Wednesday, January 2, 2013

The Best, Vastly Overpriced, Worthless Ornament Hallmark Made For 2012: Gigi!


The Good: Good balance, Amazing detailing
The Bad: Incredibly overpriced, No collectible value, No “bonus feature.”
The Basics: The Gigi Gigi ornament is an overpriced would-be dud that flopped in the consumer market, but it objectively one of the better movie-related ornaments in 2012 from Hallmark!


Every now and then, not frequently, I hold off buying a Hallmark ornament for review because I see that the ornament I want to review is so tragically overpriced that I will be able to get it easily after the holiday (if Hallmark ever wanted to send me the crop of genre ornaments in advance for review, I could get through a whole lot more each year!). This year, that is the exact way I bet on the Gigi ornament from the Best Picture winner Gigi. I took one look at the Gigi ornament in November, gagged at the $17.95 initial price tag and walked away from it. Right now, Gigi is the only genre-themed Hallmark ornament I can find in any of the four nearby Hallmark stores, even after being marked down 50%!

For those unfamiliar with the film, Gigi (reviewed here!) is a remarkably unmemorable romantic comedy winner of the Best Picture Oscar. It focuses on Gigi, who is courted by Gaston, who wants to be a kept woman and finds her way to that.

It is Gigi, in her classic white dress, that is the subject of the Gigi Hallmark Ornament.

Basics

The Gigi ornament includes only Gigi, in her white dress, sweeping around her. The ornament, released in 2012, is incredibly well-sculpted with realistic lines of force making it look like the young woman is caught mid-twirl. Her coloring is exceptional as well and she looks like one of the most lifelike ornaments of the 2012 season.

Measuring four and a half inches tall, the Gigi ornament is a decent-sized Hallmark ornament. Unfortunately, at the original issue price of $17.95, it is quite bit expensive for what it is. On the sculpting front, the Gigi ornament is deceptively simple. This is just a lone woman in a white dress, but the white dress features black “feathering “ on the shoulders that is incredibly finely detailed. While it looks quite breakable, Hallmark manufactured the Gigi ornament out of strong, hard plastic and I found none locally that were broken.

The facial sculpt of the Gigi ornament looks exactly like Leslie Caron, who had a fairly round face and an innocent demeanor. The ornament features a tiara molded into her hair and the hair is detailed with enough fine etching to look like hair, as opposed to a crappy helmet of some sort. What really took me back about the Gigi ornament was the coloring. The red in the cheeks and the gloss on the lips make Gigi look startling realistic and easily one of the best-colored people ornaments Hallmark has done in a while.

This ornament remains fairly easy to find at Hallmark stores, even in the after season, so there is no reason (yet) to look for it in the secondary market.

Features

As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, Gigi could have a sound effect or light effect, but she has neither.

Balance

As with all ornaments, the intent of the Hallmark Keepsake Gigi ornament is to be hung on a Christmas Tree. And for those creating the ultimate movie nostalgia Christmas Tree, the Gigi ornament is a very expensive option that looks good beside ornaments from The Wizard Of Oz and ornaments like those from Gone With The Wind, though she is a slightly larger scale. The ornament has the standard brass hook loop embedded into the top back of Gig's head and it is pretty much the only option for the ornament, though it looks unfortunately obvious there. The Gigi ornament hangs level when hung properly, which is good because the sweep of the dress would make it terribly obvious if this ornament was off-balance.

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 that review!). Within a few years, virtually every classic film franchise jumped on the bandwagon and began merchandising with Hallmark as well. Classic properties like Barbie, Disney, The Wizard Of Oz and Gone With The Wind have been made into Hallmark Keepsake Christmas ornaments. Gigi is, to date, the only Gigi ornament on the market and made its debut in autumn of in 2012. Vastly overproduced, the Gigi ornament tanked in the primary market and was widely available after the holidays on clearance. Given how many remain available, it has no real hope of being even a marginally good investment piece.

Overview

To be clear, the Gigi ornament is not at all bad; it was a good ornament that was exceptionally detailed for its obscure source material. But the initial price tag on it was so stiflingly high as to scare away buyers and collectors, making it one of the big failures of the 2012 ornament season. Fans buying now, after the value has plummeted will find that they can get a great deal on a superb ornament, provided they are purchasing for the quality of the ornament and not on the hope that the value will ever appreciate . . . or even bounce back.

For other 2012 film-related Hallmark ornaments, please check out my reviews of:
Scarlett Meets Her Match Gone With The Wind ornament
Gandalf The Gray The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ornament
Captain America The Avengers ornament
The Bat The Dark Knight Rises ornament

6.5/10

For other ornament reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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