McDonald's PlayPlace History

[FrankMoore99]

I am wondering if any of these eras of McDonald's play equipment have names to them?? I am asking this because the McDonald's in Folsom, CA recently removed their Mid to Late 90s play equipment and I am wondering where in the country they still have old play equipment. I think a few locations in Washington- Lacey, Long Beach, Tacoma, and a couple places in Spokane, in Oregon-Sherwood and Lincoln City, in California-Lancaster, Milpitas, Bay Point, Castaic, Utah-Hyrum, Mt Morris, Michigan, and Joelton and Alexander City, Tennessee, Evansville, Indiana, Tucson, Arizona, and Manchester, New Hampshire (these three have the mansard roof) still have old mid to late 90s equipment. Does anywhere still have the late 80s-early 90s play equipment and are there any other businesses that bought the play equipment once McDonald's stopped using it and are currently using it?? Does McDonald's plan to replace all the old play equipment along with remodeling all their restaurants, or are they exempt? Let me know of any more old school McDonald's PlayPlaces and what the play equipment packages are called.

https://haydenbusinessblog.blogspot.com ... -food.html (Please look at History of Fast Food PlayPlaces at McDonald's picture, if nothing else).

[FrankMoore99]

What locations in the Western United States had the 70s-80s playground package??
Here are some I believe had them:
619 Broadway, Chula Vista, CA 91910 (the first McDonald's PlayPlace. Still has an outdoor PlayPlace with new equipment)
424 W San Ysidro Blvd, San Diego, CA 92173 (where the mass shooting took place. Relocated to 707 W San Ysidro Blvd, San Ysidro, CA 92173, which still has outdoor PlayPlace, I believe with mid-late 90s equipment unless they remodeled it)
7632 Sunrise Blvd, Citrus Heights, CA 95610
4121 Marconi Ave, Sacramento, CA 95821
1995 Idaho St, Elko, NV 89801

Can you list anymore??

[storewanderer]

Elko was demolished and rebuilt and doesn't have it anymore.

Over time the insurance and cleaning costs associated with having this equipment seem to be not worth it for some locations. In Reno area, there are about 4 locations with modern indoor playplace and they do attract families, birthday parties, etc. Enough so that these locations which encompass 3 different franchisees keep the equipment. Many more locations around town have removed the outdoor equipment.

Too many risks and issues with outdoor equipment. Homeless people or animals nesting inside it, vandalism after hours, damage that may cause a safety issue that isn't detected, etc.

[FrankMoore99]

Elko was demolished and rebuilt and doesn't have it anymore.

Over time the insurance and cleaning costs associated with having this equipment seem to be not worth it for some locations. In Reno area, there are about 4 locations with modern indoor playplace and they do attract families, birthday parties, etc. Enough so that these locations which encompass 3 different franchisees keep the equipment. Many more locations around town have removed the outdoor equipment.

Too many risks and issues with outdoor equipment. Homeless people or animals nesting inside it, vandalism after hours, damage that may cause a safety issue that isn't detected, etc.

Did Elko have an outdoor playground back in the 70s and early 80s??

[pseudo3d]

Off the top of my head, I know in College Station the Southwest Parkway lost its outdoor playground in a renovation. This was the wooden one I mentioned on Groceteria. Part of the problem was that the store was on a fairly tight outlot and needed the space.

Outdoor one in nearby (Highway 21) got removed during a late 2000s/early 2010s renovation, likely for reasons described by storewanderer. There was one in Temple near the mall that got the indoor playground removed for additional seating (I believe), a rebuild in New Braunfels that removed the Playplace (retrofitted add-on), same with Lockhart. Another in Houston got its playground during a renovation; however, due a highway widening there was no keep it.

There was another in Cypress (Houston) that also got its Playplace removed but incorporated back into the restaurant in a renovation.

[wnetmacman]

Another issue was vandalism.

The reason I know that is because I (and a whole TX junior college) witnessed the aftermath.

Carthage, TX - 1993. It's homecoming week at Panola College, a small 1600 student (at the time) 2 year college. It was cheap for locals. And scholarships abounded the school. If you were in pretty much anything, there was a scholarship that paid for pretty much everything.

McDonald's was (and still is) down the street from the college. It was still original in mansard design with a playplace then. And the Ronald McDonald statue was, well, accessible, from just outside the fence if you could reach in.

