Tree ornament from ‘Star Trek’ is a sellout

Newsday THE BALTIMORE EVENING SUN 

NEW YORK — Two hundred people a day are calling the consumer affairs office of Hallmark Cards Inc. in Kansas City screaming for a $20 replica of the Starship Enterprise from “Star Trek” with blinking red and green lights. It is Hallmark’s most successful Christmas ornament since it launched the Hallmark Keepsake Magic Christmas Ornaments line in 1973.

At a time when it seems like nothing is selling, there doesn’t seem to be a store anywhere where the Starship hasn’t sold out.”

This is the most demand we have ever had for a single ornament,” said Betsy Helgager, spokeswoman for Hallmark cards. “There are waiting lists in some stores of as many as 300 hundred people.

“The 5-inch-long ornament was designed to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the “Star Trek” television show. It also coincided with the pre-Christmas premiere of “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.” The death of the show’s creator Gene Roddenberry apparently has also boosted interest in the already popular Star Trek paraphernalia.

Hallmark will not release production statistics, but Helgager said there are 11,000 stores in the United States that could have ordered the ornament.

THE BALTIMORE EVENING SUN, December 19, 1991