Hallmark Star Trek Display #130
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Cloaked Ornaments – Star Trek: Enterprise Opening Title
Just when you thought you had all of Hallmark’s Star Trek ornaments it turns out you may have just needed to look a little deeper. Many Trek related ornaments have been hidden in plain sight the entire time. Cloaked ornaments are the not-so-obvious ornaments that could be on your Star Trek tree (with a stretch). Our first stop is the opening for title of Star Trek: Enterprise.
Enterprise opening credit images courtesy of Memory Alpa.
2021 Top 10 Hallmark Star Trek Ornaments: #1
#1: 2001 Space Station Deep Space Nine
Retail: $32.00
2021 Secondary Market: $67.95
Size: 5 1/2” Dia. x 3 1/4” H (4 1/2” H with base)
Code: QX6065
We have finally reached #1 on our Top 10 list! The Deep Space Nine space-station of 2001 is a gorgeous sculpt and stands head and shoulders above the others. The ornament was sculpted by longtime Star Trek ship artist, Lynn Norton:
“I have to say that the “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” space-station ornament is still my favorite. It was the most challenging sculpture for me and the Keepsake engineering staff,” he says. “My idea to offer it with docked miniature starship ornaments turned out to be a winning combination with Star Trek fans.”
hallmark.com, 2016
The Hallmark space-station includes a detachable base. When off the base the ornament can be hung from a tree and when attached it can be displayed on a desk or shelf and enables the Magic Light and Sound function. The display base is powered by two AAA batteries and, once the button is depressed, it illuminates yellow lights at the primary docking ring airlocks and a red light at the fusion reactor.
The base also powers the audio function which allows you to hear the words of Captain Sisko from the series finale of Deep Space Nine:
“To the best crew a Captain ever had. No matter what the future holds, no matter how far we travel . . . a part of us will always remain here, on Deep Space Nine.”
-Captain Sisko, “What You Left Behind”
To top everything off, this is an ornament that actually displays six other ornaments. When Hallmark’s Ships of Trek was released six years earlier there really wasn’t a place the three pack of miniatures could be safely hung on the tree. The mini ships of 1995 and 2001 (see below) were way too small to display properly on a tree and there was always a danger of them being accidentally tossed out with the tree in January. The space-station includes a hook on each of the three upper docking pylons and three on the docking ring. Although not to scale, the ships look fantastic and take the Deep Space Nine ornament to another level.
We have reached the end of our list and it wasn’t easy winnowing it down to just ten ornaments. It was difficult to not include ornaments like 2000’s Borg Cube, 2002’s Enterprise NX-01, 2010’s Amok Time, 2013’s Arena and 2016’s The Man Trap. Depending on the day any one of those ornaments could make the Top 10 but there is never a question that the #1 spot will still belong to the Deep Space Nine space-station.
6th Annual Hallmark Star Trek Ornament Predictions – 2022
The 2020-21 Storyteller ornaments will be available in stores in July of ‘22 along with the Mirror McCoy (predicted for July) and Mirror Scotty (predicted for October). This means by October of 2022 there will be eight Star Trek ornaments available on store shelves. With the abundance of Trek ornaments it is likely we won’t see any additional character or scene ornaments which makes our list of 2022 predictions a bit more abbreviated than years past.
2022 Character Contenders
- Mirror Mirror McCoy Likely July release.
Odds: Sure thing! - Mirror Mirror Scotty Likely October release.
Odds: Sure thing! - The Lower Decks characters in a stamped metal design could bring us Ensigns Mariner, Tendi, Boimler and Rutherford.
Odds: 6:1
- We have had two Tribbles so far and Hallmark could still continue the series. It is a super cheap tweak to an existing ornament. Considering there are other Tribble color variations and the fact that it makes for a good generic Star Trek stocking stuffer, I‘m not sure we’ve seen the last of the hairy critters.
Odds: 9:1 - Captain Christopher Pike is already a staple in the Star Trek universe and his own series is currently filming. 2022 may be too soon for an ornament, look for it in 2023.
Odds: 12:1 - Captain Michael Burnham’s new rank and uniform for the upcoming season of Discovery would make a cool Keepsake.
