Thursday, January 4, 2018

Star Wars Gets A Perfect Starship Ornament With The 2017 X-Wing Starfighter!


The Good: Amazing sculpt, Impressive paint job, Cool light effect, Perfect balance, Good sound clips
The Bad: Seems a little expensive for an unnecessary ornament.
The Basics: The X-Wing Starfighter is an impressive Star Wars ornament that starts off the Storyteller ornament series incredibly well!


When it comes to Hallmark ornaments, there are few in the starship vehicles that have not been done already and several that have been done ad nauseum with resculpts and repaints that seem like they have been done to death. In the twenty-five years since Hallmark started making the Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments, consumers have gotten more than enough U.S.S. Enterprise ornaments, TIE Fighters and X-Wing fighters. Despite the flood of X-Wing Fighter ornaments, when Hallmark decided to make a whole strand of ship ornaments, the iconic scene the company chose to sell several ship ornaments over the next few years was the Death Star attack run. And to pull that idea off, Hallmark had another X-Wing fighter ornament made: the 2017 X-Wing Starfighter.

For those unfamiliar with the X-Wing Starfighter, this is the Rebel ship seen attacking the Death Star in A New Hope (reviewed here!). Luke Skywalker piloted an X-Wing Fighter on the Death Star attack and he launched the proton torpedoes using the Force needed to destroy the space station. The X-Wing Starfighter is the staple Rebel fighter for about forty years in the Star Wars universe.

Hallmark has the ship alone as the subject of the 2017 X-Wing Starfighter ornament, though it is intended to be connected to several others in the Storyteller line - most of which have not yet been released.

Basics

The "X-Wing Starfighter" ornament faithfully recreates the Rebel vessel in fine detail on such things as the X-Wing's laser cannons on the wings; the ornament is perfectly recognizable, arguably because the X-Wings were the most prevalent Rebel ship in the Star Wars Saga. The ornament, released in 2017, is an impressive casting of the standard Rebel attack ship with its exceptional paint job, light effect and a sound feature. Measuring five and one-half inches deep, 4 3/8” wide and 2” tall, the X-Wing Starfighter ornament fits the scale of the Star Wars ship ornament line.

The Hallmark "X-Wing Starfighter" ornament is made of a durable plastic and has the ship on its own, as is typical for Hallmark's starship and vehicle line of Star Wars ornaments. The X-Wing Starfighter is detailed incredibly, from the basic shape, which features the standard cockpit section attached to a main section and four wings, spread open to look like an "X" when viewed from the front. The central cockpit section is long and Hallmark even molded the wing cannons on in an appropriate scale and thinness. The cockpit is molded with the primary window in opaque plastic, which allowed the company to cheat the detailing on the Rebel pilot inside. To its credit, Hallmark sculpted R2-D2 into the 2017 X-Wing Starfighter, which is pretty cool!

The coloring is quite accurate; this is a gray ship orange accents, with black markings to indicate wear, as if this X-Wing has been in many battles. This is easily the most detailed X-Wing fighter ornament Hallmark has ever produced on the coloring front. The crispness of the lines for the racing stripes are contrasted by the finer mottling on the hull of the ship.

Features

As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, the "X-Wing Starfighter" has both a sound and light function. The 2017 X-Wing Starfighter is powered by a special Hallmark power cord, which activates the light and sound function. The light effect accents the hull when the sound function is activated. When the power cord is plugged properly into the 2017 X-Wing Starfighter and the button is pressed on any of the Storyteller ornaments, the X-Wing Starfighter lights up and sound clips from the X-Wing fighter are played. This ornament interacts with various clips from X-Wings from during the Death Star attack run.

Balance

As with all ornaments, the intent of the Hallmark Keepsake "X-Wing Starfighter" ornament is to be hung on a Christmas Tree. And for those creating the ultimate Star Wars Christmas Tree, the "X-Wing Starfighter" ornaments is a good addition, especially for those who want the whole Storyteller series to get all of the ornaments interacting. The ornament has the standard steel hook loop embedded into the top center of the vehicle’s drive section, right behind R2-D2. From there, the X-Wing Starfighter is perfectly balanced. The 2017 X-Wing Starfighter hangs 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!). Since then, they have made ornament replicas from properties like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Tron. The "X-Wing Starfighter" ornament seemed to be underproduced compared to the rest of the Storyteller ornaments and it has already appreciated quite a bit in the secondary market.

Overview

The X-Wing Starfighter is the definitive Star Wars X-Wing ornament, amid a pretty packed field.

For other Hallmark ornaments of Star Wars ships, please check out my reviews of:
2006 Imperial AT-AT
2009 Luke's Landspeeder
2010 Rebel Snowspeeder
2011 Slave I
2012 TIE Interceptor
2013 All Terrain Scout Transport (AT-ST)
2014 Sandcrawler
2015 Y-Wing Starfighter
2016 T-70 X-Wing Starfighter
2017 Death Star

10/10

For other ornament reviews, please check out my Ornament Review Index Page!

© 2018 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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