Christmas In July:
Deck The Boughs With Star Wars Ornaments
by Loren Phillips
7/26/99
While everyone else will be asking Santa to bring them all of the "Phantom Menace" goodies, many people will be decorating their Christmas trees with Star Wars collectibles they already have. Hallmark has been offering exclusive Star Wars ornaments yearly for collectors to build an interesting theme for their yuletide decorating.
This year is, of course, the beginning of the prequel collection, but thankfully, Hallmark is continuing to offer pieces from the original trilogy as well.
The team of Han Solo and Chewbacca are sold as individual pieces, Han for $13.95, and Chewbacca for $14.95. The pieces are approximately 3" to 4" tall, and extremely well made. I was most decidedly impressed with the Chewbacca ornaments, as the artist did a fabulous job of capturing the expression of Chewie I remember from the movies.
 Han Solo™ Sculpted by Patricia Andrews |
 Chewbacca™ Sculpted by Dill Rhodus |
This year's lighted ornament is Darth Vader's Tie Fighter. This ship features a silouhette of Vader in the cockpit, and is strung with your tree lights to illuminate the inside. It also has red lights that glow on the front of the ship. Anyone investing in an ornament collection absolutely must have this piece, as it is well worth the $24.00 cost.
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The miniature ornaments for 1999 are the three members of the Max Rebo Band. I think this was a clever selection by Hallmark to offer, as the three characters are perfect for a three-piece set, and nearly have a cult following of their own. The band is well detailed for being smaller. The set is sold for $19.95, and despite the fact that they are "miniature ornaments", they can still look very nice on a full size tree with the full-sized pieces.
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Hallmark is introducing two ornaments from "The Phantom Menace". These are now available, although regretfully I do not have images to post here yet. The character ornament is Queen Amidala, in the red dress. The artist did a great job recreating the look of the dress, using marbles to substitute the lighted orbs that surrounded the bottom of the gown. Her face is as close a resemblence to Amidala as one could hope for, and I was pleasantly surprised that this item turned out as well as it did. This figure is retailed at $14.95, and is referred to a "Star Wars Episode 1 Figural" when ordering on Hallmark.com.
The second prequel ornament is a Naboo fighter. This item impressed me less than the rest, but at no fault of the artist. The ship itself was very sleek, with little detail, so the artist had little to work with. The bright yellow and shiny silver are reminiscent of a child's toy, but are an accurate representation of the ship design. In fact, this ornament looks more like the "real" ship than the children's toys on the market. The Naboo fighter is referred to as "Star Wars Episode 1 Ship" on Hallmark.com and is priced at $18.95.
Items from the collections from previous years
are no longer available through Hallmark, but are easily purchased from Ebay,
or other online auctions, and appear to be going for reasonable prices. Search on
"Hallmark Star Wars Ornaments" and you should find a good selection.
Items from previous collections include:
- Millenium Falcon (Lighted)
- Luke Skywalker
- Princess Leia
- Star Wars Lunch Box
- Ewoks (Set of 3 Miniatures)
- Boba Fett
- Darth Vader (Light & Voice)
- C-3PO and R2 (Set of 2 Miniatures)
- X-Wing (Lighted)
- Vehicles of Star Wars (Set of 3 Miniatures: AT-AT, X-Wing, TIE)
(Loren Phillips is webmaster of EchoStation.com, along with her husband, David)