McDonald's Playland

Birthday fun under the golden arches

Awhile back some of you guys started some threads in the memory lane section in the forums about McDonald's playground equipment. I kept thinking This would be a good article. I waited for a long time and nobody ever made an article so it here it is.
My wife says, "Why are you doing that? You hate McDonald's." to which I reply that I don't know why, but I do know why. I didn't always hate McDonald's and as a kid I loved it. To a kid lousy food didn't matter as much and who can forget the joy of opening your Happy Meal and digging around in it for the prize? I even had a birthday party there for crying out loud, yes as a kid I loved it.

Welcome to McDonaldland.

This was way before the billions and billions served and the over 99 billion served signs. Hmmm get your McRib only available for a limited time ... I think I'll get it the next limited time around or not. I actually don't eat there anymore and have not eaten there willingly since I was a child. Back then however I did eat there a lot. There was one just down the street from my house.

McDonaldland Characters

Let me introduce some of the characters that you may be familiar with and others that are not so familiar. They all live in McDonaldland but most came out in the seventies or earlier so the only way a 80s child like me came to know them was through the McDonald's Playland equipment or old paintings in some of the older restaurants. My wife does not recognize the majority of them at all unless they were in a commercial because the nearest McDonald's to her house growing up did not have a playground. Some were just way to old.

Speedee their first mascot.

The original Ronald McDonald. Check out his cup nose and serving tray hat. Willard Scott portrayed him in the character's first television appearance in 1963.

This is the Ronald McDonald I remember growing up with the french fry bag pockets. They even had stuffed dolls which Spencer fondly remembers in his RetroMachine vol 4.

Most restaurants had a Ronald McDonald statue that was in the playground or inside the dining area if there wasn't a playground. I distinctly remember the waving one.

There were also sitting Ronald statues on benches so you could pose with him for a picture or just in case you ever wondered what it would be like to have a clown's arm around you. "Puhleeze" half the women who are reading this say, "seems like every other day some clown is trying to put his arm around me, know what pepper spray feels like bozo?"

In Thailand, India, and several other Asian countries this is the Ronald that greets you.

I don't know where you can find the prone Ronald just lying about but I don't really care to find out either. That thing creeps me out.

Here is the wall decoration from the playland depicting Ronald picking some hamburgers from the hamburger patch. Yes that's right hamburgers grow on bushes in McDonaldland.

Ronald stickers.

Let's examine some of the other McDonaldland Characters, shall we?

Mayor McCheese the mayor of all McDonaldland.

Here is his wall decoration.

Here is his playland statue.

Here is the Mayor McCheese round-a-bout.

This is the Mad Professor who was later known as just the professor.

His wall decoration.

The Mad Professor slide. The Professor is credited with creating McNuggets in McDonaldland.

The Hamburglar.

These are stickers showing him standing in the hamburger patch. "Robble, robble, robble."

Here is his wall decoration showing him stealing the hamburgers from the hamburger patch.

And his Hamburglar swing.

The Hamburglar spiral slide.

The Evil Grimace was a four armed monster who loved to steal milkshakes seen here in this sticker. Milkshakes come from extra thick milkshake volcanoes in McDonaldland incidentally.

In the 80s he was re-vamped to be a purple comical good guy with two arms named Grimace who still loves the milkshakes.

His wall decoration.

The Grimace bounce and bend, notice the four arms.

Uncle O'Grimacey used to come to visit his nephew Grimace on St. Patrick's Day bringing his shamrock shakes with him.

Originally called Gobblins as in, "gobblin' up all of your french fries". These guys roamed McDonaldland. "Keep Your Eyes on Your Fries"

The name was changed to Fry Guys in the 80s. The wall decoration.

A Fry Guy bouncer.

A Fry Guy as one of the seats on the carousel.

On the McDonald Land teeter totter I think that is a Fry Guy and a Filet-O'-Fish. Hamburgers grow on bushes, naturally the Filet-O'-Fish swim in the Filet-O'-Fish lake in McDonaldland of course.

I am not sure if this swing ever made it past production designs.

Here is a Filet-O'-Fish bouncer.

And Another bouncer.

Filet-O'-Fish fountain

There was also a Filet-O'-Fish mountain waterfall statue that I can't find a picture of.

