Jonny Quest Memorabilia - P.F. Flyer Ring

One of the most-remembered bits of Jonny Quest memorabilia was the ring offered as a promotion by P. F. Flyers, makers of sneakers (which is US English for tennis shoes, or canvas shoes). P. F. Flyers tapped into the All-American-boy image of Jonny, even sponsoring a commercial that was a Jonny Quest mini-adventure. I remember thinking how cool it was to have a Jonny Quest commercial, and pestering my parents endlessly to get the shoes so I could have that ring. (It didn't work. I got sneakers, and they were white, but they were not P. F. Flyers, and thus, no ring.) Below is a brief description of the ring itself:

The ring had the following features:

CODE DIALS - The inner dial turned, and had the Latin alphabet (A-Z) around the edge. The outer dial had a scrambled code alphabet (including secret message, "WEARPFS", see image below). You encoded (or, more properly, enciphered) messages to your friends by translating the letters in your message using the inner ring to the ones on the outer ring, based on an agreed-upon ring position.
MAGNIFYING LENS - The inner dial lifted out, and had a magnifying lens that could be used to magnify and study small objects, fingerprint detail, etc.
SIGNAL FLASHER - Inside the ring, below the magnifying lens, was a piece of foil silver on one side and green on the other. When the silver side was facing up, it reflected light with a "bright" flash that is visible at some distance. The green side was used when coding, because it showed the letters more clearly.
SECRET COMPARTMENT - This was the space beneath the signal flasher foil. When the foil and lens are in position it hid anything in the secret compartment.

Here's an advertising poster (4 in. by 20 in.) from P.F. Flyers for the Jonny Quest decoder ring.

Here's another view of the advertising poster:

Here's another approach used to advertise the promotion -- a set of shoe inserts! They were made of cardboard. One insert has a picture of Jonny and a girl companion; he is wearing the ring, and there is a picture of the ring next to him. That one is signed Hanna-Barbera Prod. The other insert has an image of the ring on it, with callouts describing the ring's features. Both inserts are the same size, 6 3/4 inches long by 4 1/2 inches wide.

And here's another ad for the ring from P.F Flyers (22 in. by 22 in.). (Thanks to Gary Karpinski)

Here are some views of the ring: the black-and-white images are from the 1964-65 commercial for P.F Flyers; the B&W image on the right shows the code wheel removed to expose the secret compartment and sun-flasher on the inside of the ring. The color images (showing the ring as gold-colored) are from an offering on eBay, which recently brought a bid of $US 63.50.

Here is another color image of the ring and the front of the instruction card that came with it.

We now have color scans of the instruction card. Thanks to Jordan Christianson for an earlier, black and white image.

More views of the ring:

with new images added

And, finally, here are some comments we've received from Jeff Moore (Jpattern@aol.com) concerning the ring.

Jonny Quest and distinctive likenesses © Hanna-Barbera. All other images, image designs and other image work on this site are © ClassicJQ.com, © Hanna-Barbera or as noted. Text content is © ClassicJQ.com, except where noted otherwise, and may not be shared or re-published without the consent of the author. This is strictly a fan-based site, and is in no way affiliated with or approved by Hanna-Barbera or any other organizations, unless specifically indicated otherwise.