I really like the mini CD-ROMs that Rittenhouse Archives produced as box toppers for its 2003 animated-series card set. And I entirely forgot I owned them.
Which is why I say again, if you have a largish collection, go through your storage boxes. You might find collectibles you’ve forgotten about (as I experienced here and here).
A few days ago I went looking for specific copies of Star Trek, The Magazine for an upcoming post, and I came across these five CD-ROMs. I own the base set of the cards plus a number of the chase cards, but the CDs are the fun part, because they were a real value add. Rittenhouse gave collectors AOL Instant Messenger icons, a screen saver, wallpaper, and a video interview with TAS season one associate producer and story editor DC Fontana.
I own the complete set of five CDs; the content is the same on each.
Wallpaper and that interview
Here are the nine wallpaper images Rittenhouse offered.
The pictures are okay, but the company could have been a little more adventurous by including images such as the following. However, it’s important to remember this was 20 years ago, and having even the basic images was cool.
The real gem of the CDs is the four-minute interview with Dorothy Fontana. Here it is.
My favourite bit is her statement that “We weren’t doing a cartoon; we were doing Star Trek.”
My understanding is that relatively few collectors own these disks, so hopefully this is a fun visit with a rare collectible.
Postscript
Digging into an old storage box might reveal a collectible you didn’t even know about. Four years ago, I found a Gene Roddenberry autograph.
Collecting Trek
6 responses to “Check out these animated-series mini CDs from two decades ago”
Your information is so amazing. I have the Scotty one of these. Something told me to hold onto it and I still have it. It was mixed it with that three totes of cards I bought a few years ago.
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Good deal! And thank you for the compliment and the comment.
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Even though my card collecting days really ended with the Topps ST-TMP set ( although I did end up getting one of the really nice repro -Leaf sets several years later ), I’m always glad to see the animated series getting some love. It seemed so neglected over the years.
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Hi David. Agreed. It was actively neglected for years, led I think by Roddenberry, who wanted to distance his legacy from TAS. But it’s a good show with a lot of great stories, although dinosaurs and dragons do pop up a little too often.
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I have these as well! That card set along with its various extras was a breath of fresh air given the dearth of TAS merch at that time.
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Anyone who owns these can be a friend of mine. And that whole “also writing excellent Star Trek novels” thing is just a bonus. The critical thing is the CD-ROMs.
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