Odds: 15:1 - In this divided world we could use a Let That Be Your Last Battlefield ornament more than ever. What if Hallmark gave us a Lokai and Bele pairing as a convention release similar to the Arex and M’Ress in 2018? Or how about a Bele release with a Lokai repaint the following year?
Odds: 18:1
2022 Ship Contenders
- A 30th anniversary edition of the famous Shuttlecraft Galileo ornament? That would be interesting.
Odds: 5:1 - The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-B. How long will fans have to wait? Star Trek Generations celebrates a 30th anniversary in 2024 but we’d still like it sooner.
Odds: 6:1 - Strange New World’s U.S.S. Enterprise seems to be a lock but not likely until 2023.
Odds: 10:1 - U.S.S. Discovery went through a retrofit and was recommissioned with the registry NCC-1031-A. Will the ornament get recommissioned too?
Odds: 25:1
2022 Scene Contenders
- How about a Kirk ornament shouting “Khaaaaan!” when Star Trek II celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2022. Even better, give it Magic Motion Sensors so it screams out at you when you walk by your tree.
Odds: 4:1 - A scene with Picard and Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Picard would give us two classic characters AND promote the current series.
Odds: 10:1
2022 Star Trek Anniversaries
- Star Trek: The Original Series – 1966
56th Anniversary - Star Trek: The Animated Series – 1973
49th Anniversary - Star Trek: The Motion Picture – 1979
43rd Anniversary - Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan – 1982
40th Anniversary - Star Trek: The Search for Spock – 1984
38th Anniversary - Star Trek: The Voyage Home – 1986
36th Anniversary - Star Trek: The Next Generation – 1987
35th Anniversary - Star Trek: The Final Frontier – 1989
33rd Anniversary - Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country – 1991
31st Anniversary - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – 1993
29th Anniversary - Star Trek: Generations – 1994
28th Anniversary - Star Trek: Voyager – 1995
27th Anniversary - Star Trek: First Contact – 1996
26th Anniversary - Star Trek: Insurrection – 1998
24th Anniversary - Star Trek: Enterprise – 2001
21st Anniversary - Star Trek: Nemesis – 2002
20th Anniversary - Star Trek – 2009
13th Anniversary - Star Trek: Into Darkness – 2013
9th Anniversary - Star Trek: Beyond – 2016
6th Anniversary - Star Trek: Discovery – 2017
5th Anniversary - Star Trek: Short Treks – 2018
4th Anniversary - Star Trek: Picard – 2020
2nd Anniversary - Star Trek: Lower Decks – 2020
2nd Anniversary
2021 Predictions
Winner: Mirror Spock, Odds:1:9 (2021)
Winner: Mirror Chekov, Odds: 2:1 (2021)
Winner: Second Tribble, Odds: 7:1 (2021)
2020 Predictions
2019 Predictions
Winner: Saru & Burham, Odds: 2:1 (2019)
2018 Predictions
Winner: U.S.S. Discovery, (2018)
Winner: Arex & M’Ress, (2018)
2017 Predictions
Winner: “The Naked Time”, Odds: 3:1 (2018)
Thank you!
Hallmark Star Trek Display #129
1993 U.S.S. Enterprise D Store Display
A 1993 landscape layout display for the U.S.S. Enterprise D (14” H x 18” W) with centered text.
This piece is different than the more common portrait layout display that is 11 1/2” H with off center text and mounts inside the green display cabinet (below). Bottom insert (2 1/2” H).
2021 Top 10 Hallmark Star Trek Ornaments: #2
#2: 2011 U.S.S. Defiant
Retail: $32.95
2021 Secondary Market: $2,499.95
Size: 5 1/4” L x 2 1/2” W x 1 3/4” H
Code: QMP4068
Quantity: 700
When I was a youngster one of my favorite cereal prizes were those that glowed in the dark. It was a rare day for any box of cereal to make it from the brown paper shopping bag to the cabinet before I ripped into the box to dig out my reward. When a box would show up with a glow-in-the dark prize it was an even bigger event.
It would be the same process every time: rip open the cereal box, plunge my grubby hands down into the box up to my elbows; first on one side of the box and then the other side. I remember that brief moment of panic when the prize would be hidden extra deep. Then my fingers would hit that familiar cellophane wrapper and the buried treasure would slowly rise from the depths, cereal spilling out across the table.
