Ornament Review: Scout Trooper - Stars Wars #18 - 2014 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Creative way to get Troopers into the series, okay overall

Cons: Bit plain over all (like the characters themselves)

The Bottom Line:

Trooper scouting for

A place on your Christmas tree

Won’t you hang him up?

Hallmark Comes Up with a Way to Almost Slip a Neglected Character into the Official Star Wars Series

Honestly, I’m not quite sure what Hallmark was thinking back in the late 90’s when they started the official Star Wars ornament series.  They went ahead and released several very popular characters as standalone pieces.  Over the years, they’ve managed to work a couple of those back into the series by pairing them with another character or giving them some other bonus (or both).  Now they come to the Storm Troopers, er, I mean Scout Trooper.  Yes, that’s how finicky they are being, but it’s a difference die hard fans will love.

While I do like the movies (hence me collecting the series) (and yes, I just used hence in a review), I must admit I had to do a little research on what a Scout Trooper even was.  Turns out, these are the smaller troops who were superior marksmen and were the advance party on Endor in the third film.  (The real third film – Return of the Jedi).  Think sharpshooter Marines to regular infantry men.  Turns out, they were the ones on the speeders in the redwood forest scene and not regular Storm Troopers.  Shows all I know.

To the casual observer, you’d never realize these were different characters.  They are still all decked out in white with black in the middle and on their joints.  Their arms and upper thighs are black while on a traditional Storm Trooper they are white.  This particular Scout Trooper is standing on a patch of brown and holding a small gun in his hands for the pose for this ornament.

Now, if you are a casual fan or collector and don’t have the previous Storm Trooper ornament, this will easily fill in the hole in your Star Wars collection.  No one but you will even know the difference.  Trust me.  And he looks good representing either type of Trooper.  The gun in smaller, there is more black, and the mask is more compact as well.  But seriously, few people are even going to know unless you tell them.  This ornament is almost more of an off white – in fact the shows have lots of tan on them – because this Scout has obviously been out in the field getting dirty while he scouted

Because of that patch of ground, the Scout stands up just fine, meaning you can hang him on your tree or display him year round.  The series marker is on the bottom of this patch of ground – in this case an 18 in a Christmas tree.

The little loop for hanging this Scout is on the pack on his back.  As a result, he tips forward slightly, but only the most critical will notice.

This is a base where die hard fans will be overjoyed to get a rare character but casual fans won’t really know the difference.  For those wanting a true Scout Trooper on their tree, they will be overjoyed with this addition to the series.  The casual fan might skip it thinking they already have the character, although they should put more thought into it since the variation does make it unique.

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

Original Price: $17.95