Ornament Review: Darth Vader - Star Wars #6 - 2002 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Great sculpt

Cons: A little heavy and unbalanced

The Bottom Line: 

This classic villain

Adds some dark side to your tree

Slightly unbalanced

Insert Sound of Heavy Breathing Here

For the sixth entry in Hallmark's Star Wars ornament line, they decided to go to the dark side.  The introduced the first villain with Darth Vader.

There's no missing the fact that this guy is pure evil.  After all, he's decked out all in black in the movies.  As a result, this ornament isn't super colorful.  It's pretty much black.  Darth Vader himself is a black man in a black helmet.  There's a little bit of silver and other colors on the panels on his chest.  He has a huge flowing black cape that is also here.  In fact, that cape easily makes up three quarters of the ornament.  The biggest splotch of color is Vader's red lightsaber which he is holding out in front of him ready to attack.

As the size of the ornament might suggest, this ornament is on the heavy side of things, although it's not as heavy as you might think.  Still, you'll want to put Darth on a sturdy branch of your Christmas tree.

For all the ornaments in this series that have had a lightsaber, I've complained that the lightsaber is made more a rather flimsy feeling plastic.  That's the case once again here.  As long as you are careful, you'll be fine.  But if you drop him wrong, I have a feeling that lightsaber will snap right off.

Because of the way Vader's monstrous cape is situated, he doesn't stand very straight.  He can stand him up, but he leans to one side or really leans forward.  This isn't something you'll want to set out to show off year round.

Darth Vader only fairs a little better when you go to hang him.  Frankly, I'm surprised he does as well as he does considering the little hook to hang him from is located on his right shoulder.  He tips noticeably forward and to the right.  If you position him correctly, you can probably correct much of that with the branches on your tree.  And since he is heavy, he'll more naturally rest on the branch below him, too.

This ornament does have Hallmark's markings for series ornaments, it's just hard to find.  After all, it's in raised black on a black ornament.  I wasn't that surprised to find the 6 in a Christmas tree on the bottom of the cape along with the copyright information.

Normally, I'm not much of a villain guy.  I prefer to celebrate the heroes and jeer the villains.  But Darth Vader is such an iconic character, I willingly make an exception in his case.  (And no matter how the saga ends, I still view him as a villain in this guise.)  While I wouldn't go overboard in buying sculpts of him, I like him in this pose, and since it's part of a series I decided to get, it's a great way to add him.

The size and balance as issues that keep Darth Vader from being a perfect ornament.  But as a whole, I am pleased with this Star Wars ornament.

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

Original Price: $14.95