There has to be a villain to go after the Filet-O'-Fish right? Enter Captain Crook.

Seen here on his wall decoration.

Here is his playland statue with a chest full of hamburgers. Wait a minute I thought that was Hamburglar's bag, now I'm all confused.

Here is the famous Captain Crook spiral slide. This slide and the Hamburglar design was often imitated but never duplicated.

You can even ride his boat as a bouncer or on the carousel.

Let's see here so we have learned that McDonaldland is filled with villains, crooks, and sneak-thieves with a burglar after my hamburgers, a purple monster after my shake, Gobblins or Fry Guys after my fries, and a crooked pirate after the Filet-O'-Fish. Seems like we need some law and order around here with all these filchers trying to steal my dinner.

Calling Officer Big Mac!

Big Mac as seen here in his wall decoration is the man in this town and he has his hands full.

Here is Big Mac in all his glory as a playground statue. He is later promoted from Officer to Chief. He looks like a British bobby because this keystone copper always wears a Constable uniform.

This is the Chief Big Mac Climber or his jail.

Not a single crook caught just kids.

Apple Pie Tree

This is the Apple Pie Tree where all of the apple pies grow and you can sit down to eat in the playland at a flower table.

There were other types of tables as well.

There was even a train with dining cars to eat on in the playland.

Some equipment I just could not find pictures for but this guy Frank15 created some gifs of them on his "The McDonald's Playground Page" at angelfire.

The distinctive playland fence

The dessert slide

The burger spinner

There were always talking hamburgers in McDonaldland (makes you a little squeamish when you pick one off the bush to eat it, doesn't it? Please don't eat me I have a wife and junior burgers). In 1979 they added the Happy Meal Gang with regular sized Drink and Fries. Also in the gang was McDonald's Cookies and Toy Surprise and a living Happy Meal Box.

Birdie the Early Bird came out in 1980 as a new character who loves the McDonald's breakfasts.

In 1986 some McDonald's restaurants or at least the drive-thrus were staying open later. To advertise this fact a new mascot Mac Tonight appeared. Make it a Mac Tonight was the slogan. He played a jazzy piano to a parody tune of Mac the Knife.

The McNugget Buddies joined the Happy Meal Gang in 1988. The original 10 were: Snorkel, Cowpoke, Volley, corny, Sparky, Drummer, Rocker, First Class, Cowpoke, and Sarge.

Later in 1993 the Halloween versions came out. McBoo, Monster, Witchie, McNuggla, Pumpkin, and Mummie.

Then in 1996 the dress up McNugget Buddies:
Monster, Spider, Ronald clown, Dragon, Punk Rock Star, and Princess.

I was turning 8 years old and where did I want to have a birthday party? You guessed it McDonald's. So I invited some of my friends and we stormed the place. I still don't know how my Mom afforded it.

Each Child was given a paper hat, special birthday napkins, a Happy Meal with prize, a plastic hand puppet, and a birthday place mat.

Some restaurants had live characters that came in costume for birthdays that had been reserved in advance. Usually it was Grimace and Ronald.

There was even a Ronald McDonald Cake.

My cake had Birdie and Ronald on it.

We played games with a McDonald's Hostess like pin the arms on Grimace (pin the tail on the donkey) and a scavenger hunt around the restaurant.

Then it was off to the playland to work off those calories.

Funny how I don't even like McDonald's anymore. Maybe it is because of the decline of the iconic McDonaldland characters. I miss them. I will always remember McDonald's as a kid as a magical place even if I don't go anymore. I did like their cookies though. I probably still would.

If you didn't get enough of McDonaldland check out these previous articles:

"A Day at the Golden Arches" by Steven Sampieri

"The Meal of Happy" by BiteMeTechie

Bye, see you next time!

Thanks for reading!

Images courtesy JasonLiebig on Flickr

Comments

Does the first photograph of this article make me think this is the McD's at 9100 SE Powell Blvd. in Portland, OR?

I remember going to a Mcdonalds like that back then I loved the playland it was awesome they still have the playland although I dont see the Ronald bench much anymore still come across it onace in a while.

Back where I come from, they don't have stuff like this at all. That looks cool.

