Ornament Review: Chewbacca and C-3PO - Star Wars #8 - 2004 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Another good sculpt of a classic moment

Cons: Chewbacca isn't on his own

The Bottom Line: 

Chewbacca shares spotlight

In this classic movie scene

Makes great ornament

"I Thought That Hairy Beast Would be the End of Me."

You know, I feel kind of sorry for Chewbacca.  He makes one appearance in Hallmark's Star Wars line, and he has to share the spotlight.  Of course, I'm not complaining since the 2004 ornament Chewbacca and C-3PO recreates a classic scene from The Empire Strikes Back.

Over the course of the movie, C-3PO discovers a secret plot and is torn apart.  When our heroes find him, they are in a race to escape with their lives, so he is put back together enough to talk, his parts are put in a net, and Chewbacca carries him out again.  And that's exactly what is happening in this ornament.  Chewbacca, the hairy beast known as a Wookiee, is quite obvious in the midst of action.  His knees are bent, and he is focused on what is happening in front of him.  He's even got his gun aimed straight ahead and is about to shoot.  On his back is C-3PO.  He's in at least four pieces, with only his head, torso, and right arm attached.  All these parts are in a net, and you can see the wires coming out of the parts that aren't attached.

What makes a Hallmark ornament special for me is the detail.  In this case, I love the fact that we can see the exposed wires.  While C-3PO isn't quite as shiney as he was in the ornament released in previous years, he does still catch the light.  (And that might just be my particular ornament.)  The net is really made from netting.  While Chewbacca is obviously plastic, he is sculpted in such a way that he looks like he is made from fur.

Despite the action pose, Chewbacca actually does stand steadily on his feet.  It would take a good jolt to knock him over.  And the ornament hangs perfectly straight.  Frankly, that's not a surprise since the hook for hanging is in the back of Chewbacca's head, pretty much in the dead center of the ornament front to back.

The ornament seems bigger than the others in the series, but it really isn't out of scale.  It's just that Chewbacca is that much bigger.  In fact, he's so big that all the copyright information along with the series marking all fits on one of his feet.

Frankly, the fact that Chewbacca has to share his moment in the series ornament spotlight is actually Hallmark's fault.  In 1999, just as this series was getting started, the released a Chewbacca ornament in their regular ornament line.  If they were going to include him in the series (and they really needed to), they had to come up with something different.  Since this is such a classic moment from the series, they found a great solution.

So, despite my complaint earlier, there really isn't anything wrong with Chewbacca and C-3PO.  This is another great ornament that Star Wars fans will be proud to hang on their tree.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Star Wars ornament series

Original Price: $14.95