Homecoming Fun Day was upon us, and the college surrounds a large quad area, wide open. Science building on one end, fine arts at the other, and the other two sides were the library and admin building. We all walk out to fun day, and RMD greets us, waving from the top of the science building.

Ronald was back home an hour later.

Good Times!

[FrankMoore99]

I am wondering if any of these eras of McDonald's play equipment have names to them?? I am asking this because the McDonald's in Folsom, CA recently removed their Mid to Late 90s play equipment and I am wondering where in the country they still have old play equipment. I think a few locations in Washington- Lacey, Long Beach, Tacoma, and a couple places in Spokane, in Oregon-Sherwood and Lincoln City, in California-Lancaster, Milpitas, Bay Point, Castaic, Utah-Hyrum, Mt Morris, Michigan, and Joelton and Alexander City, Tennessee, Evansville, Indiana, Tucson, Arizona, and Manchester, New Hampshire (these three have the mansard roof) still have old mid to late 90s equipment. Does anywhere still have the late 80s-early 90s play equipment and are there any other businesses that bought the play equipment once McDonald's stopped using it and are currently using it?? Does McDonald's plan to replace all the old play equipment along with remodeling all their restaurants, or are they exempt? Let me know of any more old school McDonald's PlayPlaces and what the play equipment packages are called.

https://haydenbusinessblog.blogspot.com ... -food.html (Please look at History of Fast Food PlayPlaces at McDonald's picture, if nothing else).

What are the names for the PlayPlace equipment packages?? Are they McDonaldland (picture 1), Ronald's Playland(picture 2), Ronald's Playland 2.0(picture 3 and 5), Ronald's Castle(picture 4), The Factory (picture 6), Treehouse (picture 7), Explore (picture 8), Great Tunes (picture 9), Space Obstacle Course(picture 10), and Forest Obstacle Course(picture 11)

What locations have these packages? Most of them now are the Space Obstacle and Forest Obstacle Courses. Are there any that still have Ronald's Playland, the first version (late 80s-early 90s), or was Elko, Nevada's the last one?

[FrankMoore99]

I am wondering if any of these eras of McDonald's play equipment have names to them?? I am asking this because the McDonald's in Folsom, CA recently removed their Mid to Late 90s play equipment and I am wondering where in the country they still have old play equipment. I think a few locations in Washington- Lacey, Long Beach, Tacoma, and a couple places in Spokane, in Oregon-Sherwood and Lincoln City, in California-Lancaster, Milpitas, Bay Point, Castaic, Utah-Hyrum, Mt Morris, Michigan, and Joelton and Alexander City, Tennessee, Evansville, Indiana, Tucson, Arizona, and Manchester, New Hampshire (these three have the mansard roof) still have old mid to late 90s equipment. Does anywhere still have the late 80s-early 90s play equipment and are there any other businesses that bought the play equipment once McDonald's stopped using it and are currently using it?? Does McDonald's plan to replace all the old play equipment along with remodeling all their restaurants, or are they exempt? Let me know of any more old school McDonald's PlayPlaces and what the play equipment packages are called.

https://haydenbusinessblog.blogspot.com ... -food.html (Please look at History of Fast Food PlayPlaces at McDonald's picture, if nothing else).

Here's the article about the Folsom McDonald's removing old school play equipment: https://haydenbusinessblog.blogspot.com ... urant.html.

Do you like the old equipment more or the new equipment more?
Is the franchise operating the Iron Point Road location also operate the Bradshaw Road franchise??

[storewanderer]

There are a LOT of different McDonalds franchisees around Sacramento and I don't think there are any corporate units left in the market. There were a few corporate units a decade ago closer to the middle of Sacramento.

I'm trying not to be negative but to me the old playground equipment looks bright and active. The new equipment is square, sterile, and cold looking- but that new equipment fits with the current look and feel of McDonalds locations.

[FrankMoore99]

I am currently working on a directory of all the Burger King, McDonald's, and Carl's Jr playgrounds that have ever existed. If you are interested in working on it adding more locations that aren't listed, please do. It is a heavily under researched subject and a time consuming task to type in all the restaurants addresses for one person.
Here's the menu of the directory: https://malls.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Playground_Lists