Ornament Review: Legal Beagle - Spotlight on Snoopy #9 - 2006 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun combination of a Snoopy character and Christmas

Cons: Few details

The Bottom Line:

This lawyer is nice

The few details we have work

Now go be merry

You Have the Right to be Merry.  Or, I Can Legally Tell You I Like This Ornament

It doesn't matter what Snoopy undertakes, all of his careers fail.  I can't remember him having much success as a lawyer in the Peanuts comic strip, for example.  But things appear to have changed for him in The Legal Beagle, the ninth ornament in the Spotlight on Snoopy series.

This is one of the more simple ornaments in the series.  Snoopy doesn't have much in the way of a costume.  He's wearing a bow tie and a dark blue hat.  That's it.  He's carrying a brown attache case, and Woodstock is peaking out of it.  We can just see his head and hands.  This case is really the only part that allows for details, and we can see the buckles over on the side.

What makes this ornament a touch about the boring and ordinary are the papers Snoopy is holding.  Who knows what legal favor he had to call in, but he appears to have won a case.  In his left hand he is holding a "License to be Merry."  It's written in a fancy calligraphy script.  Underneath is written 2006, the year the ornament was originally released.  There appear to be two layers to the paper, they are slightly offset, but we can only see the top layer.  Judging by the picture on the box, this offset is indeed a design and not a flaw.

Everything, including the license, is made out of the same sturdy plastic that they've been using for all the ornaments in this series.  Even with the papers pretty much sticking out there unsupported, I think it would take more than a casual drop to break them off.  I'm not saying the ornament is indestructible, just that it would take some work.

Snoopy's attache case is in his right hand, and it is slightly leaning like he is carrying it.  The reality is it is at the same level as his feet, making a wide base.  In fact, the copyright information and the 9 symbol are on the case and not on Snoopy's feet like normal.  This wide base makes this one of the most stable ornaments to date.

The gold hook used to hang the ornament is attached to the hat and actually sticks slightly out forward instead of straight up.  Despite the unusual angle (or maybe because of it), this ornament hangs perfectly straight.

Frankly, this is one of the simpler ornaments in the series.  I'm not sure how much I would even enjoy it without the license part.  But where they could put in details, they do.  And those details make Legal Beagle another good ornament.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Spotlight on Snoopy series.

Original Price: $10.00