The Good: Great sculpt, Amazing coloring for the loader and costume, Perfect balance
The Bad: Light on coloring details for the character/light, Expensive
The Basics: The Aliens P-5000 Powered Work Loader is a pretty impressive Hallmark ornament that keeps this franchise's quality pretty high!
It's always interesting to me to see what aspects of a quality ornament Hallmark pays attention to versus what goes by the wayside in order to make ornaments affordable. For the third year in a row, Hallmark is producing an ornament from the Alien franchise and the prior high-quality of the ornaments from that franchise foreshadowed a high potential for this year's ornament: the 2017 P-5000 Powered Work Loader. The 2017 P-5000 Powered Work Loader is a departure from the prior Alien franchise ornaments in that its subject is a human, not a xenomorph. Hallmark went with a logical choice for the franchise's first human character ornament, as Ripley in the P-5000 Powered Work Loader is the subject of the ornament. Hallmark made a high-quality ornament for the 2017 P-5000 Powered Work Loader, but the detailing on the character is not as impressive as the detailing on the exo-suit and the work loader itself features one minor issue with its execution; the light on the top of the suit is simply a molded and painted cone, as opposed to a light or even a translucent plastic piece that was used to enhance the ornament and mimic a light.
For those not familiar with Aliens (reviewed here!), during the climactic battle between the few surviving Marines and the xenomorph queen, when Newt is menaced, Ripley gets into a P-5000 Powered Work Loader to fight the Queen. Foreshadowed earlier in the film, Ripley was competent to operate the P-5000 Powered Work Loader and in the final battle she certainly holds her own against the Queen on the Sulaco!
The P-5000 Powered Work Loader ornament recreates Ripley and the power loaded in plastic and rubber and it is painted to look surprisingly good, even if it is not perfect.
Basics
The P-5000 Powered Work Loader ornament faithfully recreates the P-5000 Powered Work Loader, with a more mediocre rendition of Ellen Ripley in it, operating the giant, clawed loader. This is the P-5000 Powered Work Loader with its clawed hands open, with one arm raised, with Ellen Ripley operating it. The sculpt is quite well-detailed, though the character sculpt within the Work Loader is recognizable more by context than sculpt. Despite that, the ornament is completely recognizable for anyone who has seen Aliens. The ornament, released in 2017, is an incredible representation of the powered work loader, if not a magnificent rendition of Ripley within it. The P-5000 Powered Work Loader ornament came with an original retail price of $19.95 and that seems a bit expensive given its lack of a light and/or sound function.
The Hallmark P-5000 Powered Work Loader ornament is made of durable plastic and flexible rubber tubing. The ornament measures four and one-quarter inches tall by three and a half inches wide by three inches deep. The P-5000 Powered Work Loader is well-sculpted; Hallmark got it entirely right for the big, stable feet, the loader claws, and the framework that protects Ripley. The Ripley portion of the sculpt is clearly a woman, wearing jeans with short, curly hair, but there is nothing distinctive in the sculpt that makes it clear that the character is Sigourney Weaver's iconic character. The sculpt is also marginally hampered by an assembled look on Ripley; the shoulders on the arms, especially, have an assembled quality to them, looking like they are stuck on in an unfortunate way. Ironically, the portion of the ornament that is - by necessity - truly assembled (the rubber tubes) looks amazing! Where the rubber tubes join the plastic portions is seamless and it looks like the P-5000 Powered Work Loader could actually move using hydraulics from the way it is put together!
The P-5000 Powered Work Loader ornament is amazingly colored for every part, save Ripley. It is amazing that Hallmark can get every scorch mark, piece of rust and even make Ripley's shirt and jeans looks dirty, but they cannot seem to get her skin tones to look anywhere near as realistic as the rest of the ornament. The rest of the ornament is flawlessly colored, from the warning decals (which are painted onto the loader) to the rust and weathered appearance all over the back of the power loader, outside the skin tones, this is an immaculately colored ornament!
Features
As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, the P-5000 Powered Work Loader could have a sound chip or light function, but it has neither. Given how the P-5000 Powered Work Loader has a place where there is a noticeable light (atop the loader's cage) and one of Ripley's most memorable lines comes from when she is in the power loader, the ornament could have been augmented by both. For the price, it is unfortunate that Hallmark did not go with that type of function.
Balance
As with all ornaments, the intent of the Hallmark Keepsake P-5000 Powered Work Loader ornament is to be hung on a Christmas Tree. And for those creating the ultimate science fiction Christmas Tree, the P-5000 Powered Work Loader ornament is a very cool addition. The ornament has the standard steel hook loop embedded into the top of P-5000 Powered Work Loader’s light at a pretty obvious, though necessary, position. From there, the ornament, when affixed to a tree with a hook, swings very easily and is level.
Collectibility
Hallmark Keepsake began delving into the collectibles market in 1991 with Star Trek when it introduced the exceptionally limited edition U.S.S. Enterprise ornament (reviewed here!). Since then, they have made ornament replicas of almost all major franchises like DC comics, The Wizard Of Oz and Harry Potter. The P-5000 Powered Work Loader ornament is the fourth ornament from the Alien franchise and given every other ornament from the franchise has appreciated in value, it is hard not to argue that this should be a good investment piece.
Overview
Fans of Ellen Ripley, Aliens, Sigourney Weaver, the Alien franchise, and science fiction in general are likely to be excited enough by the P-5000 Powered Work Loader ornament to want to add it to their collections!
For other science fiction-themed ornaments, please check out my reviews of:
2017 Hulk Thor: Ragnarok ornament
2017 U.S.S. Franklin Star Trek: Beyond ornament
2017 Praetorian Guard Star Wars: The Last Jedi Ornament
8/10
For other ornament reviews, please visit my Ornament Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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