I would attempt to close up the box but it would now have that bloated center where the cardboard packaging had stretched out and the tab would no longer reach the slot on the opposite flap. But this was no time for food storage etiquette so off I would go, leaving behind the opened box of tomorrow’s stale breakfast. After a brief stop at the highest wattage in the house, my hands dangerously close to a light bulb, I was off to the darkest place in the house…the family bathroom. It was there that skeletons would magically dance in the mirror’s blackness, warning stickers would reveal themselves in all their glory, or spiders would come alive. The glow-in-the-dark technology was beyond that of rocket science to a six year old boy, it was magic.
Fast forward nearly four decades and Hallmark produces a repaint exclusive of their 2006 Enterprise ornament:
Commissioned in the mid-23rd century, the U.S.S. Defiant served as one of 13 Constitution-class starships that explored strange new worlds on behalf of the United Federation of Planets. In the classic Star Trek episode “The Tholian Web” (1968), the Defiant became trapped in an area of spatial interphase between universes, the properties of which gave the starship an eerie green glow before it was consumed by a rift to suffer an uncertain fate. This special edition ornament is one of 700 issued for and only available at the 2011 New York Comic-Con Event.
2011 Defiant Keepsake Box Text
Every Christmas season since 2011, Hallmark reintroduces me to the glow-in-the-dark technology of my childhood. When the Christmas tree lights go off at the end of a long day, the Defiant Keepsake remains glowing in the darkness of space and always bringing a smile to my face.
The glowing aspect of the ornament may not bring back childhood memories for everyone. The secondary market prices may put a stale taste in the mouths of collectors but this ornament does exactly what it sets out to do in the simplest of ways. No batteries. No cord. No Magic sound. No Magic lights. No Magic motion. Just good old fashioned magic, glow-in-the-dark magic, the magic of childhood.
Nine down, one to go. Next time we reach #1 on our Top 10 list.
Artist Inspiration: 2000 Seven of Nine
This is the first in a new series where we will be looking at Hallmark Star Trek Keepsake ornaments and the images that likely inspired the artist’s sculpts, a topic that spawned from the recent Top 10 articles.
2000’s Seven of Nine ornament was crafted by Anita Marra Rogers and depicts Seven donning a silver Borg Exoplating Emulation Suit (read: catsuit) with her left hand on her stomach and her right hand on her thigh. It is an iconic pose that was taken from Jeri Ryan’s publicity shoot which preceded her 1997 Voyager fourth-season debut.
In the first image (above left) we see the familiar blue bodysuit that also appears on the ornament (above middle). Rogers seems to have gotten her inspiration for the ornament from the pose in the silver bodysuit (above right). The feet, legs, arms and hands are all identical and only the head position and shoulder angle are not in alignment. Looking at a second image from the same photo shoot we find a perfect match. Comparing the ornament and the second publicity shot (below), everything seems to match up with the exception of her right pinky finger.
So, why did Rogers change Seven’s clothing from silver to blue? John Orquiola explains the production issues with the silver suit:
“Ryan wore the silver suit for a few episodes, but it was retired because of the many issues it caused for the actress. The catsuit, with its corset complete with molded breasts, was so restrictively tight that Ryan had trouble breathing. In fact, nurses with oxygen tanks were present on the set and Ryan passed out four times during production. In addition, not only did the corset prevent Ryan from bending but it took her 20 minutes to go to the bathroom, and production would need to be halted just so the actress could relieve herself.
”The silver catsuit with the high collar, of course, is what Ryan wore as Seven of Nine in publicity photos for Star Trek: Voyager, but the actress spoke up about her discomfort and her uniform was changed. Less restrictive (but no less form-fitting) alternate costumes were designed in various colors. A brown costume had no collar, which allowed Ryan to turn her neck, and throughout the four seasons she starred in, Seven rotated between cobalt blue, grey-blue, and plum-colored versions of her catsuit.”
ScreenRant
Jeri Ryan had not worn the silver bodysuit for over a year when Rogers would have likely begun the design process for the 2000 ornament. It stands to reason that the artist liked Seven’s pose from the publicity shoot but made the bodysuit color change to match what Ryan was wearing on screen…likely from the direction of CBS.
