Toy, Space-Cruiser, Flash Gordon

This Flash Gordon Space-Cruiser (with its matching space port hangar) combined elements of aviation (a classically-shaped hangar) with space-themed play. The toy set was the result of a partnership between Pyro Plastics, which made the plastic spacecraft (this one has a Pyro maker's mark on its underside), in association with T. Cohn (or Superior), which produced the hangar. Using a spring-activated rail, the toy's owner could launch the Flash Gordon Space Cruiser -- an only-slightly redesigned and renamed version of Pryo's popular X-300 Space-Cruiser toy -- out of the hangar-turned-spaceport. The force of the spring action often broke the toy's long, thin, plastic fins, however.

The use of red plastic and the inclusion of the "Flash Gordon" name make this Space Cruiser toy an unusual example of Pyro's plastic rocket toys.

Collector Michael O'Harro donated this toy to the National Collection in 1993.