It's Christmas in August! I stopped by Hallmark recently and I was surprised to see this year's Christmas ornaments on the shelf, thereby confirming the fact that retailers want the Christmas season to start ever-sooner. Oh well, at least I get to appreciate the new Enterprise D ornament a few months early. The first ornamental version of this Enterprise hit in 1993... but has ornament-making technology progressed in the past 20 years? Let's take a look!
Enterprise D (Hallmark, 1993)
The first Enterprise D has a great sculpt. I always wished there more paint apps to indicate the aztecing, phaser strips, and all the other little details on the hull. The tree wiring is awkward, too. Still, it's a fantastic-looking ship that can still hold its own on the Christmas tree against more recent ships. For the time, it was one of the coolest Enterprises around... even with the year printed on the back of the saucer.
Enterprise D (Hallmark, 2012)
The new Enterprise is more of a stand-alone product that you can display year-round. It's propped up on a stand so that you don't need some kind of ornament rig for display. That said, it's awkward to put on the tree because the stand doesn't appear to be removable.Paint apps have certainly improved for this Enterprise. Although there's still no aztecing, you can see that the phaser strips, shuttlebays, and transporter emitters are painted.
The sculpt is much more detailed. At first glance the Enterprises look remarkably similar, but a close comparison reveals that the 2012 version has a sharper sculpt with clearer details.
Batteries inserted into the base replace the tree wiring as the energy source. (Alas, no dilithium crystals yet.) There are no lights (tragically), but the Enterprise does include fun sound effects: you hear the opening lines of TNG's intro when you press a button on the base (observe the extra-dorky demo below). Ensign, set course for the Christmas tree: maximum warp!
3 comments:
I also have a Hallmark ornament collection (thanks mom and dad). I have the older style "D" and an Enterprise (tos) on a removable stand and I much prefer the removable stand. It allows the ornament to be a year round collectible rather than a once a year thing. I still have my shuttle craft Galileo with Spock wishing me a happy holiday, and live long and prosper. Do you have other trek ornaments?
@Steve: Yeah, I have a bunch, like the original Enterprise, Romulan Warbird, Voyager, etc. I used to get one a year back in the day, but I throttled back on my Trek ornament collecting in the late 90's, early 2000's. There are a couple of key ships that I missed, namely the Defiant and the 2009 Enterprise, so I'll probably pick those up on eBay one of these days. Anyway, come Christmas time, maybe I'll feature more of those ornaments here. Stay tuned!
got this one from gramma, thanks gran! ps.shuttle craf to enterprise, shuttle craf to enterprise. spock here, happy holidays live long and prosper!
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