Is there anyway you can research the McDonald playland in El Monte, California they had a half acre of playground and it was built in 1972 with all the climb on stuff like in the photos you show they had a train but also they had a Pirate ship in the middle of it and seating arrangements on board for eating your McDonald's food and padding under brand new artificial lawn.

Thumbs Up!!!

DAMN WHERE WERE THOSE PLAYGROUNDS @???? THE 1'S WE HAD OUT HERE IN CALI DONT EVEN MATCH UP WIT THE 1'S IN THE PICTURES!!!!

I still remember how this one McDonald's we just about always went to as a kid had that Chief Big Mac climber thingy. Back then I thought it was an impressive climb and always laughed reading the graffiti older kids wrote in it and if it had rained alot the day before it had about an inch of water in the bottom. They also had the train, some bouncers, and The Captain Crook spiral slide. Sadly it's all gone now, replaced by that botched abortion of plastic and foam McDonald's calls a playland these days.

great memories. brought them right up with a little tear.

You know what's funny is at one McDonald's I used to go to when I was a kid, the Pirate's slide was a lot like Hamburglar's slide. I mostly remember the cop thing you climbed in, the Grimmace bounce and bend, the fry kid bouncers, and I believe that was it for the playground at my McDonald's.

Great article and it made me hungry now lol...

Oh yeah the COOKIES!!! Man do they still have those? It's been a while since I last stepped into a McDonald's.

I always made the mistake of eating then going on the burger spinner and spinning as fast as I could. Made my sister lose her nuggets numerous times.

Yeah the new playlands are really different they look like crap and there dirty!

the McDonalds nearest me only had the Apple Pie Tree

I miss the McDonald's of old, and still eat there on occasion either for toys or to reminisce. Food's not so bad as a once-in-awhile thing. I just hope when I have kids to take there, it's as much an experience for them as it was for me.

Very nice article, I must say-- much of this stuff, I've NEVER seen before; the McDonald's around me growing up never had PlayPlaces, though one was added much later as part of a revamp of the restaurant. Prior to that, it was a "big city" thing. Kind of like finding a Toys R Us.

I think you left out one character: CosMc or CosMac or however it was spelled. But that Hamburglar is FREAKY-- if I saw him, I'd want Homer/Krusty to pummel him, too. I liked the newer one more.

I've had a party or two there, myself. I remember getting an inflatable Ronald as a souvenir.

I do miss the cookies, the Chocolaty Chip ones. I wish they'd bring those back. And while they're at it, recapture the magic and whimsy that made the whole thing an experience.

Thanks for the memories, and the education.

Nice writeup. I as-well hand a birthday party at the the good ol Mc Ds. Im pretty sure it was 86,87 and there was a Ronald character there for us. My cousin and I had close birthdays, the rents rounded up the posse and we had a ball. We played pin the tail on Grimace and also made our own games, such as who could eat the most ketchup, fies, cheesburgers... Im very pleased to see you included the Mac at night character, he was my favorite. I relly dont eat at the arches much anymore. I think either the quality has gone way down or my sense of helthy liing has gone up. Anyway nice memories and good times.

My McDonald's Playground era was between 1981 and 1988 and what I remember most from the playground my family frequented was the "roughness" of it. The equipment was all hard edged metal; none of these soft rounded plastic corners. The slide itself would reach 120 degrees farenheight on a hot July day. The most amazing piece of equipment was the hamburger jail. Let's build this thing where kids climb up ten feet into a burning hot metal jail.....then, we'll put bars around it. But we'll leave this one part wide open so kids can jump (or fall) out onto the hard cement below. It didn't matter because back then parents were'nt so "lawsuit happy". The kid fell off the burning hot slide? Parent would just say "Well, junior...you knew it was hot."
Now, every toy has to be rounded off and very safe so little Alexardra doesn't get a wittle boo-boo on her poo-poo.

Damn! That playground looks awesome. Way better than the gross playgrounds indoors they have now.

I always was intrested in the early days of mcdonalds. those playground things look like I would have enjoyed them a lot as a kid. there's a mcdonalds with a playplace near me, but it doesn't look as creative as theese ones.

What I remember most about the McDonaldland Playland was that the insides of the Grimace bouncy thing and the Chief Big Mac jail thing *always*, no matter which one I went to, *always* smelled of pee.

