Only, Tiamat, as the female dragon is called, will run on propane because propane produces “more interesting colored flames than natural gas does,” Bensch said. The city fire marshal already has weighed in, and the installation had to meet some engineering requirements along the lines of what would be needed to operate a hotel firepit running on natural gas, he said. “So, that is the part that we are most eager to see and I think our guests will be most eager to see.” “That’s our signature piece and the flashiest,” said Bensch, adding that the sculpture's wingspan will almost match its height. Scaled-up Jenga pieces that people can walk across like rocks in a creek, because “We couldn’t let you climb a Jenga tower,” Bensch said.Īnd the pièce de resistance: an 18-foot-high fire-breathing dragon from Dungeons & Dragons. You could bring your cappuccino out here, sit at one of the tables that will be on our terrace, and just have something that we currently don’t offer.'Ī race-car Monopoly token replica measuring 9½ feet long by 3 feet wide that guests can sit in.Ī 7-foot-high walk-in Monopoly hotel piece and a 6½-foot-high Monopoly walk-in house piece.įour Scrabble tiles, each measuring 9 by 10 feet and spelling out the world “PLAY.”Ī forest of 11- and 13-foot-high candy canes from Candy Land.Ī playable Simon game measuring 10 feet in diameter.Ī rideable Game of Life spinner that’s 21 feet around and works like a playground merry-go-round.Ī giant Trivial Pursuit-shaped planter with wedge-shaped benches. Plus, said Bensch, “We wanted a space where kids could blow off a little steam, or parents could get a breath of fresh air. With a goal of boosting annual attendance to 1 million from around 600,000, museum officials took the feedback to heart, particularly given the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which in 2020 cut the number of visitors to 175,000. However, it will give the downtown attraction something that in surveys prospective visitors living within a five- to six-hour drive said might inspire a road trip: more active space.

The park - developed with funding from Vivien and Alan Hassenfeld, whose family founded Hasbro toy company, and the Hassenfeld Family Foundation - is a relatively small part of a 90,000-square-foot, $65 million museum expansion that will be unveiled June 30. Still covered in shrink wrap, he has a metallic finish and looks just like the real game piece. The company sent Bensch pictures of the fabricated pieces before they were shipped, “And if I didn’t know how big furniture dollies were, I would never have known that that Scottie dog wasn’t the kind that was sitting on my Monopoly board,' he said.Ī 10-by-14-foot replica of the Scottie dog token from Monopoly will be part of the new Hasbro Game Park at The Strong National Museum of Play. He’s still enclosed in white shrink wrap, “kind of like a cocoon,” said Christopher Bensch, the museum’s vice president for collections and chief curator.īut when he emerges, he’ll look just like the iconic game piece - complete with fur contours and a metallic finish - and will be joined by other supersized Hasbro game elements made by Minnesota-based Tivoli Too. Recently, though, the first indication of what is to come was lowered by crane into the middle of the 17,000-square-foot space facing Howell Street: a 10-by-14-foot replica of the Scottie dog token from Monopoly. Still about two months out from its big reveal, the Hasbro Game Park, one of two new outdoor features at The Strong National Museum of Play, remains very much a work in progress, fenced off and filled with construction crews and heavy machinery.

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