The Good: Good casting of the character, Decent coloring detail. Good balance, Price.
The Bad: No special features, Very obvious waist seam!
The Basics: Capitalizing on the release of the new film, The Amazing Spider-Man, Hallmark’s 2012 The Amazing Spider-Man ornament is wonderful, but possesses a pretty singular flaw.
As I observed in my review of the 2012 Disney It’s All About The Hair Tangled ornament (reviewed here! ), 2012’s Hallmark ornament line has been plagued by great sculpts with decent coloring and painfully obvious seams in many of the best ornaments that are robbing what could have been the best year yet for Hallmark ornaments of quite a few perfect ratings. The new The Amazing Spider-Man ornament is one of the ornaments that falls into that unfortunate category. Were it not for an unsightly waist seam that breaks up the ornament in a way that makes the ornament look manufactured and assembled, the Amazing Spider-Man ornament might well have been perfect.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, this summer there has been a reboot of the Spider-Man film franchise with the release of The Amazing Spider-Man (reviewed here!). Telling the origin story of Spider-Man with more of a technological (as opposed to biological) twist, The Amazing Spider-Man follows Peter Parker in high school fighting crime using mechanically-based webslinging devices.
It is Spider-Man, mid-leap, in the process of setting off one of the wrist web-devices that is the subject of the 2012 Hallmark The Amazing Spider-Man ornament!
Basics
The The Amazing Spider-Man ornament recreates the young hero in solid plastic. The ornament, released in 2012, is a pretty incredible recreation of the popular character as he appears in the film The Amazing Spider-Man. That said, because the ornament features no fleshtones, it is colored vibrantly and well and does not suffer for lacking realistic depth and shading to it.
Spider-Man is the masked hero of New York City and for this ornament, he appears to be leaping with his left hand raised ready to sling a new web and swing off to stop crime! The ornament, like the character, is dominated by red, black and blu. The detailing is as good as one might expect with the vibrant colors broken up well by the finer detailing of the webbing on the costume. Inscrutable and ready-for-action, this The Amazing Spider-Man looks incredible! On the sculpting front, The Amazing Spider-Man includes the requisite mechanical wrist web-shooters. Very coolly, Hallmark’s sculptors also included fine details on the bottom of Spider-Man’s feet. His feet have treads and he looks truly viable in the costume. For those who are into accuracy, The Amazing Spider-Man also has significant butt cleavage.
The Hallmark The Amazing Spider-Man ornament is made of a durable plastic and has him in an action pose, so those inclined to set the ornament on a desk can use it that way well beyond the holiday season. This The Amazing Spider-Man ornament measures out at 3" tall, 4" wide and 3 1/8” deep. His coloring is expertly executed, though to be fair, he is cast in monotone colors, as is appropriate. Still, the finer details of the webbing on his costume is impressive.
In fact, the only serious detraction to the ornament is the very deep seam on The Amazing Spider-Man’s waist that makes him look entirely manufactured.
Features
As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, The Amazing Spider-Man could have a function like a sound chip or light effect, but does not. This is just an ornament, a low-cost (comparatively) option for those who might not want to shell out for the more expensive ornaments. This The Amazing Spider-Man simply hangs.
Balance
As with all ornaments, the intent of the Hallmark Keepsake The Amazing Spider-Man ornament is to be hung on a Christmas Tree. And for those creating the ultimate Marvel Universe Christmas Tree, a Spider-Man ornament is essential and this may well be the best one for that purpose. The ornament has a brass hook loop embedded in the back left shoulder of the ornament. From that hook, the The Amazing Spider-Man ornament hangs without any awkward bias or issues. It still moves when one’s tree is knocked, but generally, this hangs quite nicely and looks very well-balanced.
Collectibility
Hallmark Keepsake began delving into the collectibles market in 1991 with Star Trek when it introduced the exceptionally limited edition original U.S.S. Enterprise ornament (click here for my review of that!). Since then, Hallmark has gotten into every major franchise from Disney to Twilight to the Marvel Comics universe. The The Amazing Spider-Man ornament was not at all limited and given how neutral the box office response to the film has been, I suspect it will be available after the holiday as well. Given how the other Marvel ornaments have met demand without leaving a lot of people wanting, this is not likely to be an incredible investment piece.
Overview
The Amazing Spider-Man ornament recreates (mostly) well the latest costume version for a cinematic Spider-Man and makes for an ornament worth picking up, despite its fault!
For other Marvel Hallmark ornaments, please check out my reviews of:
2011 Spider-Man ornament
2011 Thor ornament
2010 Defender Of Justice Iron Man 2 ornament
8.5/10
For other ornament and toy reviews, please check out my index page!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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