Good times.

It's really a shame that kids today get those indoor padded-and-plasticized-for-your-protection PlayPlaces. Bring back the outdoor, concrete-and-metal-equipment McDonaldland, I say!!Let em know what it was like to scrape a knee or chip a tooth...

Great article, thanks for the memories!! :-)

I've never seen a playground like that before, I've only seen soft, indoor playgrounds in the UK. I love McDonalds, nothing hits the spot like a cheese burger.

The moon man was badass. Mayor McCheese was impeached following the unfortunate business with Birdie.

And what the hell was Grimace, anyway?

well there you go my twin bro sums up "micky dees" as we called it. We also had a large b-day at Village Inn with a bucky bear character there.I hate onions specifically because of mcdonalds' burgers had the little diced ones that were impossible to take off like the pickles or tomatoes if you didn't like them. nothing brings up an unhappy queasy feeling like peeling back your bun and seeing those evil diced micro little daywreckers. I used to love chicken mcnuggets but now dont really care for them. I will eat a chicken sandwich there when someone drags me there but usually dont eat at micky dees unless its breakfast. I am surprised he didn't mention that for years we had the tradition of getting mcmuffins and hot cocoa for every parade we went to.

Thanks for all the comments guys!

So many memories sparked thank you.

I don't recall The Professor or Capt. Crook and I used to get Mayor McCheese mixed-up with Officer Big Mac (I didn't even know their names until now). Rarely, did I play at Playland. We just got our food and left. With that said, my parents would take me to McD's on a regular basis. When we moved into an apartment for a short time, they had one in walking distance, so I made it my business to make a weekly visit.

I remember, in Kindergarden, If you had a birthday that month, Ronald or Mac Tonight would pay your classroom a visit with a coupon and a toy. My older brother used to work there and he showed up to my class dressed as Mac Tonight, from what the other kids told me. I asked him about it later on, but he would never tell me.

Like most of you I can't stand McD's anymore. Haven't eaten there in years and probably won't let kids eat there, being that it's now a shadow of it's former self.

I agree on the used to love it now I hate it. I wanted to eat there all the time as a kid. Eventually my parents started to take me toy shopping just before the dinner hour which made it easier to trick me into eating at Applebee's, Friday's, etc. Since those days I have only eaten there maybe a handfull of times and only for the Egg McMuffin!

Oh my this was a fantastic article! Thanks for bringing back so many memories as a kid. Gosh i used to love those cookies!

It seems most everyone I know is the same. Love it as kids and hate it as adults. I'm only 24 so I'm a little young for most of those characters. I never new the grimace was a bad guy once. Either way I loved it as a kid as well. The only reason I still go is to let my 3 year old daughter have some fun.

Man I just keep remembering things from this article! Those cookies were my favorite when I was little. I can remember pulling up to the drive through window and seeing all of the cookies stacked up by the register. I loved the small chocolate chip cookie ones. Also, I have no idea why, but our city had a "block party" one time, and Mac Tonight was there playing an actual piano. Hahah, I don't remember much else about that block party other than Mac tonight. Great article, the best I have read in a long while.

Man, this was a great article. I remember a lot of those items. When I was little, my brother and I both had "fry guy" stocking hats. I distinctly remember playing in the Chief Big Mac jail as well, and those McNugget Happymeal toys were favorites of mine. So many fond memories.

Another fantastic article, in fact I would venture to say that it is easily one of the finest articles that I have ever read on Retrojunk. I was never that big on the food at McDonalds, in fact even as a kid I only liked the McNuggets but just like anyone else I loved the characters, commercials and epically the toys. This was a fantastic trip down memory lane and I thank you very much for it.

Brava, NLogan, brava!

Without those old Playplaces or even Ronald his and mighty-fine McDonaldland mafia (no, not THAT Mafia), it's no wonder McDonald's seems to be heading downhill faster than we think. I still enjoy going to McDonald's so I can nosh on that Quarter Pounder with Cheese value meal.

I remember going to the Playplace on numerous occasions (especially the good ol' ball pit). And I've been to one birthday party there, if memory serves me well.

Lorna Doone cookies remind me alot of Mcdonalds cookies. You can buy them at your local market.

