Ornament Review: Millennium Falcon - 1996 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great replica, lights are a nice touch

Cons: Copyright information on the bottom

The Bottom Line: 

No bucket of bolts

This ornament soars across

Any Christmas tree

The Fastest Ship in the Galaxy Becomes the First Star Wars Ornament from Hallmark

The year was 1996.  We were still three years away from being disappointed by the Star Wars prequel trilogy.  And Hallmark had acquired the license to make Star Wars ornament.  That year, they released Millennium Falcon, Han Solo's ship.  It was a sign of great things to come.

The ornament is a very cool replica of the ship that our heroes would use to jet all around the galaxy in that original trilogy.  In reality, it's a circle with a bit of a triangle on the front of it.  It's not very thick, but there are all kinds of raised surfaces on ship that make it very cool.  Ask anyone who has seen the movies, and they'll be able to tell you immediately what it is.

Additionally, this is what Hallmark calls a "Magic" ornament, their term for an ornament that lights up or has sound.  In this case, there is no sound, but it does light up.  There's a small light on the top of the ornament, and the light at the front of the ornament lights up as well.  Both of these are white.  And in the back of the ornament, there's a blue panel that also lights up, so the ship looks just like it does in the movies.

The catch with lighting this ornament up is that you have to plug it directly into a string of lights.  And the modern, energy efficient lights don't work.  It must be the old lights that are becoming harder to find every year.  If you are lucky enough to have lights like this, any time you have them plugged in, the ornament lights up.  Unlike the modern magic ornaments, there's no button to press.  The ornament connects to the lights via a green cord that looks like it is part of a light string itself.  Just snap out one bulb and plug the cord into the socket.

Because that cord comes out the bottom of the ornament, you really can't sit this ornament out on display.  There's a small hook on the top side of the ornament to use for hanging.  Even though the hook is front of center, the ornament still tips back.  But that's okay because the ornament is at such an angle that it looks like it is taking off into the sky.  I think I like it a little better this way than if the ornament hung straight.

The copyright information is on the bottom of the ornament, and it's rather big.  In fact, that's the one detraction from the ornament is that you can't miss that stuff if you turn over the ornament.  It makes me glad that most of the time the information is small and not quite as distracting.

To this day, this is the only full size ornament Hallmark's done of just the Millennium Falcon.  If you need to have a replica of this ship for your Christmas tree, you'll want to hunt this one down.  Trust me, it's worth it.

Original Price: $24.00