Something nifty regarding The X-Files on VHS...

.

Never realized until last night that each cassette in The X-Files "Carter Selected" VHS boxsets includes an enlarged trading card designed after an episode. Cool stuff. These three-tape sets seem plentiful now that the series has long been available on DVD. Even if you don't buy tapes, this might be incentive enough to grab the sets on-the-cheap and just give away or chuck the tapes in order to collect the cards...

What Wikipedia says about the VHS sets: "The original VHS release of The X-Files in North America consisted of selected episodes from each of the first four seasons, which were released on a staggered basis beginning in 1996. Each "wave" was three VHS tapes, each containing two episodes, for a total of six episodes per wave and two waves per season (for example, the home video release of Wave 1 drew from the first half of the first season: "Pilot"/"Deep Throat", "Conduit"/"Ice" and "Fallen Angel"/"Eve"). Each wave was also available in a boxed set.

Ultimately 12 episodes (approximately half the total number aired) were selected by Chris Carter to represent each season, including nearly all "mythology arc" episodes and selected standalone episodes. Carter would briefly introduce each episode on the tape with an explanation of why it was chosen and anecdotes from the set. These same clips were later included on The X-Files full season DVDs. Wave 8 covering the last part of the fourth season was the last to be released. VHS "wave" tapes were not released for the fifth and later seasons, so there are no Carter "interviews" for selected episodes included on those DVDs. The last wave (wave 8 of the VHS series) did not have collectible cards (one per video tape) as had been included in each of the previous 7 waves /releases."

.