Jeff Moore (jpattern@aol.com) writes: The cable channel American Movie Classics (AMC) is showing old 60s spy movies all this month [May 1999-LPB] ... The neat thing is, if there's a 2-hour slot available but the movie's only, say, an hour and 40 minutes long, AMC shows old spy-related commercials from the 60s to fill out the hour. And the *best* thing is, a lot of those spy-related commercials are for *toys*. Saturday night I saw commercials for Secret Sam (a briefcase with concealed weapons, periscope, camera, etc.) and good ol' PF Flyers (a kid had to save an "atom scientist"). The PF Flyers commercial included a pitch for the decoder ring, just like the JQ decoder ring, just like the ring on Ebay. So, to make a long post short (too late!), 1) check out AMC on the weekends for cool old spy movies (and spoofs), and 2) there doesn't seem to have been anything unique about the JQ version of the PF Flyers decoder ring, except maybe the instruction card that came with the ring. (I had one way back when, but I don't remember the instruction card). Another note: In the commercial, they pointed out the many features of the ring. Of course, there's the decoder function on top, with concentric rings of letters. The center ring pops out, revealing a secret compartment. At the bottom of the secret compartment is a mirror (probably silvered paper) you can use to signal with. And in the center of the pop-out section is a magnifying glass. I don't know if the entire center section is clear plastic, or only the magnifying glass portion. (I couldn't tell from the commercial, and I don't recall from my childhood.)