Ornament Review: Toy Soldier - Yuletide Treasures Series #5 - 2010 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Nostalgic ornament with fun motion

Cons: None

The Bottom Line: 

Toy Soldier looks great

Banging the drum on your tree

Perfect series end

Banging the Drum for Toy Soldier

After only five years of ornaments, Hallmark decided to end their Yuletide Treasures series.  These ornaments were inspired by pull string toys and actually worked.  The last one is my favorite.  Toy Soldier is absolutely wonderful.

For starters, Toy Soldier looks exactly like a wooden toy soldier.  He's got a perfect sphere for his head with a simple face and a huge hat on his head.  His coat is bright red, although it does have gold trim and the gold accents that tie all these ornaments together.  He's wearing turquoise pants.  And he's got a drum that is also turquoise.

The motion on this ornament is another reason I love it.  When you pull the string, his legs move back and forth.  So far, that's not too much of a surprise.  However, what I love is that his hands, which hold the drumsticks, also rise up.  So when you pull the string, it looks like his is banging the drum.  On the bottom of his pull string is a small, plastic bell to weight it down.  Ok, so the bell is hollow inside.  That's a minor issue.

Toy Soldier stands on his feet okay.  He's not the steadiest, but he'll stay there as long as you don't bump him.  The brass hook for hanging him is on the top of his hat.  He leans slightly forward when he's hanging, but it's only noticeable if you are looking for it.

Being a Hallmark series ornament, he's got a 5 in a Christmas tree hidden on him.  In this case, it's raise onto the bottom of his drum along with the copyright information.

The back of the boxes these ornaments came in state that they are designed to "recall the sweet simplicity of classic toys."  That's what this ornament does for me.  He looks like he belongs in a set of toys that would have been played with at Christmas time 100 years ago or more.  You just can't go wrong with that nostalgia.

And so Yuletide Treasures draws to a close after only five entries.  But Toy Soldier will be a permanent part of my Christmas tree.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Yuletide Treasures series.

Original Price: $16.95