This holiday season’s Hallmark ornaments for sci-fi and other genre fans has been a bit lacking. Don’t get me wrong, they’re beautifully crafted, but there isn’t a lot to choose from. Next year, on the other hand, promises a treasure trove not just for Star Wars ornaments, but for other popular films and TV shows.

Star Wars

The Star Wars ornaments made by Hallmark are increasingly popular, which is evident from the variety of available ornaments. The 2014 Hallmark Star Wars ornaments are sure to be sought after by many Star Wars fans. They include:

• The sandcrawler terrain vehicle used by the nomadic Jawas in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
• The alien Cantina band from the same film, and the ornament will feature sound. Hopefully it will have the famous, space jazzy music heard in the background when Luke Skywalker and Ben Kenobi entered the Cantina.

•  An Imperial scout trooper as seen in Return Of The Jedi. Sorry, no speeder bike. Maybe in 2015, unless the new Star Wars film hogs up everything.
• Darth Vader from the final moments of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, when he is fitted with his infamous armor for the first time. If all goes well, we won’t hear him screaming “NOOOO!”. Then again that should be good for a laugh around the Christmas tree.
• A LEGO version of Boba Fett, the bounty hunter.
• Another Peekbuster ornament with the motion detector that was used last year for Darth Vader. This time Yoda will do the honors and unlike Darth Vader, Yoda looks more suited for the Peekbuster job. That’s because his green skin goes better with the red Santa clothes.

Star Trek

There will be only three Star Trek-based ornaments released by Hallmark in 2014.  They are the U.S.S. Vengeance ship featured in Star Trek Into Darkness, Sulu wearing the original series uniform and a diorama featuring Spock mind-melding with a Horta as seen in the classic Star Trek episode “The Devil In The Dark”. Hopefully by the time the 50th anniversary of Star Trek comes around in 2016, Hallmark will beef up their offerings.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Superheroes

Unlike this year, there are plenty of inspired Hallmark ornaments planned for 2014. Superhero ornaments will include Spider-Man, the Hulk, Superman in his modern suit shown in The New 52 comic books and the Adam West version of Batman ornament that was delayed previously. Also worth mentioning is that the Batmobile shown in Tim Burton’s Batman will be available.

As interesting as the superhero ornaments are, the 2014 Hallmark sci-fi and fantasy ornaments will really whet genre fans’ appetites. I can already see some of these hanging from the tree next year. Announced so far are:

• The voracious alien xenomorph from the classic film Alien. Sure, it’s probably too ghastly to hang on a Christmas tree, but it sure is lovingly rendered as seen from photos. It will look great on a shelf or desk.
• Cornelius from the original Planet Of The Apes film. No word yet if ornaments based on the modern Planet Of The Apes movies will be made.
• Last year’s ornament of the DeLorean car from Back To The Future was very popular. It was Starloggers’ pick for ornament of the year. For 2014, Hallmark will release another version of that famous car, but it will be the flying DeLorean seen in Back To The Future, Part II.
• Godzilla! No images are available at the time of this article, but it should be awesome. Hallmark gets extra points if the Godzilla ornament has his famous roar.
• Harry Potter has become a mainstay with Hallmark ornaments and the 2014 ornament will be of him and Professor McGonagall.
• An ornament based on The Hunger Games films.
• The great white shark from Jaws! I’m already humming the Jaws theme.
• Sloth, the deformed, but lovably goofy Fratelli brother from The Goonies.
• Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the dwarves from The Hobbit.

• Like the Alien and Jaws ornaments, this one about the Frankenstein monster from the classic Universal Studios films may not go with a Christmas tree. But it looks fantastic, too!
• Another Hallmark sci-fi ornament coming out in 2014 will be of Optimus Prime, the heroic leader of the Transformers. The one shown in photos looks to be based on the toy and not the Transformers films.

Waldermann Rivera