuis
Zoetermeer - The Netherlands
e-mail: worldofmonopoly@gmail.com
(Nederlands,,Deutsch,Français,Magyar)