The Good: Good balance, Good sculpts, Neat sound function
The Bad: Expensive, Overproduced, Painted details are off, Animated look to the characters
The Basics: The 30th Anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation is celebrated by Hallmark with the 2017 Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data ornament, which is a good idea with a middling execution.
2017 is the 30th Anniversary of the debut of Star Trek: The Next Generation and to celebrate it, one of Hallmark's Keepsake holiday ornaments is focused on characters from the classic science fiction television show. The ornament is the 2017 Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data ornament, which straddles the character and mural ornament styles. The substantive ornament is well-sculpted and has a generally cool sound function, but the painting for the ornament is a bit off, getting some of the details wrong and making the characters look animated.
The Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data is a Hallmark ornament released in 2017 as part of the 30th Anniversary celebration for Star Trek: The Next Generation. The ornament is one of the more expensive Star Trek ornaments on the market, but it is also one of the largest ones Hallmark has ever produced!
Basics
The Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data ornament recreates Captain Picard, seated in his Captain's chair, with Data standing behind him on a piece of deck plating. Right off the bat, the concept is one that is a neat idea, but makes no sense for the setting. Picard's Captain's chair was flanked by seats on either side and there was no actual space behind the chair; the Security station was above and behind the chair on, essentially, a quarter-wall, ramp ledge. In other words, the Data in the Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data ornament would be standing where chairs or a raised floor were!
The Hallmark Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data ornament is made of a durable plastic and it is fairly large given that it is Picard, the chair, the deck and Data all in one ornament. The ornament is 5 1/8" tall by 3 3/8" wide by 3" deep, making it one of the largest Star Trek ornaments Hallmark has ever produced. The ornament features some pretty wonderful sculpted detailing. Both characters look recognizable and have sculpted features like fingernails, which is an impressive level of attention to detail. Picard's hair is textured to look realistic and for the size, that is one of the finer details that could be sculpted on. The Captain's chair looks immaculate and the uniforms are adequately detailed on the sculpt front to look realistic and like the subjects.
On the coloring front, the Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data ornament is significantly less-detailed. The skin tones are monotonal, making Picard look animated, not realistic and Data's coloring is a bit more green in the yellow than Data's android skin tones possessed. The coloring is simplistic and the height of the problems with the coloring details is that Data's rank pins are miscolored (as a Lieutenant Commander, he would have two solid, one outlined, pips - the ornament has him promoted to a full Commander with three full gold pips). Ironically, the chair and section of flooring are colored in monotones that still make them look realistic instead of animated!
Features
As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, the Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data ornament has an impressive sound function. With the press of a fairly well-concealed button, the Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data ornament plays one of (at least) seven audio clips from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The sound clips are pretty cool and the ornament plays them loud enough, but the clips - somewhat ridiculously - do not feature clips exclusively of the two characters featured on the ornament! It's not like there wasn't a wealth of material to be mined of dialogue between Picard and Data, but some of the clips are not dialogue exchanges between those two characters. That is the sort of thing that fans who might shell out for the ornament are likely to notice!
That said, for the price, the sound function is a good one.
Balance
As with all ornaments, the intent of the Hallmark Keepsake Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data ornament is to be hung on a Christmas Tree. And for those creating the ultimate Star Trek Christmas Tree, Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data is a bit unnecessary as Hallmark has previously produced ornaments of each of the two characters separately. The ornament has a brass hook loop rather obtrusively placed. From that hook, the Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data ornament hangs fairly level. The ornament's base makes the balance important, but most of the time it hangs level, despite the obvious placement of the hook loop.
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!). The Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data ornament is a ridiculously common ornament and already it can be found on the secondary market for well under its original issue price. While some fans might buy them cheap and do custom paintjobs, one suspects the bulk of these ornaments will sell on clearance after the holiday season is over.
This is a poor investment piece and it is unlikely it will appreciate in value.
Overview
The Captain Jean-Luc Picard And Lieutenant Commander Data Christmas ornament is somewhat underwhelming, despite being a neat idea. The result is a somewhat lackluster tribute to the 30th Anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
For other Star Trek ornaments of characters, please check out my reviews of:
2016 Legends Of Star Trek Ensign Pavel Chekov (Limited Edition)
2015 Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Uhura
2014 Legends Of Star Trek Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu
2014 Vina The Orion Slave Woman (Limited Edition)
2013 Legends Of Star Trek Commander Montgomery “Scotty” Scott
2012 Legends Of Star Trek Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy
2011 Legends Of Star Trek Spock
2010 Legends Of Star Trek Captain James T. Kirk
2009 Limited Edition Ilia Probe
2005 Khan
2004 Commander Charles “Trip” Tucker
1999 Lieutenant Commander Worf
1997 Dr. McCoy
1996 Mr. Spock
4.5/10
For other ornament reviews, please check out my Ornament Review Index Page!
© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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