Random TOS stuff

[The Salt Umpire]

Yeah, I would've loved that. Unfortunately nobody in my family would understand how best to track these down, navigate through the different editions, know when to compromise on quality, etc.



I think I only had one of them as a kid, but over the past 6-12 months maybe, I decided to start tracking them down (mostly on ebay). Took a while, but I eventually found all 12 at reasonable prices (maybe averaged $5-6 each in the end?). I didn't expect them all to be pristine, but I also didn't accept trash. I watched a lot of auctions with different combinations of fotonovel numbers, and had to work out how not to buy duplicates, but it was kind of a fun hunt. Several came from general Trek pick-a-book listings that were not just specifically for fotonovels, and it also helped to search with keyword variations: fotonovel, foto-novel, foto novel, photonovel, photo-novel, photo novel.

So all that to say, with some patience and searching, it is possible to build that set over time without breaking the bank.

Oh, and a warning: the "photostory" novels for the feature films are all in black and white.

I had the first printing of TWoK photostory with the upside down pics. Sold it to a collector ten years later.
For those who never saw these, this is a good retrospective.

Trekking down memory lane with the “Star Trek” Fotonovels & Photostories…

In the dark ages, before streaming… This might come as a tremendous shock to younger readers, but once upon a time, when we Gen Xers were kids (sometime after the Yucatan impact killed the ot…

musingsofamiddleagedgeek.blog

 

[T'Bonz]

I had one or two of the twelve, and then circa 1981 on a trip to visit relatives in Jacksonville, the husband and I took a walk. We discovered a used bookstore of some type, which will always draw me in.

They had the entire set. I talked my husband into loaning me the $$ until payday, and voila, I had the entire set. I was really, really happy, and they were in great condition.

Once in a while, lady luck drops something right into your lap.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

I had one or two of the twelve, and then circa 1981 on a trip to visit relatives in Jacksonville, the husband and I took a walk. We discovered a used bookstore of some type, which will always draw me in.

They had the entire set. I talked my husband into loaning me the $$ until payday, and voila, I had the entire set. I was really, really happy, and they were in great condition.

Once in a while, lady luck drops something right into your lap.

That happened to me with the ADF novelization of TAS! "Yep, they're all there. MINE!"

 

[Donald G]

Yeah, I would've loved that. Unfortunately nobody in my family would understand how best to track these down, navigate through the different editions, know when to compromise on quality, etc.



I think I only had one of them as a kid, but over the past 6-12 months maybe, I decided to start tracking them down (mostly on ebay). Took a while, but I eventually found all 12 at reasonable prices (maybe averaged $5-6 each in the end?). I didn't expect them all to be pristine, but I also didn't accept trash. I watched a lot of auctions with different combinations of fotonovel numbers, and had to work out how not to buy duplicates, but it was kind of a fun hunt. Several came from general Trek pick-a-book listings that were not just specifically for fotonovels, and it also helped to search with keyword variations: fotonovel, foto-novel, foto novel, photonovel, photo-novel, photo novel.

So all that to say, with some patience and searching, it is possible to build that set over time without breaking the bank.

Oh, and a warning: the "photostory" novels for the feature films are all in black and white.

Correction: The "photostory" for TMP is in color. The one for TWOK is in black and white. I don't recall them doing photostories of the feature films post-TWOK.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Correction: The "photostory" for TMP is in color. The one for TWOK is in black and white. I don't recall them doing photostories of the feature films post-TWOK.

They didn't. We had home video by then and the gig was up for Photostories/Fotonovels

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

They didn't. We had home video by then and the gig was up for Photostories/Fotonovels

Richard Anobile (RIP) did fantastic full-size PSYCHO and ALIEN fotonovels, among others, and TMP's version was teeny but colorful. TWOK's lost a lot in black-and-white....plus at one point the Enterprise is accidentally photographed in reverse.

 

[mkstewartesq]

I had one or two of the twelve, and then circa 1981 on a trip to visit relatives in Jacksonville, the husband and I took a walk. We discovered a used bookstore of some type, which will always draw me in.

They had the entire set. I talked my husband into loaning me the $$ until payday, and voila, I had the entire set. I was really, really happy, and they were in great condition.

Once in a while, lady luck drops something right into your lap.

Huh. I grew up in Jacksonville and still make it back there once a decade or so. I wonder if the bookstore you visited was Chamblin’s Book Mine? It was pretty overflowing with books back in the 1970s and 1980s, and is even more sprawling and over-stuffed these days, based on my last visit in 2024. In fact, and appropriate to this discussion, I picked up the PhotoNovel for City on the Edge of Forever on that last visit (although it was selling for about seven dollars in 2024, as opposed to when they used to sell them for $.25 or $.50 used when I was growing up).

Other than the COTF one, I remember having the PhotoNovels for several other episodes back in the 1970s/ 1980s (I think Devil in the Dark and Galileo 7 and one or two others). Unfortunately all of those are long gone now, along with my Viewmaster reels of various other episodes.

M