Boo- I hate McDonald's- at least I do now- loved it as a kid! Creepy looking characters- never went to a playland, and looking at the pics I'm happy I didn't! Thanks for the memories! Great article!

This is a very well done article! Kudos to you! I certainly do have some nostalogia for the old playland equipment. I wish it were the same today. Now it's just tubes. I also miss seeing the McDonald Land gang. My mom used to buy those cookies for me as a young kid. Thanks for the GREAT article, Nlogan!

I remember the McDonald's playland as a kid. I even knew a kid who had a birthday party at one nearly 20 years ago. McDonald's will never be the same again.

I had my birthday at McDonalds when i was a kid. It seems having a birthday party at a fast food place has gone the way of the buffalo.

They actually still have one of those old apple pie trees at my local swim center.
As a kid i always thought it belonged in a McDonalds playplace... what an odd coincidence!

Wow, was that a trip to the past! I still remember my 5-year old birthday party at the local MCD's. (Everyone at the age of 5 in my house had their birthdays held at MCDs)

Our McD's had an outdoor playground featuring much of what was shown above. There was an indoor party room with a separate entrance to the plaground. Mainly I remember the burger jail thing because I got stuck above, and felt like I was going to fall out, and getting my friends to all go into the wobbly grimace cage and get that thing going. We also had the fry kid rockers and I think there may have been a slide. Several years later, it changed.

The youngest of our household didn't get the nice outdoor playground though. He had the newly revamped sweat-smelling static-filled playplace that had Nintendo 64's in it, *had* a ball pit that we'd all go in and chuck balls at each other. The slides would give endless shocks as you got stuck in the middle, and I actually recall my brother getting headlice after playing in the structure one evening.

Now, as of last year, the McD's has been torn down, and being rebuilt from the ground up. I wonder what kind of play place they'll get now?

Dang! What an article! I'm totally speechless! I wish I was around to experience the McDonald's playground like you did! Definately deserves a big thumbs up!

McDonald's used to be a pretty cool place for a birthday party. I grew up in a really small town. So small that we had no recognizable franchise places of any kind. But McDonald's was was the very first place like that to be built in our town. I remember at the time in the mid-80's it was like we had had a theme park built in our town. EVERYBODY went there. And all the time too. It was THE place to be and suck a neat "outside world" luxury. Our's actually didn't have a playland, but I definitely remember being at a ton of them at other McDonald's. Those pictures in this article made me laugh. I haven't seen some of those slides, shakers, and jungle gyms in forever. At lot of that whole "McDonaldland" stuff has gone away now. It used to be more geared toward kids like that and I used to love all the characters. I'm kind of a health nut now, and haven't really been in a McDonald's in about 8 or 9 years, but I think they've changed their ways a little in regard to the nutrition of their food. At least I know they have since I was a kid. Still, guess it can be a guilty pleasure. I used to love McDonaldland cookies and do you remember the McDLT? "Keep the hot hot and the cool cool"? It was kind of a hokey think, but it always makes me laugh. Good nostalgic article!

Thanks for this! I especially loved the old playground stuff, brought back a few long lost memories. McDonalds Cookies were fantastic!

i had a birthday party at a mcdonald's too. we played "stack the big mac boxes" game. they were still made of styrafoam then and were the biggest in the middles, so it was actually a really hard game. great article, thumbs up.

One thing I should mention thats potentially awesome. In my city, like many others, there is a McDonalds at one of the many busy intersections. Unlike many cities (if any others...), there is a giant, probably life size Tyrannosaurus Rex on the intersection side, ready to take out the traffic light. Theres another dinosaur too, if I remember correctly, but its on the opposite side of the McDonalds, so I can't remember what it was, other then its a herbivore. No, I am not making this up either. I wish I had a picture to show you guys.

Oh and you are right, those talking hamburgers were kind of unsettling. I actually used to have nightmares about them. Specifically about opening my Happy Meal and taking out the hamburger only to have it open those big googley eyes and start talking to me. Oh, they never begged for their life or said anything menacing, but rather just acted as they did in the commercials. But that did not make it any less creepy. To make matters worse the first McDonnalds in my home town had statues of those living burgers sticking out of the counter below where you order, which means at 3 years old they were right at eye level with me. I guess that was kind of the point, that they would be there to amuse the kids while their parents ordered the food but to me they were not so much amusing as creepy. Fortunately none of this ever affected my love of McDonnalds.

