Tuesday, March 29, 2016

3-D Enhanced Nostalgia: The 2015 The Poky Little Puppy Ornament Is Neat!


The Good: Good balance, Neat rendition
The Bad: Seems pricy, Binding color
The Basics: A pretty neat sculpt, the 2015 "The Poky Little Puppy" ornament is a cute callback to childhood.


As I look at my body of reviews, I was pretty psyched to realize that for my reviews of Hallmark holiday ornaments, 2015 was my peak year! Part of the reason I have evaluated more Hallmark ornaments from last year than any prior year was that I have branched out from the genre ornaments I love and personally collect and have gotten into more general ornaments because of interests my wife has. I was surprised when she exhibited a strong desire for one of the late-season ornaments. As it turns out, she was a big fan of the Little Golden Book The Poky Little Puppy and when Hallmark released The Poky Little Puppy ornament, she put a big circle around that in the Hallmark ornament dreambook. The real surprise for us was that when the ornament was released, it was not simply a two-dimensional ornament; the ornament is like a little sculpture, attached to a backdrop of the book.

The 2015 The Poky Little Puppy ornament is a cute ornament that brings the cover of The Poky Little Puppy to life by creating a little sculpture of the titular character greeting a lizard and a caterpiller in the field he is exploring.

Basics

The The Poky Little Puppy ornament is an ornament that features the book The Poky Littlle Puppy with the character from the cover bursting out of the ornament into the third dimension. The ornament is similar to the book, but the spine of the book on the ornament is yellow, not gold. The ornament, released in 2015, is a standard-release ornament, though it was one of the final ornaments released for the season, so many stores did not even display it!

Hallmark made a creative reinterpretation of the protagonist from the book for the The Poky Little Puppy ornament. The medium-sized Hallmark ornament that is very light and features the curious little puppy looking at the lizard, which is attached to the right side of the hill the puppy is standing on. On the left side is a pink caterpiller. The Puppy is sculpted with finer detailing like etching for the puppy's fur, while the Puppy's nails are smooth. The book backdrop is smooth as well.

The Hallmark "The Poky Little Puppy" ornament is colored in monotones, which is perfectly appropriate for an ornament based on artwork from a children's book. The only real issue with the ornament's coloring is that the spine of the Little Golden Books is usually a gold foil and the ornament has a yellow spine. Getting the coloring right is well within the ability of Hallmark; that they didn't is disappointment, though not a severe one.

Features

As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, "The Poky Little Puppy" could have a sound or even a light effect, but it does not. Given that there is not an iconic reading (like an essential audiobook version) of the book The Poky Little Puppy, consumers have no real expectation for an additional feature.

Balance

As with all ornaments, the intent of the Hallmark Keepsake "The Poky Little Puppy" ornament is to be hung on a Christmas tree. And the "The Poky Little Puppy" ornament is an exceptional option for anyone who has fond memories of childhood associated with the book upon which the ornament is based. The ornament has the brass hook loop embedded into the center of the book backdrop. From that point, the The Poky Little Puppy is very well-balanced, allowing the ornament to hang perfectly level.

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 (reviewed here!). Within a few years, every major franchise from Star Wars to A Nightmare Before Christmas to Indiana Jones started making Hallmark ornaments. "The Poky Little Puppy" is a non-genre ornament that is not part of an annual series, but seemed to come to Hallmark from their licensing with Dreamworks. Given that it was one of the final releases of the season, many fans never even saw it in real life and several of the Hallmark stores I visited only got in one of the ornament! While the original issue price was $14.95 and that seemed a little high, its relative rarity seemed to allow it to hold its value and it might actually appreciate in value if it is not re-issued in 2016.

Overview

Fans of cute ornaments, children's books, Hallmark ornaments, and generic Christmas ornaments are likely to find the The Poky Little Puppy ornament an awesome addition to their collections, even if the spine is not perfectly rendered!

For other non-genre Hallmark ornaments, please check out my reviews of:
2015 Big Box Of 64! Crayola Crayons ornament
2015 Misfit Friends ornament
2015 Seasons Treatings ornament

8/10

For other ornament reviews, please visit my Ornament Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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