Lil' Champ Food Store was a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida. It has no relation to Circle K. Aside from the name on the machine on ebay, I have found no proof that they ever had arcade machines. Either way, I don't find it very likely that they made a whole arcade machine exclusively for this one local gas station in Florida. I'm leaning more towards the "Lil' Champ" name on the machine meaning something else.
Oh I thought it was linked to me because Circle K absorbed them or something.
They acquired Lil' Champ in 2015 as part of their purchase of The Pantry, Inc.
I could look through my Kidzpace correspondence again, but the machines from Kidzpace have the company name on them.
Exactly! All of these machines have artwork or branding pertaining to the partnering businesses, no generic terms. Remember, they served as marketing tools in addition to entertainment. Plus, in the event of it becoming stolen, it serves as a further aid in identification and recovery efforts.
I could look through my Kidzpace correspondence again, but the machines from Kidzpace have the company name on them.
Exactly! All of these machines have artwork or branding pertaining to the partnering businesses, no generic terms. Remember, they served as marketing tools in addition to entertainment. Plus, in the event of it becoming stolen, it serves as a further aid in identification and recovery efforts.
Not anymore! Heck of a read. Ya better do up some "celebratory shirts", co!
Wow this is amazing! After reading the article, I'm pretty convinced this was in fact the machine I was remembering! I'm thinking the discrepancies from the article to other collective memories is due to the fact things expanded as the project continued, which meant the inclusion of other games and possibly a different cabinet distributor. That's just a theory though.
Thanks for linking the article! Indeed I'll have to design those shirts because this is more than likely solved, which is crazy because this was my first ever post on here.
i unfortunately don't have any memory of these as i am too young, and it also seems as if this case is almost solved, but i thought i'd leave a note here, just in case. my aunt was a manager at multiple mcdonald's (not in north america) for many years, and collected many pieces of merchandaise over her time. i've also met people with full garages and guest rooms dedicated to mcd's memorabilia, for the sake of "nostalgia". so if you guys are in need of another lead, i would say that the collecters of mcd's merchandaise / knowledge is not a bad shout. it's absolutely crazy how insane some people are over burger shop.
Last Edit: Jan 14, 2024 7:12:36 GMT by kismetflyers
i unfortunately don't have any memory of these as i am too young, and it also seems as if this case is almost solved, but i thought i'd leave a note here, just in case. my aunt was a manager at multiple mcdonald's (not in north america) for many years, and collected many pieces of merchandaise over her time. i've also met people with full garages and guest rooms dedicated to mcd's memorabilia, for the sake of "nostalgia". so if you guys are in need of another lead, i would say that the collecters of mcd's merchandaise / knowledge is not a bad shout. it's absolutely crazy how insane some people are over burger shop.
I did try the McDonald's collectors group on Facebook but no bites. A reddit collector group might be more likely to answer? At any rate, I do think we're very close to solving this. We just don't know who made these machines, hence why we can't find any through your average Google search. The dynamo company is a lead I'm gonna follow up on once I have time to compose a comprehensive email. Although, I have a feeling the ebay seller is incorrect, orrr that Lil Champ might have been made by an individual opposed to a company. The Pyle speakers is why I suspect this, but that doesn't mean much.