I actually remember most of these characters appearing in McDonnald's commercials. It seem that during the 80's they gradually phased them out. As I remember the first to go were Chief Big Mac and Mayor McCheese. Apparently in the late 70's or early 80's the Croft Bros. sued McDonnalds because these two character bore too much a resemblance to their dragon character, H.R. Puffenstuff. If you ask me the Croft Bros. are the ones at fault for making a dragon looking like a hamburger. I mean Mac and McCheese were supposed to look like hamburgers because they were hamburgers. Dragons on the other hand should not look like hamburgers, that is just stupid. None the less, they were forced to remove these two characters from the commercials, however, somehow this injunction did not stop them from using the characters in other media. The nest to go was Captain Crook. Not sure why the removed him, I just remember him disappearing shortly after Mac and McCheese. The Professor actually lingered on into the mid 80's, and I actually remember that character quite well. Another interesting change was that was made in the 80's was that with the exception of The Hamburgler, all the criminals were reformated as good guys. The Evil Grimace became just plain Grimace and the Gobblins became The Fry Guys, all of who were suddenly Ronald's friends. In fact at some point in the 80's the added the Fry Girls so I guess all those rowdy Gobblins needed was a good woman to make the settle down and act respectable.

PS. I never knew that the McNuggets had names.

Gosh!! I remember the boxes that the cookies used to come in. Ronald, Grimace, Birdie, and Hamburglar were my favorites. The Fry Guys were awesome too. I think I got Happy Meal from the time I was like 3 or 4 all the way up until I was 10. Then, if Mickey D's came out with a particular toy that I still like (the little Sega games or the Hot Wheels cars) I try to get a few of them. My favorite toys from when I was still of "Happy Meal age" were obviously the Sonic The Hedgehog 3 happy meal, all the Hot Wheels/Barbie meals (I obviously wanted the cars), Teeny Beanie Babies, and the Totally Toy Holiday meal (a showcase of different toys from a few different toy companies).

oh my god...i think i remember their cookies.if i remember right, they were bite size.

My sister once got invited to a McDonalds birthday once. I, of course, wasn't there, but my mom heard and earful about it from my sister, and later my mom told me. Apparently, there was a little cupcake with a candle with the number on it (you all should know the type) for the birthday girl. So, no cake for ANYONE. Apparently, the cake was at home for family members only. So after everyone sung happy birthday, and opened the presents, the birthday girl and her parents all got McDonalds food. But, NO ONE else did. Everyone just had to sit there and watch them eat. And this was at dinner time too. Talk about super rude.

Some 5 or 6 years ago once a friend and myself went to the mall. His mom and 4 year old bratty nephew went with us as well (his older sister dumped him on them, as usual). The trip was planned several days in advance, but the nephew was sort of last minute, hence why he got dragged along. Luckily, we didn't have to see much of him, besides in the car, and lunch in the food court. Guess what they have in the food cout as one of your food options. Anyways, Bratty Nephew got a Happy Meal, and the little paper on top of the tray it came on had little pictures of, more or less, the entire Happy Meal gang. And Bratty Nephew didn't know who they were. At ALL.

Hahahah!! Once again.. logan has pulled out some fond memories of my childhood..

Got to love all the collector glasses that we brought home and the sets we just had to have...lol

McD's was always good about promoting movies.. I still have ET glasses..

I love the Saint Patty's day milkshake!! Anyone remember those?

Great, great article. I was so sad the day they replaced the Chief Big Mac Jail and Apple Pie Tree with a ball pit. A crummy, old ball pit. Of course, the fact that my friend fell off the Apple Pie Tree (It clearly says NO CLIMBING!) and face-planted, requiring plastic surgery contributed heavily to that decision (true story).

you mentioned every piece of crap thing about mcdonalds except one...

Mckids: For the Nes.

Cool article, just this past summer at a local flea market I picked up a Mcdonalds Happy Birthday sign thats about 4'x2' featuring Ronald, Grimace, Birdie and Hamburglar.