Huntington Beach now holds a local monopoly on board games.
Surf City is the first place in Orange County to merit an “Opoly,” joining more than 150 towns around the country already so honored.
Cincinnati-based game designer Late for the Sky just released its latest in a series of Monopoly-inspired novelties – Huntington Beach-Opoly, going for $19.98 at the local Walmart.
Rather than Park Place and Reading Railroad, the board features landmarks such as the pier (a deal at $310), Old World Village ($90), Bolsa Chica Wetlands ($170) and Dog Beach ($210).
“We started with Cincinnati because, well, it’s right outside our door,” said Bill Schulte, who co-founded the company with Robyn Wilson in 1984.
Securing an agreement with Parker Bros., the then-owner of Monopoly, Late for the Sky kept the concept going.
“It quickly spread to other big cities – Chicago, Pittsburgh, Atlanta,” Schulte said.
When they dipped their toes in smaller ponds, the partners discovered surprising success.
“We have come to find that the games are as popular in small towns, if not more so,” Schulte said. “In cities like Huntington Beach, we can take a much narrower focus on things relevant to residents.”
Every detail – from the play money to the plastic houses to the metal characters – is created and manufactured in Cincinnati by the company’s 45 employees.
Late for the Sky has an exclusive agreement with Walmart to sell its games, which are, for the most part, available only in the locations they represent.
“It would be cost-prohibitive for us to try to get the product in a lot of little shops,” Schulte said.
Nor are Opolies sold virtually on Amazon.com, he added: “We want to keep it at the community level.”
The company produces batches of 1,000 or fewer games per city, reprinting as demand justifies.
The games went west to California a few years ago, with San Diego-Opoly, Carlsbad-Opoly, Santa Barbara-Opoly, Temecula-Opoly and others.
Los Angeles-Opoly proved a bit unruly, Schulte said. The metropolis is too sprawling and diverse to pinpoint its most revered monuments, so he and his partner are looking at breaking it down into neighborhoods.
In contrast, the recently released Compton-Opoly has been a mega-hit. “It sold out – all 750 games – on the first day,” Schulte said. “Compton has a public relations problem, but the game is a very positive portrayal of its history and music.”
Neither Schulte nor Wilson made a special trip to Huntington Beach to design its namesake. Instead, they employed online research and validated their ideas with area residents. “We can’t really visit every single place, but we want the games to be authentic,” Schulte said.
They don’t take polls about which icons to include. “If you randomly ask people what’s important to them, you tend to get 31 flavors,” Schulte said. “It’s very subjective. We would never be able to reach a consensus.”
When it comes to Huntington Beach-Opoly, surfboards and sharks seem appropriate replacements as game pieces for the thimbles and wheelbarrows of vintage Monopoly sets.
However, as in every Opoly, the pieces are a pretzel, a heart, a dog, a hand, a shoe and a smiling mouth. “It would be impossible cost-wise to make different tokens for each game, so we have to standardize them,” Schulte said.
Still, he fondly remembers the race car, rearing horse and battleship. A 62-year-old baby boomer, Schulte grew up playing Monopoly. “I probably owned the first one,” he joked.
Opolies stir nostalgia and hometown pride. But more than that, they’re just fun, Schulte said:
“It’s a way for families to take a break from the perpetual inundation of electronics,” he said. “People can enjoy each other’s company as opposed to staring at their phones or sitting in front of Netflix.”
By the way, did you know you can purchase your very own Ruby’s Diner for $750?