The Primrose Confectionary Co. of Slough, Bucks (Buckinghamshire), England used to sell candy cigarettes to kids, back when that was not considered wildly inappropriate. The company packaged cards with those sweet treats, including a 1971 set of 12 based on Star Trek. I love these because the text on the back of these “stamps” has only the loosest connection to the actual show.
The company also produced cards based on Superman, Dad’s Army, Joe 90, The Beatles, Bugs Bunny, Laurel and Hardy, Popeye (its most famous line), and a bunch of others.
Here are all 12 of the Primrose Star Trek cards. (Click the photos for a larger view.)
The funniest bit about the text on the back is that you would expect it to either be accurate or completely made up, yet all are a hybrid, with most pairing an actual episode name and maybe a planet with some nonsense about the plot. Also, none of the episode names are capitalized. My favourite stories are:
- operation annihilate, in which Dr. McCoy is for some reason drifting in space around the planet Deneva
- man trap, when a derelict ship in orbit around M-113 almost killed Captain Kirk
- the meteor storm near Omicron Ceti III (plucked from This Side of Paradise) that knocked out the Enterprise for “3 sibons of time.”
It’s also amusing that the rewording of Kirk’s opening narration on card 11 corrected the famous split infinitive.
The cards were printed on thin paper and measure 6.4 x 3.4 cm. Sets are fairly rare but, at time of writing, the London Cigarette Card Company has all 12 for a very reasonable £12. That same seller wants £720 for the A&BC set from 1969, which is good news for me and one other collector I know, as we both own that set.
Collecting Trek
6 responses to “Cigarettes for kids – and 12 wild Star Trek cards”
This article could use a heavy dose of editing.
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I caught one error (I had “My favourites stories are…”) before I saw the email about your comment.
I would be *really* interested to hear your other grammatical or construction corrections. I am always open to constructive insights.
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I remember chocolate cigarettes as a kid; they were still selling them back in the 90’s. Weird to think about them now.
And it’s funny how 5 out of these 12 cards are actually pretty accurate.
Do you know by any chance the tumblr page by “defconprime”? It regularly posts an incredible amount of Star Trek novels’ reviews and memorabilia.
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Cigarettes for kids is so weird. What a terrible idea.
I love that some of the cards are close to the show. For the rest, it’s like they shrugged and said whatever, make something up.
I’ll check out that tumblr.
Thanks for reading.
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I have several of these. My dad was stationed in England from 1970 to 1976. I always wondered if they were worth anything.
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Hi Trish. The cards are not worth much, I’m afraid. I think I got the set for about $40.
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