Ornament Review: General Grievous - Stars Wars #16 - 2012 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Looks like the character, well balanced

Cons: Lesser known character from the prequels

The Bottom Line: 

It has good design

But not like rest of series

Sign of things to come?

Hallmark Made a Grievous Mistake for 2012's Official Star Wars Line Ornament

Hallmark releases many Star Wars ornaments each year.  Some are themed around the original trilogy.  Some are themed around the prequels.  They've even got Lego and Clone Wars Star Wars ornaments are various times.  But their official ornament line has always been reversed for characters from the original trilogy - until 2012.  And I'm still trying to figure out why General Grievous was included in the line.

If you are a casual fan like me, you probably had to remember who this character even was.  He's a mostly machine man who hunts down Jedi's.  There's a fight scene with him in Revenge of the Sith.

And the ornament does a good job of capturing the character.  I can't complain there.  He really is mostly machine with all kinds of metal parts and screws showing.  You can possibly see some humanity left in his eyes - that is if you look deep into the mask.  He's wearing a cape that is flowing out around him.  It's red on the side closer to him and gray on the outside.  And in his right hand he's holding a green light saber.

Despite his claws for feet, you can get him to stand up.  It takes a bit of balancing and he isn't super steady, but he can do it.

The better choice is to hang him from your Christmas tree.  Slip an ornament hook through the loop on his back, and you'll find he's hangs level.

And since he's the sixteenth ornament in the official Star Wars ornament series, there is a 16 in a Christmas tree on the back of the cape.

Really, if you want an ornament of this character, this is a good one.  The details are great as always with Hallmark, and he's balanced so well.

So then what's my problem?  I'm not that big a fan of the prequel trilogy, and I liked the fact that the official series was sticking with those characters.  I'm not happy they've made the jump (although they are jumping back to the original trilogy for the 2013 ornament).

Even more, I'm wondering why they decided to make this lesser known character part of the official line.  Up until this point, all the ornaments had been major characters in the series.  If they had to jump to the prequels, why not start with the bigger characters?  Unfortunately, the answer probably lies in the fact that they'd done all the major characters already, leaving them with very alternatives.

Ultimately, General Grievous turned out to be one of the weaker entries in the Star Wars ornament series from Hallmark with other fans, so I wasn't the only one who was disappointed to see the series take this turn.  Hopefully, they don't try a repeat performance in future years.

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

Original Price: $17.95