Article: Star Trek: beaming up sales for 30 years. (merchandising of popular TV series)(includes related article on series' origin and spinoff shows)

Sept. 8, 1996, marks the 30th anniversary of the launching of the television series Star Trek into the living rooms of millions of Americans. Star Trek and its subsequent evolutions into other TV series and films (see sidebar) has become one of the licensing industry's most enduring and broad-based properties.

Here's how "big" this Star Trek business is:

* Sales of Star Trek-generated merchandise total nearly $2 billion at retail since inception.

* One Star Trek book is sold every 13 sec. in the U.S.

* In its first sales year (1992), Playmates Toys Inc., the master toy licensee for all Star Trek television series and the motion pictures, ...

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